Nor do they leap into ill-considered action. Instead they think about the problem and how best to tackle it. If they decide to use someone as a sounding-board they put some effort into making it clear whether they want sympathy, guidance or counselling. If they feel out of their depth they do not hesitate to seek appropriate professional help. In doing so they harbour no illusions about perfect answers and resist the temptations to shift the responsibility for their problem on to an expert.
Healthy optimism is an outstanding characteristic of successful problem solvers.
They refuse to let people problems get them down. They don't exactly thrive on problems, but when they occur they certainly view them as challenges and refuse to accept that any problem, however horrendous or apparently intractable, is insoluble. They believe that problems are there to be solved and that they have not just one but many possible courses of action open to them. Their optimism stems from two basic operating assumptions. First, they believe that human behaviour is caused as much by external factors as by internal 'personality' factors.