Kay:

Happy Friday, Questers. It is December 10th, which means we’re officially two weeks away from Christmas Eve, which is also Shila’s half birthday and just such a wonderful day indeed. Christmas Eve, we’ve got lots of great traditions and can’t wait to celebrate with you all in that week of Christmas. Right now we are on the furious countdown and just simply can’t wait. Today is episode number 485 and we have a quote for you today from Tina Fey.

Shi:

If you are a long Quester, longtime listener, you know we love Tina Fey and we love the concept behind this quote. The quote for you is, “Whatever the problem, be part of the solution. Don’t just sit around raising questions and pointing out obstacles.” Now, raise your hand if you know someone, or maybe sometimes you are the someone who does this. You don’t be part of the solution; you raise the questions, and you point out the obstacles. Obviously, our hands are raised because most of us at times find ourselves wearing this hat and being that person. But also raise your hand if you know someone who’s like this all the time. That’s not the person that you necessarily want around but you’re like they will help me breakthrough and bust through a problem. I think it’s important for us to remember that we’re all going to wear this hat sometimes, but it’s important to take it off and put on that solution hat like Tina tells us here.

Kay:

Well, problems are problems whether you are going to sit there and be angry and ire about it or not. Whether you want to add things to the problem, or you want to think about more ways the problem can affect you that does not change the problem in front of you. If there is a problem or an obstacle in front of you and you look at that problem and you go, “Oh, you obstacle, you are just so obstacle. You know what, because of that obstacle, I can’t do these three other things and because of those two obstacles then this domino falls down over here. Then because of that, I get so angry about this and now I’m just in this problem and I’m in this obstacle loop and I’m just asking all of these questions.” When we are in that space, we often find that our thinking can turn destructive instead of constructive. What we know about our thinking is that it only serves in one of two ways. It’s either working for you or against you.

Shi:

You have the world’s greatest supercomputer sitting between your ears and yet most of us put it to work obsessing over minor issues, unavoidable challenges, small problems, life circumstances when we could give it so much more of a meaningful job and an ability to construct solutions rather than destruct the problem. The problem is the problem as Kay said and as Tony Robbins tells us, “If you don’t have problems, you’re dead.” So, the problem isn’t the problem. The problem is that you think having problems is a problem. So now that we’re alright, we’re all good with having our bundle of problems, then doing what Tina tells us here is being part of the solution just helps us advance forward. We could just sit there and circle the drain forever on one thing, or we can try and figure it out and maybe we don’t come up with a perfect solution, but we get a little bit farther along.

Kay and I are also obsessed with Hamilton. You’ve heard us reference it many times. If you follow us on social media, you know that we absolutely love it. But there’s a piece in Hamilton where Hamilton is lamenting to George Washington that he’s got this plan for a new form of government but everyone’s picking it apart and they’re not helping. He says they don’t have a plan, they just don’t like mine. That’s where we can all get stuck when we just want to tear something apart instead of saying, well, maybe I don’t like that plan so what plan do I like? What solution can I be part of? And ultimately the people who are part of the solution get to be part of the implementation of the new way just like Hamilton and the founding fathers were.

Kay:

Well, let’s take that into your own personal life. When you have something that you’re coming up against and all you can think of are those obstacles or the things that you don’t like about the circumstance, you don’t have creative energy left over for you to plan into a solution or ask that question. Well, what do I like? What can I do? What is something that could take this to the next level? You know, we get it. Life is hard and life can suck and there is not much. Let’s just have a real human moment for a second gang. Complaining feels really good. It feels really, really good to get justified and complain about stuff and to know that it’s a real problem and that you get to be righteous in having this issue. It feels good to have problems that get validated through complaining, but that doesn’t fix the problem. If we just sit around raising the questions, pointing out the obstacles, complaining about the problem, oftentimes we end up just getting stuck with either that problem magnified or a problem of a similar kind.

Shi:

So, to remind you, as you go into your Fri-yay and the rest of your weekend what Tina Fey tells us. It’s like Fey Friday, Fey-Day.

Kay:

Fey-Day.

Shi:

She tells us, “Whatever the problem, be part of the solution. Don’t just sit around raising questions and pointing out obstacles.”

Kay:

So, your quest today is to take a solutions-oriented mindset both into today and into the weekend ahead. When your brain can only think of the obstacles do your best to find some solutions instead. Ask yourself the questions. What can I do? What do I like? If it did work, how would it work? Will you find obstacles, or will you come up against your opportunities and overcome them for the greater good? Are you ready?

Shi:

Let’s quest!