Sometimes You Need to Think Above the Problem
I recently finished reading The Happiest Man on Earth by Eddie Jaku. It was my second experience of Eddie's story. The first time, I listened to the audiobook. At the same time, we travelled around Australia in our caravan. This time, though, I held the book in my hands, saw the photographs, and looked at the faces of the people he was talking about.
Something about reading it this time made me stop more often. I'd put the book down, think for a while, pick it back up and continue.
Eddie survived the Holocaust. He experienced cruelty, loss, starvation, fear and circumstances that I wouldn't even attempt to imagine I could understand. Yet what struck me throughout his story wasn't only what happened to him; it was how he kept thinking through it.
There was, of course, the immediate reality of survival. Find food. Keep warm. Know who to trust. Work out what to do next. Sometimes staying alive came down to incredibly specific decisions and actions.
But alongside that, I kept noticing something bigger running through his story. Hope. Friendship. Love. Kindness. Having something or someone to live for, and holding onto the possibility that something could still exist beyond the circumstances he was experiencing.
When one route disappeared, another had to be found. When something changed, he had to adapt. At times his world became incredibly small and specific: what do I need to do right now to stay alive? Yet somehow there was also an ability to connect to something much bigger than that immediate moment.
And as I kept reading, I started to notice something about the way he seemed to think.
This is, of course, my interpretation of his story. Still, I became fascinated by how his thinking seemed to move depending on what he needed.
Sometimes he seemed to connect to something much bigger than the immediate circumstances in front of him. Survival itself. Hope. Friendship. Love. The possibility that a future might still exist beyond what he was experiencing.
Those bigger things gave him something to keep moving toward.
Then there were the different ways he had to find to keep going. When circumstances changed, he adapted. When one possibility disappeared, another had to be found. Another person. Another resource. Another route. Another way to survive.
And then there were moments where there was no space for the bigger picture at all. Survival came right down into the smallest details. What do I need right now? Where can I go? Who can I trust? What do I need to do next?
As I was reading, I started seeing this movement.
Something bigger to move towards. Different ways of getting there. Then the specific action needed next, and it made me think about how we think when we're faced with problems.
Most of the time, when faced with a problem, general human behaviour does the complete opposite: we focus on the problem and keep asking, "Why isn't this working?" What am I missing? What should I change? What if this happens? What if that doesn't happen? What else do I need to do?
The more we think about the problem, the more details we find. While reading Eddie's story, I realised he was intuitively using a thinking technique I call the Hierarchy of Ideas.
At its heart, the Hierarchy of Ideas gives us a way to move our thinking when we get stuck at one level of a problem.
We can move UP, away from the immediate detail and towards the bigger purpose, meaning, or what's important. We can move ACROSS, asking what other possibilities, alternatives, or routes might take us toward that bigger purpose. Then we can move DOWN, back into the specifics of what needs to happen next.
Now, I know Eddie wasn't consciously using a technique called the Hierarchy of Ideas. Still, when I read the story, I could see how incredibly flexible his thinking was.
UP towards something worth surviving for.
ACROSS towards another way when one way disappeared.
DOWN into the specific action required to survive the moment in front of him.
It then got me thinking about all our own problems in life, in whatever interpretation we want to call problems, and often we tend to sit in the problem and think small; we gather evidence to prove our problem and replay all the possibilities of the problem, making it harder to find a solution.
Harder thinking from the same place doesn't necessarily create a different answer.
Sometimes we're simply becoming experts in the problem.
The Hierarchy of Ideas gives us somewhere else to go.
Think about it almost like a tree. You might find yourself sitting right at the end of one branch, staring at a problem. You can keep travelling further into that branch looking for more and more detail, or you can move back up the tree and suddenly realise there are other branches available.
Moving UP - finding what's really important.
To move up, we ask questions such as: What's important about this? What does this give me? For what purpose?
And then, importantly, we don't necessarily stop at the first answer. We take the answer we've been given and ask the question again.
Imagine someone says, "I really need this promotion."
What's important about getting the promotion?
"I'll earn more money."
And what's important about earning more money?
"I'll feel more secure."
What's important about having that security?
"It gives me freedom."
Now something interesting has happened. We started with "I need this promotion" and ended up at "I want freedom."
The promotion hasn't suddenly become irrelevant. It may still be exactly what that person wants to pursue. But we've discovered that the promotion itself isn't necessarily the higher purpose. What they're really moving towards is freedom.
Once we know that, our thinking can shift again.
Moving ACROSS - creating alternatives.
If what I really want is freedom, I can now ask: What are some other ways I could experience or create freedom?
This is where we move across the Hierarchy of Ideas and deliberately ask our mind to find alternatives.
Perhaps it's another role. Developing a new skill. Changing the way I work. Starting something on the side. Reducing a financial commitment. Creating greater flexibility somewhere else in my life. Having a conversation I haven't had yet.
Suddenly there isn't only one road to freedom. There are options.
This was one of the things I kept noticing while reading Eddie's story. Again, this is me interpreting his experience through my own lens. Still, his circumstances were unimaginably constrained, and at times he had very few choices. Yet when one possibility disappeared, survival often required finding another.
Another person. Another resource. Another decision. Another way of making it through the next moment.
The bigger things- survival, hope, friendship, and eventually happiness could remain important even when how he reached them had to keep changing.
That distinction stayed with me because I think we can become incredibly attached to one particular route towards something we want. We decide, consciously or unconsciously, this is how it has to happen, and when that route becomes difficult or disappears altogether, we can start believing the thing we really want is no longer available either.
Sometimes the route isn't the purpose. It's simply one way of getting there.
Moving across asks us to loosen our grip on the one answer we've decided must work and ask a wonderfully simple question:
What else?
