Let’s say you are facing some chronic problem in your
personal or professional life and you really want to solve it, or at least a
part of it. You write on a paper (or MS word) your problem in details with all
parameters involved, which you feel might be responsible for it and your
current way of handling the situation and any other resolutions which you might
have unsuccessfully tried. It might be a long letter, but that’s fine.
Once the draft is complete, you save it on your PC in a
folder which you normally don’t access on a daily basis. Also at the same time,
you create a calendar reminder (outlook/Google app, whichever tool you use) for
one week from today along with saving the folder location in the reminder. This
is a reminder for you to read the letter.
One week from today when you open the letter and read it,
there might be a very good chance that you will get a relatively more objective
and realistic picture of the problem, something close to a third perspective
and may induce some small logical and corrective steps towards solving that
problem. It is important that the time elapsed since you wrote and read the
letter should be at least a week, so the reminder comes as a genuine surprise
and memory of writing the letter is not as clear to bias any preconceived
notions about the problem. You might as well see it as a letter from someone
else asking for your advice. No harm trying!
The idea of this topic popped up when I was thinking about a
friend of mine who, under normal circumstances, is a very intelligent and
a practical man. Ask him questions, he will give a great answer. Even if he doesn’t know
the answer, he will guide to a place where I can find it. Objective and clarity
are his hallmarks. The problem arises when it’s his own problem. Logic and
rationality flow out to drain when he discusses his own problems and issues and
it amazes me how he doesn’t see it. The strange part is, he thinks almost the
same way about me!
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