How to solve a problem

Dear friend,
To become strong and free builders
and protectors of freedom
we will need to solve many problems.

Our country needs us to do that.

We can’t continue to kick our problems
down the road for future generations.

Instead of blaming others
Instead of declaring ourselves defeated
Instead of applying the same old ineffective ideas
we need to think anew.

As Lincoln put it in 1862:

“The dogmas of the quiet past
are inadequate to the stormy present.

The occasion is piled high with difficulty,
and we must rise with the occasion.

As our case is new,
so we must think anew,
and act anew.

We must disenthrall ourselves,
and then we shall save our country.”

Lincoln’s words are just as true today
as they were then.

We need new solutions.

The problems our country faces are huge
and will take a long time to solve.

But you and I are not going to surrender.

Neither in advance,
as so many are already doing,
nor later.

Instead of giving up,
we are going to get stronger.

We are going to build up our strength
to tackle our huge problems
by solving our smaller ones.

Our painful everyday problems
are obstacles holding us back.

We hide behind these obstacles.
They provide an excuse
for not coming together
to build freedom.

“How can I build freedom
in my community and country
when I can’t build it in myself?”

I say: Let’s forge a new path.

Let’s build freedom in ourselves
so we can become more able
to build it in our community and country!

To build freedom in ourselves
we need to learn to solve our own problems.

I am going to teach you
a new way to solve a problem.

A kick butt method
I devised many years ago
and have tested extensively on myself
and with my clients.

Steps To Solve A Problem

Step One: Take full responsibility for the problem.

Step Two: Figure out the root cause.

Step Three: Take the power away from the root cause.

Is it really that simple, you ask?

Yes. There are only three steps.

The hardest step is Step Two:
making an accurate diagnosis
of the underlying cause.

Once you get that right,
you nail it with Step Three.

So —to get us started—
let’s take one small everyday problem
and solve it.

Once you see how to solve one problem
you will see that the same method
can be applied to solve many others.

In future letters, we will tackle
far tougher problems.

This one is for warmup!

The problem of sleeping in

I realize that for many of us,
sleeping in is not a problem
simply because it is entirely impossible.

Either the world won’t let us,
or we can’t if we try.

But for others of us
with both the opportunity and the ability,
sleeping in may become hard to resist.

Especially if we would like to make
the current crazy situation in our country
go away.

Hitting the snooze button
may start off as an occasional treat,
but may progress to habitually turning off the alarm
and sinking back into la-la land.

So…
what do we DO if it’s seriously high time
for us to stop sleeping in,
but we just can’t muster the will
to pull ourselves out of the sack?

Enough is enough

There comes a time in everyone’s life
when we have had enough
of our own nonsense.

I have had enough of mine countless times!

You have probably heard the phrase:
“Physician, heal thyself.”

Well, that is exactly what I have had to do
when I am mired in the self pity
of a stuck situation.

I have had to take full responsibility for my problem
and give myself a dose of my own medicine.

And what, you may ask, is my medicine?
Well, it’s like Buckley’s cough syrup
—”the taste you love to hate”—
only in psychological form.

An original and quite unpleasant concoction
made of words.

One of my clients told me that taking my medicine was
“like eating peanut butter with ground glass in it.”

But the man took it,
and made major progress in his recovery.

How to challenge ourselves

I call a dose of my medicine
an interpretation.

An interpretation is simply a question.

One brief question,
custom-designed to interpret our situation
and challenge ourselves.

We write the question on an index card,
and read it several times a day.
Ideally aloud.

We don’t need to answer the question.
We just ASK it.

Whatever problem we have,
at a deep unconscious level
we are attached to that problem
and feel sorry for ourselves.

To ruin the fun of our self pity
we ask ourselves
why we want to be stuck in this problem.

You may rebel here,
and accuse me of blaming you for your problem.

Actually, I am doing something quite different.

I am not blaming you, I am explaining you!

The interpretation is an explanation
of how your problem works.

By exposing and challenging
our underlying wish to feel sorry for ourselves
(that is, to play the victim)

and laughing at our own wish

we take the power away from it.

A personal illustration

OK.
Let me give you a specific example
of how I gave myself my own medicine.

I continually test my methods on myself
and I keep notes of these applications.

I have right here in my hands
a note dated December 5, 2019.

I remember the time well.
I was sleeping in, avoiding my work,
laying around like a sloth.

No good reason.
I was just in a good old incapacitated funk.

This went on for six days.

Finally I had had enough of my own BS.

I decided to create
a custom-made interpretation.

I did so, and repeatedly gave myself
a major dose of my own medicine.

Here is the note I wrote afterward:

“Cured myself of 6 days of incapacity,
by giving (mainlining) the interpretation:
“Why do I want to be a freaking failure
when I could be a successful doctor and writer?”

I gave this interpretation to myself
several times before I went to bed that night,

then woke up several times in the night,
mainlined it some more in the morning—
and I was fine.

