Problem Reframing Quotes

Recast your current problems into proactive goals.

A 'problem' is nothing more than a gorgeous opportunity to discover an even better solution.

To this day, even when I hear about problems, as you've probably noticed, I tend to call them challenges. I don't dwell on them, and I immediately focus on how I can convert the challenge into an opportunity.

If we want to impact hundreds - or millions - of people, we have to do things differently. If we look at the problem as an infrastructural problem, we cannot make an impact because it requires a lot of effort. But when we convert this problem into a knowledge problem, suddenly the problem is manageable.

Understand that a problem is only a problem if you choose to view it as a problem (vs. an opportunity).

Often, the most striking and innovative solutions come from realizing that your concept of the problem was wrong.

The solution to a problem - a story that you are unable to finish - is the problem. It isn't as if the problem is one thing and the solution something else. The problem, properly understood = the solution. Instead of trying to hide or efface what limits the story, capitalize on that very limitation. State it, rail against it.

When you do find humor in trying times, one of the first and most important changes you experience is that you see your perplexing problems in a new way - you suddenly have a new perspective on them.

One way of pointing to this realization is, when you think you have big problems, ask yourself, "What problem do I have at this moment?" Usually, you will find that you don't have a problem at this moment because you're sitting here and you're breathing, you're looking out the window, and it's fine.

Again and again, the impossible problem is solved when we see that the problem is only a tough decision waiting to be made.

People who bring transformative change have courage, know how to re-frame the problem and have a sense of urgency.

Is your problem really your problem, or is it your attitude towards the problem that's your problem?

You often get a better hold upon a problem by going away from it for a time and dismissing it from your mind altogether.

Sometimes clients have a sophisticated view of their design problem, sometimes they do not. I often spend time with the client redefining the problem, going back to the beginning. Often the problem is just a symptom. Sometimes you have to move back in order to move forward to understand what the nature of the solution should be.

Often, problems are knots with many strands, and looking at those strands can make a problem seem different.

I'm not making a problem out of a personal question; I make of a personal question an absence of a problem.

The key to most difficulties does not lie in the dilemmas themselves, but in our relationship to them.

Why blame the dark for being dark? It is far more helpful to ask why the light isn’t as bright as it could be.

There are no problems in the world. There are just situations. Some situations you know how to handle. Some you do not know how to handle.

Problems are not problems at all, but results that are dissatisfying.