Recently, I was having some really painful toothaches, it seems that one of my teeth was giving me some hard time… so I decided to go to the dentist and remove it.

I went to the dentist, laid down and opened my mouth, the dentist smiled and said in a comforting *yet disturbing for some* “That’s the problem right there… We will have to remove it”… I couldn’t agree more with the doctor; but to my surprise, the doctor removed a different tooth! It was one of my “wisdom” teeth located 2 steps away from where I thought the problem was, that was causing all this mess, and was pressing onto the rest.

I didn’t understand at first, I was super confident of the root of the problem, I could feel it hurting me… but then it was not the root, but actually an effect of the problem.

And while I was under the impression that I was right on what to be done, I was NOT! In fact, I JUST thought I had everything figured out…

A lot of time in our life, when we face problems, we tend to jump into conclusions that would lead us to figuring out solutions that may make our situation even worse, and instead of fixing the it, we makes it worse, while we have good intentions in the beginning. This week’s tip, is about taking how to try to dig deeper in trying to figuring out the right root of the problem.

On one of the monthly meeting for the Speed-Coaching Mondays in Dubai, where Coaches and Clients meet for free networking and coaching. I had 15 minutes to coach a girl who was thinking too much about how a failure her life is, along with several other problems in her life like the lack of her attention span, and how she can never take risks and so many other things she was attributing to both her personality and the environment she was living in.

After around 5-6 minutes of her describing her dozens of issues, I started asking very simple questions to her… and as strange as my suggestion to her was (Which I’ll let you know in a moment), we decided to connect a couple of weeks later.

She was very happy with the (totally un-related) suggestion, I was suspecting that what she was experiencing was the effect of a problem or an issue that she would be totally unrelated to her thoughts, and I was right… The Air Conditioner’s Filters in her flat has not been cleaned / maintained for a while, and that cause several elements of dust to be thrown in her bedroom, and causing her issues (although in a light way) breathing and therefore sleeping though the night… and when she took some days to sleep in an Hotel for a couple of days (That was my suggestion), she felt so much better and got more motivation and energy to work out the issues in her life…

So my suggestion to you, is simple… Remember that the real problems in your life are those you are NOT AWARE that you have them… so Think outside of the box, and step aside from the possibilities that are “obvious” to you. And you might be surprised!

Enjoy your Week!

SC

Samer Chidiac is a Sr. Strategist, Author & an International Innovation Expert.

The Monday Tip Weekly blog is part of the “Influencing the Life of Others” project