Had been very weak and slow
all day and during prior days.
But I had full strength and energy
all day by Dec. 6.”

That interpretation tasted terrible.
But I just kept swallowing it.

The result was I succeeded
in spoiling my own pity party
and I didn’t sleep in any more.

How to create an interpretation

We begin an interpretation with “Why do I want…”

This is because the underlying unconscious cause of a problem
is always an unhealthy wish.

We challenge and take the power away
from an unhealthy wish by exposing it
and asking ourselves: “Why do I want it?”

Consciously, we all want to be happy
and to have all the good things in life.

But unfortunately we humans
harbor unconscious wishes that are not healthy.

Wishes to be hurt and disappointed,
to suffer and feel sorry for ourselves.

These unconscious wishes
sabotage our conscious efforts toward happiness.

Most of us are unaware we have these wishes.

We cannot understand why we suffer so much.
We cannot understand why
we do so many things that harm ourselves.

In my own psychoanalysis I learned
the self damaging unconscious wishes
I had been living out.

I spent many years overcoming them
and developing my own method
to deal with them via interpretations.

The purpose of an interpretation
is simply to spoil our unconscious wish to suffer.

Through exposing and challenging our wish,
we take away its power.

Giving ourselves an interpretation
is like stuffing a banana peel
down into the gas tank of a car.

That wish just isn’t going
to operate the same any more.

Interpretations for sleeping in

Missing our days because we are sleeping in
is a pain that is candy-coated with self pity.

If we get to the point we have had enough
and we want this scenario to end
we have to take full responsibility for the problem.

We have to spoil our wish to avoid the world
avoid our commitments
avoid our life.

We have to take the fun out of it
by showing ourselves how ridiculous we are being.

To do that, we create an interpretation
to challenge ourselves.

Here is one I recommend:

“Why do I want to lie here like a beached whale?”

If that image doesn’t make you wince sufficiently,
here are a few other possibilities to try on:

“Why do I want to lie here
like a cadaver on a medical school operating table?”

“Why do I want to lie here
like an over-the-hill toothless old boomer?”

“Why do I want to lie here like a lazy assed sloth?”

”Why do I want to lie here like an Egyptian mummy in my tomb?

You get the idea…

Brainstorm till you find
the perfect words to challenge you.

The ideal question will make you say OUCH!!!
and maybe even make you tear up a little.

But it will also make you laugh.

The most effective interpretations
are tough and funny, both!

That’s why I love
“Why do I want to lie here like a beached whale?”

It makes me feel fat and sick!

But I laugh every time I say it
and there’s no way I can stay in bed.

Besides

Besides, I want to get up!

I want to get up
so you and I, together,
can solve more problems.

Small ones,
big ones,
and in between.

Blessings,

Dr. Hall

tx: Why do I want to croak today?

I am going to teach you how to fight

(real vs pseudo aggression)

you can’t fight an external despot

and stop external damage

if you are bowing to an internal one

(if you are accepting internal damage from internal dictator)

if you are passively accepting inner damage from

an inner sadistic force

the problem isn’t the sadistic force

the problem is your passive acceptance of the sadistic force

self damage

inner surrender is PART of every defeat

and sometimes it is the whole damn thing

you must learn to recognize it

the main cause is you have an unconscious wish to lose

and you are buying in to lies that set you up to lose

it’s time to learn to fight

learn to land a knockout punch to your own passive wish to lose

clarify/explain malignancy

symptoms (examples)

who is your worst enemy

or

who is your best friend?

So let us begin

Let us begin with a topic
in the dimension of capability.

Let’s focus on how to solve a problem.

It may surprise you that
the key principles for solving a huge problem
are the same as for solving a small problem.

Sure, a huge problem
like the terrible political crisis we are in
is way harder to solve

and takes way longer to solve
than a small one

but the principles are

Let me show you

Is there a painful problem you have
that you would really like to be free of?

Maybe something you do
that doesn’t make you proud
even though it may feel good?

Something you have vowed
–over and over–
to stop doing
but can’t?

I have tried to stop being full of rage and venting but…
I have tried to stop drinking but…
I have tried to stop overeating but…
I have tried to stop spending all my time on the internet but…
I have tried to stop playing video games all day but…
I have tried to stop speeding but…

Most of us have at least one problem like these.

We try year after year to conquer it
Each time we fail, we get more discouraged.

Right now

Want to solve one right now?

Hell, why not?

Let’s up and solve one today
just to prove to ourselves
that we can.

Ready?

I will name a painful problem
at least some of you have

and I will give you the medicine.

It isn’t pleasant to swallow
but it works.

It’s like taking Buckley’s cough syrup—
“the taste you love to hate.”

Give some thought in the coming week
to how we solved the problem of sleeping in.

Put your mind
to how you can take these same steps
to solve one other small problem
you are sick of having.

I’m with you.

You can DO this.

Blessings,

Dr. Hall