Solve A Situation
Get help with a deadline, relationship or something else
“The best way to escape from a problem is to solve it.” - Alan Saporta
What’s the simplest way to solve a situation?
How can we convert a negative thought into a useful action?
Register for Solve a Situation here
I’ve been working on a Minimum Effective Dose formula to answer these questions for the last 5 years. Researching resilience studies, decision making frameworks, philosophies and therapeutic models.
There are some brilliant methods. However, which one/s are the simplest and most effective? Which combination has the potential to help the most people?
I’ve felt like James Dyson. It took him 5 years and 5,127 prototypes until he launched his bagless vacuum cleaner.
I've given up a couple of times and then felt drawn to pick the challenge back up again. It feels meaningful and I think it's important.
As a society we are statistically safer, have better healthcare and materially better off than any time in history. However, antidepressant use has risen by 400% since 1991. Depression is now the number 1 illness in the world. Suicide is the biggest cause of death for men under 30. Self harm in teenage girls is increasing.
Our outside world has improved. But our internal world has deteriorated. We need some new ‘internal skills’ to help us cope and recover.
My aim is to provide a regular session to help everyone develop these skills by working together to identify a useful next step to challenging situations and difficult thoughts.
Struggling with a deadline?
Difficult relationship?
Overwhelming life situation?
Join Solve A Situation here
I’ll be running sessions fortnightly at lunchtimes. They are fully funded and everyone is welcome.
Each session will focus on a different theme; relationships, workload, self criticism, project completion, career change, parenting and many more.
Anyone can submit a situation and we will do our best to help them find a useful next step. Or you can use Solve A Situation to find a useful next step for a situation you are currently struggling with.
My theory is that there is a ‘gap of struggle’ many of us find ourselves in from time to time. The gap of struggle exists as soon as we become aware we are struggling and extends to the moment we get the help we need.
We can spend weeks, months and years in the gap of struggle. But we don't need to.
We all know what it’s like to suffer in silence. Solve a Situation is a tiny step towards reminding people they are not alone and proving a simple form of support that helps us get closer to a useful next step.
You are a good person, doing your best. That’s the most each of us can do.
“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.”
— Aesop
This week I enjoyed:
Drifting away from your friends? Here are 10 questions to bring you closer here
Need a hand? Feel alone? Don’t wait, contact someone today. You deserve support as much as anyone else. You are not alone. Reply to this message if that’s easiest.
Text Shout - 85258 - simple support via text, I used when I wasn't sure who to turn to
Call Samaritans 116 123 - no problem too small, I've used a couple of times, once during a relationship break up, once when one of my family said they were suicidal and I wasn't sure who to ask for help
NHS Every Mind Matters - simple and effective resources you can access immediately here