Face a Problem, Create a Rule

I heard this principle a few years ago, and it has been a huge help in organising my life and my business.

“Face a problem, create a rule”

I heard this principle a few years ago, and it has been a huge help in organising my life and my business.

Every problem we deal with has an underlying, system-forming factor that causes it to keep showing up.

If we’re constantly getting cavities filled at the dentist, it means we don’t have proper oral hygiene habits.

If we don’t like what we see in the mirror, it means our habits around food and physical activity are weak.

And so it goes with everything.

If someone has little money, for example, it means they’re bringing little value to the market, and there’s a reason they remain of limited use to their employer or their clients today.

Everything we run into in life has a cause. And no matter how skilfully we manage the symptoms, if the cause stays the same, the problem will keep coming back into our lives again and again.

So every time I run into a problem that could repeat itself in the future, I ask myself: “What can I do so this problem stops happening?”

This works just as well on the everyday, household level too.

For example, when I used to visit my parents on weekends, I often noticed that their fridge only had store-bought food and they barely cooked anything at home. They already have serious health issues, which makes some basic things hard for them.

So I hired a housekeeper for them, who cleans their place and brings them delicious home-cooked food every Tuesday.

That’s one less headache for me.

The problems and difficulties that show up in our lives are signals. If you learn to read them correctly and look at the root cause, you can come up with a rule (a system) that solves the issue for good.

Do you enjoy creating systems and rules in your own life? Are you good at solving things at the root level?