🧠 Study Before You Solve: Why You Can’t Brute-Force Your Inner Obstacles

Hello and welcome back.

In the previous exercise, we mapped out our personal obstacle map—a deep dive into the emotional, mental, and behavioral patterns that are keeping us stuck.

Now the question is:

“What do I do with these obstacles? How do I move forward?”

That’s what we’ll uncover today. And the surprising answer begins with… a leaky tap and a faulty remote.

🚿 The Leaky Tap and That One Person Who Can Close It

Have you ever had a tap at home that only one family member can turn off perfectly?

Or a remote control that seems completely dead in everyone else's hands, but somehow works for one person when they tilt it just right?

We all have these oddly specific situations at home—and we’ve all seen how most people get frustrated and try to force the device to work.

Tap not closing? Apply brute force.
Remote not working? Bang it.
Bottle won’t open? Hit it.

These reactions are universal—and telling.

It’s not just about the tap or the remote. This is how most of us deal with our inner obstacles too.

We don’t study the problem.
We don’t understand what’s really happening.
We just react. We push. We force.

And it never works.

👶 The Crying Nephew & The Bottle Dilemma

Let’s go a step further.

I recently watched my 16-month-old nephew try to open a water bottle. He knew where the cap was. He knew that turning it should open it. But he didn’t know how.

After a few seconds of trying, he got frustrated.

He cried. He hit the bottle.

Does that sound familiar?

He didn’t know the technique, the mechanism behind the bottle cap.

Just like many of us don’t know the mechanism behind our procrastination, anger, anxiety, or self-doubt.

🚫 Brute Force Doesn’t Work on Emotions

We apply the same "brute force" strategy to emotional obstacles:

• Struggling with procrastination? → Push harder. Set stricter deadlines. Still stuck.

• Struggling with anger? → Try to suppress it. Still erupts.

• Struggling with anxiety? → Distract yourself. Still comes back stronger.

We don’t stop to ask:

“What is this emotion trying to tell me?”
“What triggers it?”
“What’s underneath this reaction?”

We try to fight the emotion without understanding it—and just like the tap or the bottle, it doesn’t yield.

🌊 Understand the Force Before You Command It

Here’s a quote that completely reframed my approach to internal challenges:

“We must obey the forces we want to command.”

Think of that.

• A boat doesn’t fight the water—it floats because of it.

• A plane doesn’t defy air resistance—it uses it to lift off.

• Scientists didn’t wish COVID away—they studied the virus and then developed the vaccine.

In every case, success came not from force—but from understanding the forces at play.

🧩 Your Inner Obstacles Work the Same Way

If you want to:

• Heal your anxiety

• Stop procrastinating

• Control your anger

• Build discipline
  You must study the root cause. You must understand:

• What triggers it?

• What patterns repeat?

• What beliefs feed it?

• What unmet needs lie underneath?

That’s how you move forward.

First understand. Then transform.

💡 What’s Next?

In the next part of our journey, we’ll explore how to study your obstacles—step by step.

Because once you understand the forces, you can start using them. Not against yourself, but with yourself.

Thank you for reading.
Take a deep breath, observe what’s happening within you, and we’ll meet again soon with the next practical step forward.