When I am faced with challenges or obstacles, what is my usual response?

I have a generally simple process for facing challenges, depending on some circumstances. Am I facing them by myself? Is it in a controlled environment? Things like that get considered, but the short answer for how I respond is to dissect things.

If I’m encountering the issue on my own, I try to understand the immediate or near term impacts to determine if I need to deal with the thing right away. From there I can plan an appropriate response. A similar thought process is involved if I happen to be working as part of a group/team when the challenge is encountered. The only difference I include is evaluating whether I’m in a position to “call the shots” and deal with things without the permission/involvement of the group. If I need to rely on others to face the challenge I don’t mind reaching out for help, but if I’m already part of a group then making sure that everyone is part of any and all decisions is important for facing what is front of us.

So, once I’ve determined impact and whether or not to deal with whatever the obstacle is right away (if by myself) then I look at how difficult it will be to overcome. I’ll break it down into more manageable pieces and tackle things systematically until it’s over. This will happen in a similar fashion if I’m part of a group, but I’ll make sure I’m listening to everyone else to make sure we don’t miss something and that we divvy out tasks appropriately. Once that’s all taken care of it’s just a matter of laying down a timeline for completion (if necessary, if not, I just try to knock it out right away and be done with it.)

Going back to my comment about “a controlled environment” I was thinking about whether or not there are restraints on how the obstacle must be overcome. My mind immediately goes to video games for an example of this because oftentimes what happens is there are set requirements for completion but you may not have all the information. In those cases I just look at the “confines” of the situation to see if I can understand where the boundaries are so that I’m not wasting time trying things that will have zero impact on solving the issue. In normal everyday life this might look like working within the confines of coding parameters, construction requirements, electrical and plumbing specifications, and things of that nature. What is the issue and how are we restricted in our ability to solve it?

Dissecting the challenge/obstacle/issue is the easiest way to approach them, and usually makes it easier to handle them mentally, especially when they might seem insurmountable at first glance.