What If We’re Focusing on the Wrong Problems?

Change is never easy but it can be unnecessarily harder if you’re not focused on the right problem. Wrong focus leads to wrong solutions, or at least, less than optimal solutions. Let’s take a look at three examples that impact nearly everyone.

Losing Weight

After graduating from college I competed for several years in bodybuilding. I quickly found out, getting lean for a contest was 80% diet and 20% exercise. 

While weightlifting was certainly important when it came to getting bigger and stronger, it wasn’t much help when it came to getting “ripped.” In the same way, other exercise, even aerobic, won’t help shed unwanted weight as much as a focused diet.

Here’s a simple illustration to drive that point home. Running two miles burns approximately 250 calories for most people. A Snickers candy bar has 250 calories. Which is easier: running two miles or simply saying no to the Snickers?

If you want to lose weight and get healthy, you can’t exercise your way out of a bad diet.

Saving for Retirement

Most Americans are woefully unprepared for retirement. There are many reasons for that but consider this: $1 saved is $1 earned. However, $1 earned through extra work turns out to be only 65 to 75 cents saved after taxes for many people. 

Which is easier: Working many more hours, getting a big raise, or cutting back on non-essentials in your budget?

Trimming the fat so to speak can be a much more effective way, at least in the short term, to saving for your golden years.

Reducing the National Debt

When it comes to paying down the United States national debt, the government can tax us more, start making spending cuts, or use some combination of cuts and taxes.

When it comes to taxes, we hear Washington politicians repeatedly saying the rich, “pay their fair share.” It may be true that they can afford to pay more but will that solve the problem?

Did you know, as of July 2024, there were 813 billionaires in the United States? The total accumulated wealth of that group was $5.5 trillion. That’s a big number…unless you compare it to the United States national debt. As of July 2024, the United States national debt was a staggering $35.9 trillion!

Even confiscating all the wealth of billionaires would still leave us with $30.4 trillion in debt. Let me put that number in perspective for you. If we confiscated the wealth of all the billionaires then started paying the remaining debt down one billion dollars a day, it would take more than 80 years to pay it off! It’s not like anyone reading this would be around for that celebration. 

Conclusion

We cannot tax our way out of debt because we have a spending problem. Just like the person who wants to lose weight needs a better diet or the individual saving for retirement has to look at making some budget cuts, as a nation we have to reign in spending money we don’t have otherwise future generations will be saddled with our poor choices.

Edited with ChatGPT

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Brian Ahearn

Brian Ahearn is the Chief Influence Officer at Influence PEOPLE and a faculty member at the Cialdini Institute. An author, TEDx presenter, international speaker, coach, and consultant, Brian helps clients apply influence in everyday situations to boost results.

As one of only a dozen Cialdini Method Certified Trainers in the world, Brian was personally trained and endorsed by Robert Cialdini, Ph.D., the most cited living social psychologist on the science of ethical influence.

Brian’s first book, Influence PEOPLE, was named one of the 100 Best Influence Books of All Time by Book Authority. Persuasive Selling for Relationship Driven Insurance Agents was an Amazon new release bestseller. The Influencer, is a business parable designed to teach you how to use influence in everyday situations.

Brian’s LinkedIn courses on persuasive selling and coaching have been viewed by over 725,000 people around the world and his TEDx Talk on pre-suasion has more than a million views!