If you live in the Middle East, you know this all to well; trying to contact companies by calling them with no answer
Ever
This is an integral part of the Middle Eastern culture that it took me years (literally) to get used to and that I still not respect, but accept, as it's part of the everyday life
Well, this post is not to rant about this, it's about avoiding facing challenges in your job and even outside your job
Only very few problems goes away by ignoring them; most prevails and even tend to grow bigger by not addressing the issue
Why do we tend not to address the clear and present challenges in front of us?
Because it's unpleasant - handling problems is exactly that, problems. They're not easy to handle, takes time and might put you in an unwanted and unpleasant situation; facing an angry customer, colleague, boss etc.
Other times problems are too big for us to overcome, we don't know where to start and maybe we don't even know what to do at all
Look at yourself from the outside...
A common way of dealing with fear of flying is to close the eyes and 'look' at the plane from the outside; imagining how the plane looks from the outside while flying typically instills a more calm perception and you're thinking less of how it feels sitting inside
Same goes for mad customers, colleagues, bosses... imagine it's not you, but your colleague and that you're just witnessing an encounter - you'll never take it hard and you will not think the encounter has any severe consequences for your colleague once it's over
Step outside and take an objective look at the situation - and you'll see it's not half as bad as you imagine
...and eat the elephant in small bites
I'm sure you know the answer to 'how to eat an elephant?'; 'In small bites, bite by bite' - granted, it takes time, but you'll begin and eventually you'll be done (and not very hungry ;-)
Larger problems / challenges and projects must be handled the same way - you don't do a global expansion strategy overnight and in one take; it is done step by step, starting in the small and slowly building the strategy up
Make a plan in very small steps, and make sure to check each step off once it's done - you'll not only feel great for accomplishing the steps, you'll get closer to your target
As always, it starts with you
Before anything, you need to realize that you're doing it, that you're postponing difficult tasks or challenges in the workplace - if not, you'll just continue to put your head in the bush and pretend the phone's not ringing
But the phone IS ringing. You'd better answer :-)