Notes

People problems are often situation problems

🌱 Seedling Watered 1 day ago April 12, 2025 at 3:55 PM Planted 3 months ago January 19, 2025 at 4:42 PM 1 min read

What seems a people problem is very often a situation problem.

A very simple example is trying to eat less unhealthy snacks: if you try to do it by sheer willpower (i.e. by treating it as a people problem), you will fail. If you remove the unhealthy snacks from your house (i.e. by treating it as a situation problem), you will succeed.

When you’re facing a people problem, always consider: how can you reframe it so that it becomes a situation problem? This is referred to as “shaping the path.”

A good way of doing this is to use a short burst of willpower to create the ideal conditions for achieving results (i.e. for turning the people problem into a situation problem). For instance: if you don’t feel like running, use a short burst of willpower to put on your running shoes.

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