Posts Tagged ‘Solving’

Jobs, Problem Solving, and Childhood Obesity Prevention

April 11th, 2021

Jobs are being lost by the boatloads all over the nation at an alarming rate. This in turn threatens our nation’s economic viability, reduces our confidence and our spending capacity, and in turn that threatens more job losses in an ever increasing downward spiral. But let’s stop wringing our hands for a second and ask the following question. “What is a job anyway if it’s not an ongoing set of problems to be solved on behalf of someone who’s willing and able to pay you for solving them?”

Problems Equal Opportunity

In that sense, the more problems we experience, the more job opportunities there are on the horizon, presuming you can find someone to pay you for tackling and resolving those problems. In the best light then, the myriad of problems our nation faces today should be seen as a myriad of opportunities, with the challenge being to identify someone who can and will pay your for solving these problems. Change and opportunity (including won/lost opportunity) inevitably go hand in hand.

Take Childhood Obesity for Example

Let’s take for example, the current and growing problem of childhood obesity. Several months ago the United States Surgeon General announced that childhood obesity was his number one priority. A forum of former US Surgeon Generals recently declared that childhood obesity was a greater threat to American’s health than smoking or Aids. It’s costing the American taxpayer over $120 Billion annually (about the same as the war in Iraq) and it’s growing not shrinking.

By any measure childhood obesity is a BIG problem, and if someone can successfully step up to the plate in his or her own community and tangibly turn the tide on this plague, they should be paid handsomely for it…wouldn’t you agree? So the question becomes how do YOU step up to the plate and turn the tide on childhood obesity in your own community? Here’s one quick answer to that question.

The Basic Mechanics

First go to a website called Pull Your Own Weight dot net and peruse the home page. Once you’re done perusing, click on the 90 second You Tube video and watch it…a couple times if necessary. Do these two things and within ten minutes I promise that you’ll understand the mechanics of how kids can naturally immunize themselves against obesity for life, without pills, shots, or fancy diets. It’s actually quite simple.

Here’s the Challenge

But understanding the mechanics is the easy part. The challenging part is understanding the psychology of motivating kids to take action, and to do what ever is necessary to eat better, exercise more, and to naturally immunize themselves against obesity for life. For that you’ll have to read the book entitled Operation Pull Your Own Weight: A Radically Simple Solution to Childhood Obesity, which is available on the Pull Your Own Weight dot net website, Amazon, or on Barnes and Noble.

The Three Most Important Factors

According to the old adage, the three most important factors in real estate are location, location, and location. In childhood obesity prevention the three most important factors are MOTIVATION, MOTIVATION, and MOTIVATION. In other words if you can motivate them, you’ll win and they’ll win too! So what’s wrong with a win/win?

Congratulations, You’ve Just Created Your Own Job

I’m here to tell you that if you truly understand how to inspire and motivate kids to eat better, exercise more, and to naturally immunize themselves against obesity, YOU understand something that most people don’t. This mean that you have a unique service to offer your community (schools, pre-schools, after school programs at park districts, Y’s, Boys/Girls Clubs, churches, etc.).

And by offering that unique service you’ll be able to step up to the plate and tangibly turn the tide on childhood obesity in your community, and get paid handsomely for doing it. That is to say, you have created your own job (how does Childhood Obesity Specialist sound?) by solving a big problem that people can and are willing to pay for.

Childhood Obesity is Only One Example

Now finally, it’s important to say that any time there are big changes in the wind, you can expect big problems to be following closely behind. And big problems create big opportunities for those who are ready and willing to offer legitimate solutions.

Childhood obesity is only one example. Look around and identify all the big problems that people are now wrestling with. And if you can come up with a solution that people are willing and able to pay for, you’ll not only create a job for yourself, but in the process you can probably create jobs for other people, and that’ll be good for the economy of your community, town, county, state, and nation.

Go Identify Some Problems

Let me repeat, a job is nothing more than a set of problems that someone is willing and able to pay you to resolve. Now go out, identify some problems, solve them, and you won’t worry about losing your job. You’ll be too busy creating them instead.

Rick Osbourne spent 17 years as a physical educator and coach. He currently serves as Executive Director of Operation Pull Your Own Weight, (http://www.pullyourownweight.net) an informational website whose claim to fame is a strategy that motivates kids to naturally immunize themselves against obesity for life. Osbourne is also a public speaker, and