Problem? What problem?

I recently read a story about two fighter pilots who were taking their jets through a training exercise. Something went wrong and there was a high-speed mid-air collision that badly damaged both jets. Although neither were killed by the impact, death was certain if the pilots did not manage to either eject or land their aircraft.

Human beings have the most remarkable potential to transcend insurmountable odds.

Jill Hamlyn, MD, The People Business

The less badly damaged jet managed to land safely, while the pilot of the other aircraft debated his position. Weighing up the consequences, he chose not to eject because he knew that if the eject mechanism had been damaged, it would explode in the cockpit, killing him instantly. Mustering his resources, he prepared to land. He only had one chance to do it right. He took that chance and landed his jet safely. When he looked at his plane later, he was stunned to see that it had been so badly damaged in the collision that there was only half of it left.

When asked why he decided to try to land in the face of overwhelming odds against him, he said that he had thought about his family and how he was not prepared to leave them. This focus, he said, got him through.

Although the situation of the story is unique, this triumph of the human spirit in spite of the formidable circumstances that surround it, is not. Human beings have the most remarkable potential to transcend insurmountable odds. In many true stories in which the protagonist managed to defy death, escape from captivity, or hold onto sanity and survive the moment, it was the focus on what lay beyond the situation that got them through.

The lesson that we can learn from stories like this is a powerful one, and we can use the knowledge gained to our best advantage in almost every circumstance that we will possibly face in life. We live in a society that more often than most others exposes us to frightening or life-threatening situations, and most of us have acknowledged this risk and dealt with it to a certain extent.

Most of us are now busy with getting on with life as it is. We go to school, work and university. We marry and have families. We become entrepreneurs. We look to the future with cautious optimism and that is what gets us through the moment.

At one time or another, most of us have experienced a sleepless night worrying about a variety of problems. Sometimes a solution can be found this way, but more often it leaves us feeling tired and grumpy the next day, and no closer to a solution than we were before we went to bed. There have also been times when some of us have experienced insight into a difficulty and a creative solution to a problem in a time and place we least expected it, and certainly we were not thinking about the problem when the answer occurred.

As the pilot and many others in similar dangerous circumstances experienced, a focus above and beyond a trying situation can make transcending that situation a reality. When we are able to see beyond our present difficult circumstances into a different reality, this vision is a nudge towards a more favourable psychological and emotional position that we can then use to our advantage.

Business can also benefit greatly from a technique of looking beyond problems. The current market climate is a harsh one. There is more pressure than ever on people in the workplace to perform, and perform well. We are confronted with problems that demand our attention and even if we reframe them as challenges, these situations can still sometimes tax our resources and capacities.

Learning to look beyond a problem can often allow us a potent insight into the solution, or it can get us through a situation to which is there is no solution but in which our survival becomes paramount. Looking beyond a problem does not mean ignoring it in the hope that it will go away. There are often still issues, however small, that need to be dealt with.

Looking beyond a problem means moving past not being able to see the wood for the trees and towards focusing on the bigger picture. It means placing the situation into the broader context and then teasing out what is really important. Looking beyond the problem allows you to channel all your energies into the here and now and take incremental steps towards the vision that you have. Thus the problem becomes solved almost by default, because it is the vision that you are moving towards, not the problem you are becoming bogged down in.

It is very easy to become caught up in all the negativity that surrounds us, and easier still to then forget how mighty we as humans actually are. History and circumstance have proved time and time again that most of us cannot, and will not, be crushed. Instead, we find ways of rising above our conditions, using our will and spirit to transcend our perceived limits.

This is not the ability of a lucky few. It is in everyone. It is powerful. It is yours.