Real life situation: approximately 1 to 2 tons of material has to be moved.
There are no power tools, so the material has to be moved manually.
There’s only one person available to perform the work. Unfortunately, that person is an elderly person with a disability that limits how much they can lift.
Sounds like an impossible problem.
But it wasn’t.
The way we state problems impacts how we consider the possible solutions. If we only focus on the negatives, we miss the opportunities for alternative approaches. If we take a moment to redefine the problem, we may find ways to overcome the challenge.
For example, the situation above is one description of what occurred during the latest blizzard to hit my home. Beginning on Sunday, February 22nd, it snowed for almost 24 hours, with final totals of around 16 to 17 inches. Heavy winds, with gusts up to 70 MPH, created drifts over three feet high.
In the early morning on Monday, the crack of a tree limb on a neighbor’s property was followed by a power outage that lasted almost 36 hours. My only tool was a snow shovel.
While I like to consider myself “young at heart”, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts officially classifies me as “elderly”. In fact, there’s even an official document on file assigning me that designation. An injury that occurred when I was in uniform restricts how much I can exert my back for any length of time.
Fortunately, I’m a native New Englander, and this wasn’t my first snowstorm. I was out of bed around 3:30am on Monday morning, and made the first pass shoveling my driveway, deck, and walks. Dried off, warmed up, and went back to bed for a few more hours.
I had just completed the second round of clearing snow when the power went out. We had already charged our phones and backup portable chargers. So we powered down the laptops, made sure the emergency lanterns and candles were in reach, then picked out several books to read. The past investment in Pendleton wool blankets provided unexpected returns.
Every three to four hours, I would gear up, grab the shovel, and get to work outside. In total, it took about 6 trips over the next day. But when the sun came out on Tuesday, we were able to get out of the driveway. Using my phone as a mobile hotspot, I was able to take two web meetings (camera off). The power came back before sundown, and the sound of my furnace generating heat was a sweet melody.
The top three things from this little lesson:
Apply constant and consistent effort towards the solution.
Storms will come and go – metaphorically and meteorologically. We will come up against problems that appear unsolvable.
And then we solve them.