Both me and my partner have had a rough time of late with business decisions mounting up for me and progression in her career causing problems for her. Add to that a multitude of other problems and we were both really down for a few months. To be honest, part of my sadness was due to a TV decoder box I bought that just isn’t compatible with the signal in our area. Yes… I can be that pathetic!

Anyway, the way we have gotten through it is to consider a few basic concepts. The first is to take things a day at a time – it is somewhat trite but true, always focus on dealing with today’s issues not those in the future that you can’t deal with. Steven Covey has a great construct around this idea – the circle of concern, which is always the largest circle and one you can do nothing about and the circle of influence which is smaller but under your control. I will talk about that idea later and add my own slant to Mr. Covey’s excellent information.

The second thing to keep in mind is that somewhere, someone has gotten through what you have got through and barring bad luck and our own death – regardless of what happens to you or this problem, you will come through and have some sort of life on the other side. I sometimes find it both sobering and reassuring to consider what my life will be like once certain isues have passed, regardless of whether they are in my favour or not.

My final technique is to consider if the problem I face is one i will care about or even remember in a month or two. If not, I make a snap decision, impliment it with a certain disregard and move on. It sounds a bit scary but it works surprisingly well !