When is a Problem Not a Problem?

For most of us, a problem is something we need to solve. And usually, we need to solve it yesterday.

We’ve been taught that the solution will come from thinking about it long and hard, turning it over from every possible angle until the right answer appears.

Sometimes that works. But when the question involves something important to us—a work decision, a relationship question, a sense that something needs to change — our minds can circle the same territory for days or even months without finding a way through.

And that’s what drives a lot of us crazy! We end up thinking we’ll never “solve” this problem. Because the situation itself hasn’t changed.

Here’s a game changer: when we allow the brain to organize information differently, a “solution” happens much more easily and quickly.

If everything keeps circling inside your head, all of the artifacts of the “problem” stay stuck together. The facts, the worries, the practical considerations, the hopes — they become almost glued to one another. The mind keeps going over them again and again in that same arrangement. We keep asking the same questions, so the situation feels impossible to resolve.

Riding to the rescue like a knight in shining armor, creativity take a sword to those conditions and rearrange them.

The moment you start using shapes or colors on a page, that problem is no longer seen in the same way. The relationships between each element of the situation become a visual puzzle, not a logical one.

This is when something really interesting starts to happen: elements that seemed unrelated may end up side by side.

A possibility that never occurred to you can appear simply because the pieces are no longer organized in the same order.

This is a trick that artists, designers, and innovators rely on constantly. Sketches, diagrams, rough visual experiments: these aren’t merely idle sketches. They’re a way of reorganizing information so the mind becomes aware of something new— something different that can resolve a problem.
Curious about how powerful this can be? Try this experiment:

Take a question you’ve been thinking about for a while — something that needs resolution or at least a next step.

Instead of writing sentences about it, or doing the Ben Franklin list of pros and cons, place the key elements of the situation on a blank page using sticky notes that have different shapes, colors or sizes. Write on the sticky notes whatever is relevant: relevant factors, pressures, desires, constraints, a person involved, an opportunity, a fear.

Think of it as a type of mind map with the problem in the center.  You can have different shapes that represent your current efforts, the thing you can’t seem to get past, or the practical realities that are part of the situation.

Then, start moving those sticky notes around, closer or farther from the center. Change their size. Let them overlap or drift apart. Maybe connect them with lines.

Remember, this isn't about making your map pretty or logical. Just keep responding visually until the page feels like a fresh perspective and something new pops out at you.

Then, step back and look at it.

Most people notice something surprising: the problem no longer feels the same. Something has changed because you're seeing a new relationship to all the parts. 

And when those interconnected elements are rearranged, insight often follows.

Which raises an interesting possibility:

A problem can stop being a problem in the conventional way the moment we begin to see it differently.