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One of my Twelve Commandments is “Identify the problem.” So often, I’ve noticed, I suffer some annoyance, but I don’t take the time to understand what the real problem is, so I never work on solving it. Once I force myself to identify the real problem, I often see quite clearly how to make things better. 我自己的“十二戒律”之一是“找到问题”。我曾多次注意到自己受烦恼困扰，但却并没有花时间去理解真正的问题是什么，所以也不曾去着手解决。一旦我强迫自己找到真正的问题所在，往往就能清楚地找到改善事情的办法。 A friend of mine applied this commandment in his own life, with great success. 我的一位朋友在自己的生活中应用了这个戒律，而且大获成功。 For years, he’d dreaded Monday mornings. He hated the re-entry stress of coming back into the office, and just at the time he was trying to get some real work done as he started his week, he’d be distracted by a million little things. 很久以来，他都恐惧周一早晨。他讨厌重新回到办公室时（感受到的）压力；可新的一周刚开始，他正想要做一些重要的工作时，立刻就会被无数小事分心。 Finally, he said to himself: “Why do I dislike Monday morning so much?” He thought it over. “Because I want to make some headway on my large projects, but I have to deal with email, mail, newsletters, voice-mail, and all that, so I can’t get any real work done.” Having identified the problem, how could he solve it? He couldn’t change the nature of the work that needed to be done -- so he changed his attitude. He decided that instead of trying to start the week by doing serious work, he’d start the week doing clean-up. | 
