Anchor Problems: How to Overcome Huge Challenges in Your Life
In life there are challenges - some are easy to deal with, some are more daunting and there are those challenges that seem so huge you think you won’t be able to overcome them at all: Anchor Problems.
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| Photo by Lucas Sankey on Unsplash |
What are Anchor Problems?
Picture this: You’ve got a garage, untouched, a relic of non-car ownership. It’s become a haven for those things you didn’t need anymore, but hesitated to give away for good - the “might-need-it-later” stuff. There is so much stuff that opening the door risks an avalanche of memories. You’ve already played with the thought of decluttering - a task not unsolvable (like a gravity problem), just monumental. But if you aren’t forced to start, you won’t do it. I wouldn’t.
This is what an Anchor Problem is.
Anchor Problems come in different forms: it might be writing a book, decluttering, a project, or starting a business.
How can you get past Anchor Problems?
Divide and Conquer
This strategy is ancient - already the Babylonians applied it in disciplines such as mathematics and military. How does it work? Divide and conquer means breaking a big problem into smaller, more manageable parts (with subgoals) to make it easier to solve or handle. In our garage example, your first subgoal could be opening the door without causing an avalanche.
Start Doing
Action is not only the result of motivation but also its cause. If you manage to trick yourself into starting to work on a particular task, motivation will most likely follow.
Re-Frame
Re-framing is like looking at a situation or problem from a different perspective, helping you see it in a new and more positive light. In our garage example, you could re-frame the task “declutter the garage” to collect 100 $ worth of donations.
Thank you for reading!
I used what I’ve picked up in Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans, and Atomic Habits by James Clear. If you want a deep dive into their particular methods, check out this article for Life Design and this one for Habit Building.