What other way could this happen? What haven't I considered? What other route might take me towards what's important?
That doesn't mean every alternative will be right. It simply gives our thinking somewhere else to go.
Moving DOWN - turning possibility into action.
The Hierarchy of Ideas doesn't leave us sitting up in the big ideas either. At some point, we need to come back down because freedom, purpose, happiness, contribution, hope and connection are wonderful concepts. However, we still need to decide what we'll do on Tuesday morning.
So now we ask different questions: What specifically? How specifically? When? Where? Who? What's the first step?
Go back to our example. Perhaps one alternative route to greater freedom was developing a new skill. Now we can chunk down.
What skill specifically? Where could I learn it? Who do I know who already has it? How much time would it take? What's one thing I could do this week?
We've now moved from:
"I need this promotion."
Up to:
"What I really want is freedom."
Across to:
"There may be several ways I can create greater freedom."
And then back down to:
"Here is something specific I can actually do."
That's the movement.
Up towards purpose. Across towards possibility. Down towards action.
This is perhaps what Eddie's story made me think about most.
He couldn't simply think positively and make the reality around him disappear. His circumstances were horrifically real. There were moments where survival required extraordinary specificity: what do I need now, where can I go, who can I trust, what action gives me the best chance of making it through this moment?
Somehow, throughout so much of his story, something higher also kept him moving forward. Hope. Human connection. Love. A future.
When one way forward disappeared, another had to be found. That's what stayed with me after I closed the book.
In circumstances where so much choice had been taken away from him, I kept noticing the choices that remained. Sometimes that meant holding onto something bigger than the moment he was living through. Sometimes it meant finding another way when the way in front of him disappeared, and sometimes it meant bringing everything right down to the next specific thing he needed to do to survive.
Our lives and our problems may look nothing like Eddie's, but I think that lesson is something incredibly human.
We will all have moments when the route we thought we were taking changes suddenly. Something doesn't work. A door closes. A relationship changes. A job disappears. A plan we'd become attached to doesn't happen. Life gives us information we weren't expecting.
When that happens, it's very easy to sit at the end of that one branch and stare at the route that is no longer available.
We can become so focused on how we thought something was supposed to happen that we lose sight of what we were really moving towards in the first place.
Maybe that's where the Hierarchy of Ideas gives us something incredibly practical.
Go UP and remember what matters. Go ACROSS and remind yourself that there may be more than one way to get there. Then go DOWN and decide what you can do next.
It doesn't make the problem disappear. It doesn't guarantee the alternative will work, and it certainly doesn't mean that everything happening around us is within our control.
Sometimes it isn't.
Eddie's story is an extraordinary reminder of that.
But perhaps we have more flexibility in our thinking than we sometimes remember. Perhaps even when we can't choose the circumstances, there are moments when we can still choose where we place our attention, what we keep moving toward, what other possibilities we're willing to consider, and what we do with the next step available to us.
Perhaps that's what I needed to remember when I put Eddie's book down. Not that my problems weren't important. Not that I should simply be grateful someone else had experienced something unimaginably worse, but to realise I had let some of my problems become the whole picture.
They weren't.
There was still more to look at.
More than one branch, one possibility and more than one way forward.
So, if you find yourself going around the same problem this week, maybe don't ask yourself to think harder.
Move your thinking instead.
Look UP and remember what matters.
Look ACROSS and ask, what else?
Then look DOWN and decide what you can do next.
Because sometimes the way forward isn't found by looking more closely at the problem.
Sometimes we have to change where we're looking from.
With love,
Me
In this blog, I've shared just a glimpse of a few NLP concepts and techniques. If this sparks your curiosity and you'd like to explore more, or even consider becoming an NLP Practitioner yourself, we'd be delighted to welcome you to our in-person NLP certification training. Our next sessions are scheduled to run both in person and online in 2026 and 2027. We'd love to see you at one of these NLP training sessions.
Click here to learn more about our NLP Certification Training and secure your place.
Book Now
__________________________________________________________________________________
DISCLAIMER FOR GENERAL HEALTH CONTENT
The information and recommendations provided in our videos, presentations, webinars, e-books, online courses, blog, website and all other digital materials (together ‘Content’) are based on our own research, experience and views. The information is intended to be general information, covering general health issues and common life. Whilst we try our best to ensure that the information in our Content is accurate, sometimes there may be errors, inaccuracies or new research that has not been included.
We hope you find this information helpful but please be aware that any information, recommendations or comments may not be suitable for your particular circumstances and you should not take anything in our Content as personal advice. The information in our Content is offered in good faith and it is not specific to any one person or any personal circumstances.
For this reason, we cannot be held liable for any decisions you make based on any of our Content, information, recommendations or views. Any decision you take based on information in this Content is done at your own risk and any consequences, as a result, are your own. You shall indemnify this website, business, its directors and employees for any and all claims, whether resulting directly or indirectly from your actions based on our Content.
Comments by the moderator are the views of the person posting only and are not intended to be taken as advice for you personally. The persons posting and providing the information are not necessarily health professionals and should you need specific advice for your circumstances, you should consult your own health or medical professional.
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
This Content is the copyright of Vikki Da Rocha and Jorge Da Rocha t/a Momentum Growth Coaching © 2026. All rights reserved. Any redistribution or reproduction of part or all of the Content in any form is prohibited.
You may not share, copy or redistribute this Content in any medium or format at any time. Our Content is for your individual personal use only and may not be used for commercial purposes. You are not permitted to make any derivative material, including but not limited to copying, reproducing, transforming, sharing or building upon the Content in whole or any part thereof. For any other use or distribution, you must have express written consent from Momentum Growth Coaching.
