Jack Reacher is a character created by Lee Child whose adventures span some 21 novels and two Tom Cruise movies. The 6' 5", 250 lb. Reacher is a former U.S. Army military policeman who constantly finds himself in difficult situations, using his wits and fighting skills to dispatch evil-doers.
Looking for some escapist reading last summer, I picked up a Jack Reacher novel, and now—less than a year later—I have finished the whole series. One particular phrase in the sixth book, Without Fail, jumped out at me. Facing another seemingly insurmountable dilemma, Reacher stated, “Got a problem, solve a problem…that’s my way.” Then he immediately dispatched the cause of the problem. I have remembered the phrase a bit more alliteratively as “See a problem, solve a problem.”
Those six words have been my motto for this year. Over the decades, I have fallen into some destructive procrastination habits. I avoid certain tasks and put off others. They include everything from making a difficult phone call to tackling a stack of paperwork to walking the dog. With this motto at the front of my mind, I now eagerly tackle problems as soon as they come up. See a problem, solve a problem.
Visiting with a friend in his office, he said, “I apologize for that tapping you hear from the wall. I’ve been hearing it for months, and don’t know what it is. Must be a pipe in the wall, or something.” I stood up immediately and checked what might be touching the wall. I placed my hand on a hanging mirror. The tapping stopped. I said, “You’re on the third floor, and there is probably just enough vibration in the building that this mirror rattles where it touches the wall. Put a little piece of cork or paper behind it and it will stop.” It did, to his amazement. “That’s been bothering me for months.” See a problem, solve a problem.
My wife called asking me to help with a list of a half dozen minor repairs around the house. A loose cabinet door, a dining room chair with a broken leg, a sticking drawer, things like that. Now those of you who are more handy than I would never have let the list get to that point, but I have had years of procrastinating. I made it a game, set my watch, and fixed most of these items within one hour. By the end of the hour, I was in the car, chair in the back, on my way to a repair shop I had discovered online. Surprised the heck out of both my wife and me! I’m embarrassed to say that some of these had been irritants for months. See a problem, solve a problem.
But the real change came in big things in life. I had wandered away from the discipline of a robust morning routine. Now I eagerly get up every morning well before 5 a.m., which gives me plenty of time and energy to begin the day with important work. Your list of morning priorities would be different, but mine includes: Stretching. Reading. Writing. Composing my daily activity list and time-blocking the day. Listening to motivational podcasts and music. Thinking about what other people in my family might need. Clearing up paperwork at home. Now I am getting all that done, every morning. See a problem, solve a problem.
When I get to work, I hit it with a vigor previously unknown to me. Almost like Michigan Coach Jim Harbaugh’s motto: “Attacking This day With Enthusiasm Unknown to Mankind.” I return client calls right away, with enthusiasm. This is especially important for our team right now, because one of our four members is out for knee surgery, and another is on an extended vacation to India. I regularly complete double or triple the number of client calls I was making before. It can be a challenge for this 36-year veteran of our profession, since some calls might require an hour or so of work beforehand or afterwards. But I spend all day in the mindset of attacking the work so that I make a double-digit number of calls every day. See a problem, solve a problem.
Lastly, my evening home life has improved. We were not achieving success at getting the three generations of our family together for dinners. Family members would eat when they were hungry. By dinnertime, some were hungry, some not. Everyone likes different foods and some have specific food preferences and limitations. So I made a list of the healthy foods that the youngest and pickiest among us (our 5-year-old granddaughter) will eat, as well as the preferences of others, and made sure that we had those food available every day, so that we could all sit down for a pleasant dinner together. See a problem, solve a problem.
So there you go. Although I am pretty close to Jack Reacher’s size (the novel’s Jack Reacher, not the Tom Cruise incarnation), I don’t have his skills for fighting bad guys. But what a difference in my life it has made to adopt his mindset and attack the “bad guy” problems in my life. See a problem, solve a problem. Thanks, Jack.