​One of my favorite ways to solve a complex problem is to walk away from it. Not permanently. Let the mental juices stew for a bit, then come back fresh.
 
Achieving a new/changed perspective on something that troubles you can be extremely difficult. In struggling with an issue, the patterns we used in the past tend to come into play. We keep hammering the nail or turning the screw the same way we always do, and getting the same result.
 
I was struck by this recently in a conversation with a long-time friend who I used to play basketball and softball with. As University of Illinois graduates, we were discussing the recent appearance of the men’s basketball team in the Elite 8 of the NCAA tournament. We had some thoughts on how we would have approached the game that differed from the coach.
 
We are not experts. Just a couple of guys looking from the outside-in. Sometimes that can be quite useful.
 
We will never know if the changes the two of us agreed would have helped the Illinois basketball team, because you can’t go back and relive life. But, we did wonder why other choices weren’t explored in their elimination gave vs. Connecticut in which the team got annihilated.
 
A coach can’t just walk away from a game. In other life/work situations though, when your mental facilities have been engaged intensely over a period of time, getting up and walking away can do wonders. It changes the scenery if nothing else.

More importantly, it changes your mindset and how you approach things. A good example for me are the “Connections” and “Wordle” games you can download on your phone. Both put up a daily puzzle. In Connections, you are given 16 words to associate in groups of four based on a commonality between the words. In Wordle, you try to find a five-letter word in six tries by choosing words and then responding to the program based on whether you selected and/or placed letters in the correct order.
 
In both, you build as you go along. One step leads to the next. You also can get 100 percent stumped. This happens to me more regularly with Connections, but also occasionally occurs with Wordle.
 
What do I do? I get up from the breakfast table and pour a cup of coffee. I may leave my phone at the table and get a bit of work done, then come back to my phone an hour or two later and look at what I’d accomplished and how I’d approached the solution.

Invariably (but not always), when I return to the puzzle, I look at it differently and very frequently solve the equation. It’s not perfect, but it works so effectively that I choose to take that step more often and earlier in the game process than I did when I first started playing the games.
 
Walking away eases frustration. You also let go mentally. There is much to be said for letting your mind wander and free-associate. Something opens up during that time, and it allows you to be more positive and cleared up mentally when you return.

You may already use this approach. I salute you if you do. If not, give it a shot next time you punish yourself by sticking with the tried and true. See how it goes.

​A good friend introduced the following idea. It’s something I’ve considered  multiple times as a former basketball coach and current basketball official: Does yelling instructions from the sideline into a dynamic environment get through to the participants or is it lost?
 
With the NCAA women’s and men’s basketball tournaments currently underway, it is a timely topic. Watch the coaches gesticulate. Watch them yell. See them urge their players on. Read their lips. Is anyone listening? Do the players respond?
 
Here’s one for you: When the gyms are loud, can the players even hear their coaches? As a referee, I can guarantee you that there are many times coaches try to get my attention or my partners, and we cannot hear them. We are focused on the game.

If we are focused on the game, the players are as well. Which means they are flying up and down the court as fast as possible, and probably don’t hear a word the coaches scream.
 
When you dial into work in a situation that is highly fluid and active, almost by extension you must maintain an extremely high level of intensity on the task at hand. That’s not to say the words of a coach won’t penetrate your thought processes, but more than likely if their words do reach you, the effect is fleeting. Here and gone. The next play approaches.
 
That’s the nature of basketball and many other sporting events. Players and referees must read and react consistently. Both players and officials are taught, watch video, train, get feedback, analyze plays and prepare to execute in specific situations. That pregame prep is what gets you ready to do your thing on the court.
 
What makes for effective communication? My buddy is especially skeptical about basketball coaches pacing the sidelines to constantly bark out, “do this, don’t do that” comments.
 
I’m reminded of the days when I coached two of our kids through their lower grades and some select basketball as they got older.  One of the very few comments I ever got from a parent was a suggestion to work on a certain play. I mentioned we had worked on that in practice during the week, and I had just reminded the girls in the huddle of what specifically we wanted to do when they got back on the court. They just didn’t do what I had taught them, and reminded them during our timeout.

You can yell all you want. That’s not going to change things.

