We live in a world that is evolving faster than ever before. More often than not, we will face problems that we aren’t ready to solve. Probably we feel overwhelmed, exhausted, and anxious about the things we are not good at. As the problem is so common, numerous books, articles, public speeches seem to provide us some quick ways to deal with the problems. Everyone almost certainly has seen something like “How to do XXX in XXX days”. Do you really believe it?
We might as well view it with an open mind. Admittedly, there are situations where quick-fixes play a big role. For example, if we are dealing with something which occurs very rarely, and someone happens to have a quick fix to it, taking their suggestion might not be a bad idea. This kind of problem is often not a big deal. On the other hand, there are probably many recurring problems we have to face as well. For example, how to keep fit, how to grasp new knowledge, or how to acquire a new skill. In this case, if we still turn to the quick-fix, it will most likely cause us big trouble in the end.
Why is that? First, if we use the quick-fix to solve a problem, in the long run, we tend to rely on shortcuts more and more if the new problem comes. However, each problem we face may not be the exactly same as the before, and quick-fix can hardly be applied to every situation. Once we get used to quick-fixes, we tend to use the same methods over and over again, and it would probably lead to failure. On the other hand, with quick fixes out there, we are less likely to care about the problem on our own. As a result, our ability to solve a problem is built on other people’s experience, which is quite unstable, especially when other people also made a mistake. We cannot gain valuable experience on our own and we’re less likely to be able to deal with bigger challenges yet coming to us.
Although quick-fixes save us time and energy a lot, it comes at a price. The more we use quick-fixes, the less likely we are able to build up our own skill sets, which eventually impedes our growth. The true ability only comes from our own thinking, and there are just too many things that distract us and tell us it is OK to not think on our own. However, it is never the case that other people’s experience can replace the procedure that we build up our own skills by thinking on our own. In this sense, quick-fixes indeed slow us down! Everytually it is our personal growth that goes a long way in making us better people.
(To be continued)
