physical illness, too, can be traced back to the accumulating
burdens of unsolved problems.
The only preventive is to solve your problems
as they arise, so that unsolved problems will not accumu-
late. Obvious. But how?
That's where grappling comes in. Here is the
advice of leading psychiatrists, psychologists and problem-
solving counselors: To the extent that a person directly
confronts the realities of a problem and actively grapples
with it, he emerges stronger. To the extent that a person
tries to ignore or escape from the realities of a crisis, large
or small, he begins a worsening pattern of adjustment to
life.
So by facing each problem directly, then plung-
ing wholeheartedly into its very center and actively grap-
pling realistically with it, you almost always will produce
an adequate solution and you will emerge a stronger and
more capable person.
Note that I said "adequate solution". That is an
extremely important phase of problem-solving. Some peo-
ple drive themselves and their associates to distraction by
being perfectionists. They will accept nothing less than
perfection. They insist on finding the "one best solution" to
every problem. And thus they cannot reach decisions
quickly and dispose of problems rapidly and with finality.
They are forever reconsidering and re-examining. Mean-
while, other problems continue to come and to accumulate.
In this connection, efficiency experts ( who
know that time is an important element in efficiency) give
this advice: