I'll also add - have like a journal or something under your alarm clock that you write daily or weekly updates into achieving X Y or Z goal.

I work best with 4 goals at a time -- usually I make progress in 2 goals, go backwards in 1, and flatline in 1

It's just a simple thing and it helps me feel like just by writing down updates the goals are sorta taking care of themselves via some "auto pilot" mechanism that just happens to activate whenever I write down benchmarks toward achieving the goals.

Great post. Just like in the office, don't go to your boss with problems, go to him with solutions.

Side note: if you're struggling with losing weight, try keto. 2 months in and I went from 194lbs to 178lbs. Yeah my lifts stalled, but what's the point in keeping the numbers climbing if you're a fat fuck? Summers coming.

I need to study, get good grades in college so I can get into the masters program at the reputed university I am aiming for. The entrance exam is in June, I keep telling myself that I should start studying, but I end up wasting time procrastinating, listening to the same music over and over again, porn, reddit etc.

how do i frame this problem?

This is a golden way to think. Thank you. I've commit to this.

Say to yourself: "My problem is not being shy, it's how to handle being embarassed after talking to that girl"

An advice I've read somewhere about dealing with fears included the idea or writing down what's the worse possible outcome and figuring out how you'd deal with it.

Good shit. A good way to focus on correcting the problem instead of focusing ON the problem.

Great advice. I need to implement this when it comes to approaching girls.

Excellent advice! This is one of the reasons I enjoy BJJ. This is the exact mentality that it helps to develop.

Thanks for this post man. Rally inspiring food for thought.

I only wish we had more nuggets and pearls like this to share, rather than (mostly fictional) field reports and stories amounting to little more than "girls dumb, guys strong" kinds of messages.

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This is called "chunking" the problem, and you can do this several levels down.

For example:

"Are you fat? choose to have a better problem: how to stay within a daily caloric budget without feeling too hungry."

This can be chunked further:

• Is it easier for me to plan out my meals ahead of time, or track my calories using an app?
• Where are my biggest weak points? (Beer after work is a habit)
• If I break my rule one day, how do I recover?
• Is there a meal plan I can buy to make this simpler for me?

If you invest at least 1 hour of thinking about what you're about to do BEFORE you start doing it, you're in a much better place. Break the problem down first and consider all of the sub-problems and potential shortcuts at your disposal.

Haven't seen this kind of advice. Selecting your battles wisely is equivalent to developing a new perspective in the long run. Rather refreshing actually.

Small daily tasks to gain large goals and replace/improve habits.

An excellent reminder to those who already perform habit modification consistently, or provocation to action for the uninitiated. Thank you.

there are no big choices, only small ones with big dedication adding together.

If you're flabby you still need to adjust your diet to cut down BF til you are able to bulk-- this is done primarily through dieting, just like with the fat dude.

The quality of answers is determined by the quality of questions.

Similarly, changing oneself for the better is possible by making good problems for oneself.

Excellent post. This is real redpill thinking. AWALT and all the other bitching and moaning that goes on masks the truth of Self Improvement.

Practical, pragmatic advice is all too infrequent here on TRP. Thanks for the helpful post.

I've read about techniques like this before. Where did you get this from? Is there a book or article that this comes from?

Are you shy? choose to have a better problem: how to handle the embarassment after having talked to a stranger in public.

Love this because you're reframing problems to show the solution and I can personally relate with shyness. So I appreciate you putting it like this.

Ctrl + F: lazy, procrastination

nothing

Damn. I need to reframe:

1. "My problem is not that I'm lazy, it's how to fit in 8 solid hours of focused work every day."

2. "My problem is not that I procrastinate with my assignments, it's how to focus my work into 20 minute increments."

Would certainly appreciate better phrasing if anyone has better ideas.

I think this works well also in thinking about your career and mission in life. That's how I read your title and thought about it initially. Find better bigger more impact and more complex problems to solve. Like Seth Godin said: complex jobs are hard to learn and easy to do, but paid well because few people spent the time and have the brains to do it (think physician, attorney etc). Other jobs are easy to learn but hard to do, thus they pay a lot less since there's a low barrier to entry (think ditch digging, crops picking etc.).

So apply yourself to solve better, bigger, more complex world problems.

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The very first step to solving a problem is to identify exactly what the problem you need to solve is. For example, if one can't hold down a job, there are a myriad of reasons why this might be the case. Finding out the right reason is key to solving it. Oftentimes, the statement of the problem ("I can't hold down a job") is not the problem itself, rather how the underlying problem manifests itself in reality.

How do i reframe "i should get up earlier"?

Excellent post, I think it helps by making ur problems appear more actionable.

I like this post. Unlike generalized feel-good advice (Just put one foot in front of the other; You can do it!) this is useful and directly actionable information.

Sometimes it's not enough to break down a large change or task into manageable components; reframing it conceptually like this gets you over the intangible psychological hump in your way.