Most people don't truly understand that the key to wellness is effective problem-solving. By increasing your knowledge of problem solving strategies, you will be able to solve your wellness challenges, reduce stress and take back control of your well being as well as your life. In doing so, you will reduce your probability of getting seriously ill from chronic degenerative diseases, many of that are, brought on by stress.

Below are 15 principles and practices of problem solving and change engineering. These 15 problem solving strategies should make a large difference in your ability to solve all of your wellness challenges.

Always keep an open mind for new opportunities and ways of doing things. Stay flexible. Be ready to try out new scenarios and strategies. Never commit until you have tested several theories. Rigidity is a trap. If you can't adapt, you're not able to truly live.

A solution is only as good as the color of your hat. Black Hat (negative) thinking is quite important in solving problems, but it's not the only hat. Never forget you can find five other hat colors and five other ways of looking at problems. (De Bono's Six Thinking Hats)

Big-picture thinking is critical for solving business problems ( visit this hyperlink - http://www.saludpereira.gov.co/kunena/user/354-stphenreynlds.html ). You must be able to remove yourself from the problem and look at the matter objectively. Get up in that helicopter and acquire an aerial view of the problem. Stepping outside the problem can make it much clearer than previously.

Always ask questions. You are just an individual limited by the power of just one mind. To be truly inspired to solve problems well, you must harness the power of others' intelligence as well. Gather information, read books, do research and learn just as much as you may.

Stay focused. Do not allow yourself to get distracted. Dealing with too much or spreading yourself too thin will destroy or at least significantly delay your success. Do one step at a time. Slow and steady wins the race (Aesop).

Be realistic. Ensure your plans are not too far beyond your reach. Nothing will sabotage an effort to solve a wellness challenge faster than making the problem too big. Blowing things out of proportion will ensure you never solve the problem.

Follow through. Finish what you start. You are better off solving one wellness challenge successfully than to start but not finish solving 10 wellness challenges. The experience of accomplishment that you'll feel just by getting to the end of the very first wellness challenge will be worthwhile even when the solution is not yet perfect. You can always try again or dig just a little deeper later on.

Be thankful for what you've got. Being envious of others success will never help you solve your wellness challenges. Understand that every person that seems successful always has their own group of wellness challenges to solve. You can find few people who have achieved total wellness.

Break it down into smaller pieces. How do you eat an apple? You eat an apple, one bite at a time. Start at the beginning and work to the end and also the end will unquestionably come. Smaller is better when it comes to solving wellness challenges.

Don't substitute one problem for another. Be careful when you work through your challenges that you don't accidentally create new problems in place of old ones. You will need to cope with the whole problem not only pieces of it

If something doesn't work, learn from it and move on. There isn't any point dwelling on the past or on failing. Nothing is ever a failure unless you don't learn from it. Edison, said, I have not failed 10,000 times; I have successfully found 10,000 ways that do not work.

Celebrate your success and reward yourself when you go along. Do not wait until the end. We have been human and we have been weak. We have to give ourselves as many rewards as children as a way to be able to solve problems effectively.

Find cheerleaders to cheer you on and stay away from wellness thieves. Build a team of folks around you which will help you move forward. Do not give your problem solving power to people that are jealous or scared.

Never give up within the face of adversity. If it was easy to solve a wellness challenge, it would not be called a challenge. Keep going. Keep trying. Keep hoping. Keep learning. Remember every day is a fresh start.

Expect your best from yourself. Never be so hard on yourself that you FORCE yourself to fail. Nonetheless, at the same time, never be so easy on yourself that you ALLOW yourself to fail either. The goal is to keep up enough pressure to obtain the job done without falling to either extreme.