What works much more effectively, IMO, is developing muscle memory. Work on situations/plays to know how you want to react most effectively as a player or referee. The more you do that, the more expert you become when a fast-paced action slams you in the face. A coach yelling at you isn’t going to change that.
 
Sideline yelling, in my buddy’s opinion (and I agree with him), is that the coach is expending nervous energy. They feel a need to be up and moving and affecting things. Words spew out. Most of them unnecessary and unheard.
 
My friend’s hypothesis is that dynamic situations are not conducive to clear instruction, basketball being a primary example. Based on my experience coaching and officiating, I agree.
 
Is there a lesson here? Prepare yourself and your team to be ready for as many situations as possible, so they can read and react in real time. Everyone (players, coaches, officials) make mistakes, but putting yourself though enough reps (and the right types of ones) beforehand gives you the best chance of success to execute properly on the court.

​Several weeks back, my wife and I looked out our kitchen window, marveling and laughing as a visitor to our neighbor’s house tried to get his car out of the snow after he’d driven it slightly down an incline. Back and forth he spun his tires. Spinning, spinning.

Someone else brought a pickup truck and they attached chains to the front bumper of the snowbound vehicle and revved the engine so it swerved side to side feebly trying to yank the stuck car. This went on for well over half an hour.
 
As we watched, I expounded on how brute force doesn’t work. It’s way more important to use momentum to your advantage. Speed isn’t the solution. Momentum is.
 
Several years back, our two younger offspring, then in college, hosted a party at our house over the winter months. As the visitors debarked at the end of the weekend, one was stuck in a few inches of snow.
 
I came outside after watching them flooring the gas and getting nowhere.  They put cardboard and kitty litter under the tires to no avail as the tires slid at top speed over both materials, digger deeper and deeper.
 
Bemused, I watched. Frustrated the driver finally got out after many minutes of using acceleration as the solution.

I asked him for the keys, hopped in, and said, “Watch.” I gently rocked forward, then quickly rocked back softly, then gently went in forward gear again, and YOW, the car slid right out. I pulled it onto our driveway, left it running and gave the driver the keys.

“How the heck did you do that?,” he asked. “Momentum,” I responded.
 
When you look at a nail, you think of a hammer. When you’re stuck in the snow, you think getting the wheels going as fast as possible is the solution. But, it’s not. How you apply momentum is though.
 
You see this principle actively in other parts of your life. For example, in basketball, team momentum is a huge component in victories. A player gets hot shooting and you ride their momentum. The ball starts to go in the hoop and you start taking faster and deeper shots because momentum is carrying your team at that point.
 
When you are working on a project and the juices flow, that’s not time to take a break. Instead, ride your creative impulses and stay on task. That’s when good things happen and you often put out your best work. Momentum builds.
 
When writing this column, I ride momentum. An event typically gets me thinking of a story line, and I jot down a headline, some notes and a potential ending. There’s quick momentum there.

I let those notes percolate for a week or more. Then, at the right time, I get to the keyboard and hammer away, the momentum quickly carrying me through some points, a story or two and an ending that ties things up. Without that mental momentum, I’d sit on my butt staring at the computer screen.
 
Momentum isn’t always evident. You have to backtrack sometimes to uncover the type of momentum you need.
 
Used wisely, momentum will keep you ahead of the ball.

​Whether you have a dog or not, you should appreciate this column.
 
This morning one of my workout buddies introduced the topic of how dogs greet us. He has a black lab who joyously lets his owner (L) know how happy he is when L comes home from work.
 
Like most dogs, this takes several forms. Barking, licking, leaping into your arms, tail wagging all fall into the category of “dang, I’m happy my owner is home from a hard day at work.”
 
The reason for the dog demonstrably showing its love could be it knows dinner is on the way. It could be the dog is pumped for some silly words of appreciation that dog owners shower on their pets. It could be the sheer joy of knowing a walk outdoors is impending.
 
Regardless of the reason, the dog shows its happiness. As L and I discussed this while stretching, we both remarked on how great it would if humans greeted each other that way. Imagine the possibilities. For the purposes of this comic scenario, presume one spouse is already home (H) when the other returns from long day at work (W).
 
W pulls into the driveway. H hears the car and the ears perk up, the eyes shine. Heartbeat increases, smile emerges on the face.
 
