What caught my attention
“The most dangerous skill in problem-solving isn’t being wrong—it’s being right about the wrong problem.” — Greg McKeown
What I see
This is rampant. We’re brilliant at crafting excellent solutions to the wrong problems—then confused when the system keeps collapsing. When you’re right about the wrong problem, you don’t just waste time; you you drain your vitality much faster. The main structure keeps falling apart while you polish a limb.
Think of any system like a tree: roots → trunk → limbs.
At a place I used to work, every “issue” got attacked at the limb. Endless meetings. Endless fixes. The root sat in plain sight, untouched.
I would point it out again and again, but my attempts were brushed off. Eventually I stopped wasting breath.
I made a decision not to waste my energy and time on that anymore. I put my entire focus on my work with my amazing clients and let the rest fall apart elsewhere.
Of course, that often spilled over and affected clients, because they were caught in that ecosystem. When they came to me frustrated and angry that they weren’t getting the service they signed up for, I soothed them, told them I was sorry they had to go through that, and carried on with our work.
Still, I watched the same cycle repeat: hours lost to chasing limb problems while the trunk rotted. The structure kept failing—perfect solutions to the wrong problems, over and over.
A former client—wildly successful, very public—was someone I worked with for several years: half the time when he was not doing so well, and half when he started to improve and really take our work to the next level—not just healing, but peak performance, then full-blown vitality.
He had the worst gut issues I’d seen. We did nervous system work, gut protocols, the whole official health stack. Things improved… but never fully resolved.
Deep down, I could see the load on the system: his marriage. I will not tell a client to leave a relationship. That is not my job. My job is to help them see the system clearly so they can choose.
He didn’t share much at first (men often keep it tighter), but over time he let small details slip. One day he walked in and said, “Finally—I filed for divorce and I feel so fucking good.”
In any system, you get to choose the context. Context is NOT pre-existent and set in stone forever like we think it is.
Six months later? The gut was calm. The man was thriving. Same body. Different system.
We get in touch every so often to catch up, and he is the happiest he has ever been. I am truly amazed that NONE of his gut issues have resurfaced—zero.
Now he wants to take his current peak performance and vitality to the next level. We’ll be working together again shortly, this time focused on strength, speed, endurance, and—most importantly—recovery.
This isn’t just business or marriage. It’s teams, families, products, health architecture—everywhere.
When you keep solving the wrong problem:
You create momentum in the wrong direction.
You enter a revolving loop of iterate → break → iterate → break.
You feel "busy," but you do not progress.
Meanwhile, the core structure keeps quietly falling apart.
THIS is what people call “life is hard.”
Yes, there are times in life when things happen out of our control—things that suck—that we have to deal with.
But most of the time we create this “life is hard” by working endlessly on the wrong problem. When you do that, you don’t move forward. You just loop: fix → break → fix → break, while everything else quietly unravels.
Why is that? Because the roots of this come from a lack of ownership over what YOU truly want—how YOU want to live, the ground you want to stand on, and the pride of claiming it without apology.
Most people shape a life (that was me years ago as well! But no longer) that looks good on the outside—acceptable enough to win the peanut gallery’s approval—while the real structure underneath keeps failing.
That’s a whole other foundational subject I won’t unpack here, because it would take five posts. Soon.
I do not bypass this part. I get to know my clients deeply because the key is correct problem selection.
Can’t sleep? It’s rarely just “sleep hygiene.” What in your life is keeping the nervous system on alert?
Anxiety? What truth do you already know that you’re not acting on?
Chronic symptoms? What system is creating the load your body keeps reporting?
When you choose the real problem, the right solution actually works—and it usually works fast.
Ask yourself: What is the real problem here?
You don’t need to dig endlessly. Your body is already telling you clearly—through your most common feelings, your symptoms, your lack of vitality, your fatigue, or whatever else is showing up.
The hardest part is simply finding what the real problem actually is. Once that’s clear, you’ll be guided to the right solution.
You just need to be willing to look at YOUR truth head on and then have the courage to act on it. Solutions to the right problems are usually very simple and crystal clear.
Don’t waste your life polishing branches. Go for the root.
Get the problem right, and then the solution actually matters.
This piece originally appeared on Substack.
It is available for reprint or syndication.
To request rights or republish, contact helena@bianchivibranthealth.com.