The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur

August 10Puddle Backward

If I think of my woes I fall into a vortex of debts, dishpans, and despondency awful to see. So I say, “every path has its puddle,” and try to play gayly with the tadpoles in my puddle, while I wait for the Lord to give me a lift.

Louisa May Alcott—Her Life, Letters, and Journals (1889)

So perhaps you're wondering if you are on the right path because there's a great big puddle on your path. You can't curse the puddle; you can only laugh at it and promise to move forward.

Ever watch how a three-year-old deals with puddles? So much joy is yours to bring.

What's the puddle here to teach you? Maybe it's a lesson in perseverance. Or maybe it just wants you to have a little more fun.

Here's the thing about problems: they are rarely here to stay, rarely as bad as we believe at first, and often exist mostly because of the way we think about them.

Want to solve your most vexing problem? Walk through the puddle backward.

Sounds silly, but most of our problems remain our problems because we miss the obvious solutions by overthinking things. Break it down, read it backward, and the obvious solution might just be, well, obvious. (And more fun to discover!)

Challenge Question

1. What problem do you need to solve? How can you look at it backward? Is it really even a problem?