The other day our 2 year old tumble dryer stopped working. It only stayed on stayed on for as long as you stood there with your finger on the button, hardly an effective solution. As we are deep in the midst of a spend-fest, the obvious solution seemed to be to just replace it. After all what do you expect these days… longevity? I knew it would cost the best part of £100 to get out a ‘little man’, and who knew what he would say when he got here and it would only cost £200 to replace.

My wife (clever lady!) suggested I check the web for diagnostic information; so of course, I did. I soon discovered that I was not the only person with this problem; this switch seemed to be an Achilles heel of this model. I managed to find Hoover’s spare parts site, and found the very switch at the princely sum of £6.95. So I slide the thing out and took off the top, and it appeared it would just push in/out. So given that I had already accepted the idea of replacing it, I took my courage in my hands, and yanked it out. It was clear that even for a non-techie like me, it was the work of 5 minutes to replace it.

So why am I wasting your time with the domestic trivia? Well, this made me wonder how often we jump to a solution such as “Fire him!” or something else dramatic, like that, when, with a little more investigation, we could find a much more ecological solution. As humans we love drama, and tend, particularly when we are stressed, to jump for the ‘big solution’. However, sitting down and talking, listening, a little fact finding and pondering can often come up with a tiny intervention that maintains a much more even-keeled progress.

So if today, you are unlucky enough to encounter a problem, don’t jump to the first solution; pause, consider what else you could do. Ask others what they would do. Imagine what someone you admire might do. Walk around the problem and you may well find there is a much gentler path up the ‘mountain’. Good luck!

“Never let a problem to be solved become more important than the person to be loved.” Barbara Johnson

“Don’t be pushed by your problems. Be led by your dreams.”