Of all of the kitchen chores that my kids hate, it’s sweeping that they hate the most. What’s funny is that sweeping is probably the easiest one, but they all seem to have a mental block regarding it. I️ will ask one of them to sweep and they will spend 15-minutes pushing the broom around half-heartedly. They will tell me they are done, and on inspection, I️ will see a ton of stuff on the floor and tell them to do it again (I️ know, mean right?). Another 15-minutes will go by and the same thing happens again. Finally, once I’m all done with the half-hearted effort I️ set a 5-minute timer and tell them that if there is a speck of dirt left on the floor when it goes off they are grounded. Shockingly, with 1-minute left on the timer, they will tell me they are done and there is nothing left on the floor!
Sweeping isn’t hard, my kids make sweeping hard. It’s mental. They take the easiest chore and somehow are convinced that they can’t do it. That belief becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy and then we go round and round as described above.
Why am I️ telling you this story? I️ see this same sort of mentality all around me, and within me as well if I️’m honest. I️ see my family, friends, team-members and yes, even the random person (that can’t seem to drive correctly) on the street doing this. We all get hung up on self-limiting beliefs and have a tendency to make something that shouldn’t be difficult next to impossible.
Let’s try an exercise. When was the last time that a co-worker asked you a question that a 2-minute google search would have answered? Why do you think they asked you that question instead of trying to solve the problem for themselves? Was there as a self-limiting belief that may have been making it harder for them to solve it? Now ask yourself, when were you that person? When was the last time that you asked for help instead of taking 2-minutes to figure it out, or made something harder than it truly needed to be? What do you believe about yourself that is making something that should be simple incredibly complex?
Our attitude and approach to solving a problem always directly affect the speed and quality of how we solve it.