One of my Twelve Commandments is “Identify the problem.” So often, I’ve noticed, I suffer some annoyance, but I don’t take the time to understand what the real problem is, so I never work on solving it. Once I force myself to identify the real problem, I often see quite clearly how to make things better.

我自己的“十二戒律”之一是“找到問題”。我曾多次注意到自己受煩惱困擾，但卻并沒有花時間去理解真正的問題是什么，所以也不曾去著手解決。一旦我強迫自己找到真正的問題所在，往往就能清楚地找到改善事情的辦法。

A friend of mine applied this commandment in his own life, with great success.

我的一位朋友在自己的生活中應用了這個戒律，而且大獲成功。

For years, he’d dreaded Monday mornings. He hated the re-entry stress of coming back into the office, and just at the time he was trying to get some real work done as he started his week, he’d be distracted by a million little things.

很久以來，他都恐懼周一早晨。他討厭重新回到辦公室時（感受到的）壓力；可新的一周剛開始，他正想要做一些重要的工作時，立刻就會被無數小事分心。

Finally, he said to himself: “Why do I dislike Monday morning so much?” He thought it over. “Because I want to make some headway on my large projects, but I have to deal with email, mail, newsletters, voice-mail, and all that, so I can’t get any real work done.” Having identified the problem, how could he solve it? He couldn’t change the nature of the work that needed to be done -- so he changed his attitude. He decided that instead of trying to start the week by doing serious work, he’d start the week doing clean-up.

終于，他對自己說：“為什么我這么不喜歡周一的早晨？”他仔細想了想。“因為我想要在大項目上取得進展，可是我又要處理電子郵件、郵件、通訊、語音文件等等這些東西，所以我沒辦法去完成任何重要的工作。”發現問題后，他是如何解決的呢？他無法改變要把那些事情完成這個現實——于是他改變了態度。他決定不在一開始就去做重要的工作，而是先把小事都解決掉。

Now he comes into work Monday morning without any expectations for himself until after lunch. He lets himself do easy work like checking email, reading email newsletters, answering phone messages, going over his calendar, etc., and he doesn’t consider himself “at work” until 1:30. The result? He gets about as much done as he did before, if not more – he just feels less pressure. And he doesn’t dread Monday mornings.

現在，每到周一從早晨到中午前，他只是工作，但不給自己任何期許。他讓自己做一些簡單的工作，比如清理郵箱、讀電子郵件簡報、回電話留言、查看日程等等。在中午１：３０之前他都不會認為自己“在工作”。結果呢？他完成的工作量和以前相比差不多，感覺到的壓力卻小了。而且他不再懼怕周一早晨。

By understanding and accepting the peculiarities of his schedule, he was able to make work more pleasant and less frustrating. He didn’t have to change anything except his attitude, but it wasn’t until he “Identified the problem” that he saw what he needed to do.

通過了解、接受自己工作中的特性，他能讓工作更愉快、更少沮喪。除了心態，他并不需要改變任何東西，可是只有在“找到問題”之后他才知道如何去做。

Have you ever managed to “Identify a problem” in a way that clarified how to solve your problem? This sounds so obvious, but countless times, I’ve found myself astonished by what a difference this exercise makes.

你曾經試圖“找到問題”來明確解決問題的辦法嗎？這聽起來是顯而易見的事，可是我已無數次驚訝地發現自己這樣做會帶來多么大的變化。

The days are long, but the years are short.

長日漫漫，歲月如梭。