W lags into the house, shoulders slumped, the commute pounding W on the drive home. H races across down the front hallway, singing their favorite song. Halfway down the hall, H leaps in the air towards W.

W, knowing this is a nightly occurrence due to H’s deep and abiding love, is prepared and has arms out, reading to receive the full hug, a deep kiss and any other human adoration and physical affections.
 
W suddenly smiles. The world seems better. The stress from work and the commute ease slightly.
 
Dogs seem to know this stuff intuitively. Maybe their actions are meant to reinforce the lesson of positive physical contact. “Hey, Mr. Owner, get with the program. Unconditional love is a good thing. Let it fly.”
 
As L and I continued laughing and postulating scenarios, we got a bit more serious, wondering why we humans don’t greet each other more often with a deeper compassion. Is it because we’re more complicated beasts? Is it because we don’t have someone feeding us, putting a roof over our heads, and taking care of the basics of survival necessary for a dog?
 
We’ll never get to the bottom of those questions because, despite our dog talk that attempts to mimic and intuit our messages to our furry animal, we really don’t know what’s in their minds. They show us the basics of being happy. We can sense their sadness and their hunger, but can’t truly know what they think much beyond that.
 
Perhaps all day they’re engaged in mathematical computations to develop a clean energy source. When you park the car and slam the door, they know it’s time to shut down the brain and have some fun.

Maybe other than napping most of the day, they contemplate how to ensure a better world food distribution network. When the garage door opens, they shelve the thought process and ring the happiness bell.
 
We’ll never know. We can speculate. And, we can emulate.

​I imagine most people have a story about a simple (supposedly) appliance that breaks down repeatedly, causing frustration and a desire to pound the point of your forehead against a brick wall. For me, that appliance is our coffee maker.
 
It seemed like for years, probably decades even, we never had an issue with our coffeemaker. We plugged it in, put the grinds in the receptacle, poured in the water, hit the switch, and it percolated away.
 
Not now, not recently. Over the past 4-6 years, we can’t seem to get any of our coffeemakers to function properly more than a year. We’ve replaced multiple machines during this period of time, at least five, and most likely more than that.
 
What happens? For one, the pot won’t fully fill. My wife does all the same things she’s been doing for months, and for some oddball reason, the pot only fills a third of the way. You turn it off and on again, and another third fills. Then do that one more time and you get your full pot. An excellent, happy way to start your morning as your glands await their jumpstart to functionality.
 
A second default is for the water not to heat properly. You get the pot percolated and filled, then pour yourself a cup and don’t see any steam coming off it. Hmmmmmm…. You sip. Lukewarm. You put it in the microwave for 50 seconds to get it toasty. This isn’t a horrible situation, but it is an inconvenience. And, it shouldn’t happen with a six-month-old coffee machine.
 
Third, you have the “few drips” syndrome, where each brewing yields a few drips, but not much more. There are attempted remedies to any of these problems. Flushing the system with a vinegar/water mixture is the well-known one, and is typically effective, at least in the short-term. You initially feel vindicated, like a high quality home improvement project that you’ve finished.
 
But, the fix doesn’t hold. You may find your coffee back the way you want it for a few weeks or months, but the system deteriorates again and frustration mounts.
 
We’ve tried grinding the beans in a new way, or using a new type of filter. Problems persist.
 
Maybe we should rinse the entire apparatus with a power hose and hang it out on the clothes line. Or put it in the washing machine. See what happens then.
 
There is some internal mechanism, which the lay person knows nothing about, that breaks down, and you really can’t do much about that in the final analysis. So, you grab your plastic card, talk to your friends regarding what type of coffee machine they use, read reviews on Amazon, close your eyes, plug the card in at the cashier as you pick and pay for a new one, hoping this device stays functional for two years or more.
 
Now that our newest version is taking a dive on us (yup; that’s why this column is being written), we’re digging a little deeper, wondering perhaps that it’s our water supply. Could there be contaminants or sediment that make our coffee machines break down? How do we find out? Maybe our neighbors have the same problem.

We will talk with them. We’ll switch machines again, and perhaps it’s time to go old world and heat water, then pour it over the grinds in one of those coffee pots your parents used to have. That would work.
 
Please send me your suggestions on a great functional coffee-maker that won’t break our bank. I await your input.