One of my Twelve Commandments is “Identify the problem.” So often, I’ve noticed, I suffer some annoyance¹, 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“找到问题”。我曾多次注意到自己受烦恼困扰，但却并没有花时间去理解真正的问题是什么，所以也不曾去着手解决。一旦我强迫自己找到真正的问题所在，往往就能清楚地找到改善事情的办法。

A friend of mine applied² this commandment in his own life, with great success.

我的一位朋友在自己的生活中应用了这个戒律，而且大获成功。

For years, he’d dreaded⁴ 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 distracted⁵ by a million little things.

很久以来，他都恐惧周一早晨。他讨厌重新回到办公室时（感受到的）压力；可新的一周刚开始，他正想要做一些重要的工作时，立刻就会被无数小事分心。

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 decided⁶ that instead of trying to start the week by doing serious work, he’d start the week doing clean-up.

终于，他对自己说：“为什么我这么不喜欢周一的早晨？”他仔细想了想。“因为我想要在大项目上取得进展，可是我又要处理电子邮件、邮件、通讯、语音文件等等这些东西，所以我没办法去完成任何重要的工作。”发现问题后，他是如何解决的呢？他无法改变要把那些事情完成这个现实——于是他改变了态度。他决定不在一开始就去做重要的工作，而是先把小事都解决掉。

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 dread³ Monday mornings.

现在，每到周一从早晨到中午前，他只是工作，但不给自己任何期许。他让自己做一些简单的工作，比如清理邮箱、读电子邮件简报、回电话留言、查看日程等等。在中午１：３０之前他都不会认为自己“在工作”。结果呢？他完成的工作量和以前相比差不多，感觉到的压力却小了。而且他不再惧怕周一早晨。

By understanding and accepting the peculiarities⁷ of his schedule, he was able to make work more pleasant and less frustrating⁸. 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.

通过了解、接受自己工作中的特性，他能让工作更愉快、更少沮丧。除了心态，他并不需要改变任何东西，可是只有在“找到问题”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 countless⁹ times, I’ve found myself astonished by what a difference this exercise makes.

你曾经试图“找到问题”来明确解决问题的办法吗？这听起来是显而易见的事，可是我已无数次惊讶地发现自己这样做会带来多么大的变化。

The days are long, but the years are short.

长日漫漫，岁月如梭。