25 Jan Solving challenges the Einstein Way!

Plumbing supply giant Tradelink have edited this article written by Matt Reynolds for their industry magazine “Unplugged”. Solving challenges the Einstein Way! is approximately a 2 minute, 40 second read discussing problem solving. You can read the full article below or on page 30 here, Enjoy!

Solving challenges the Einstein Way!

Facing a challenge that’s getting the better of you? Matt Reynolds explains how Einstein and sewer water can help you solve it!

There are many factors in a plumber’s life that can cause stress – job deadlines, distracted workmates, late payers, those dreaded phone calls at 4:59pm on Friday arvo or a million other daily issues. On their own, these stresses are easy enough to deal with but combined, they can turn even the most focused mind hazy.

While preparing for the unexpected is essential in the plumbing game, we all face problems that lie outside our personal control from time-to-time that no amount of positive thinking or silver bullet will fix. But luckily the ticket back to sanity can be found in sanitary!

The famous scientist and honorary plumber Albert Einstein once examined a solution of sewer water under his microscope and set out to explain why the individual particles were seemingly random in their movement. Viewed as a whole, the sewer water appeared to have no organisation to it whatsoever. It wasn’t until Einstein separated each individual particle and studied them independently that he could make sense of the solution as a whole.

Individually, each particle moved in a perfectly predictable order; it was only when many different particles were examined interacting together that the view through his microscope became unclear. Like Einstein’s microscope, our minds can become hazy when overloaded and under pressure but when we chunk things down and deal with them individually, things become clearer and easier to manage.

While feeling overwhelmed occasionally is completely normal and some might argue a necessary part of being a high performer, if it becomes chronic, your health can really take a hit. The earlier you recognise when stress is affecting you, separate each issue into individual components and deal with them, the quicker you can stop yourself from drowning in the details, refocus and get on with your day.

While adding a shiny new tool to the kit or the downloading the latest app promising to make life easier might seem like a great quick fix, the real key to achieving progress is to take care of your mind first and maintain a good attitude towards self-improvement.

As you learn and graduate from smaller challenges to bigger ones, your ability to solve harder and more complex problems increases – once upon a time, changing a tap washer might have been a big deal but now roughing in a block of apartments is a breeze. Einstein’s approach can help you understand and speed up this process, decode any problem and reduce your stress!

As Einstein put it: “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving”.

Matt Reynolds is an award winning plumber who writes about the game as an industry insider. You can connect with him on Twitter @MrMattReynolds or find him as the Director of XRM Plumbing Services on LinkedIn.