Root Cause

"When a decision is made to cope with the symptoms of a problem, it is generally assumed that the corrective measures will solve the problem itself. They seldom do." - Masanobu Fukuoka, The One Straw Revolution

How good is the root cause analysis in our own lives?

Root cause analysis is simply the process of investigation a situation, be it a failure or not, to determine the fundamental reason why the problem or situation exists in the the first place. It is asking "Why?" until one gets to the true cause of the issue; it is the examination of inputs into a situation to determine all that are possible and which among them has the highest probability of being the originating (or major originating) cause.

It's more difficult that it sounds, because part of root cause analysis is continuing to ask questions to get to the true cause of a situation, not just the cause that you think is creating the situation. This can often be difficult and abrasive, because we often cherish our own illusions about what causes things instead of the actual cause of things.

But are we willing to practice the same root cause analysis on ourselves?

The reality is that the situation is no different. Each of us in our lives has failures, bad behaviors, even entire life situations which we would like to change but have no idea where to begin. Quick fixes often provide no solution, only a bridging of our guilt until the next round of occurance. For example, a simple situation would be to examine why do I feel depressed right now:

"Why do I feel depressed right now? Because I feel trapped in my life and situation."

"Why do I feel trapped in my life and situation? Because I feel there are no options or ability for significant change."

"Why do I feel there are no options or ability for significant change? Because to change means significant changes to the structure of my life."

"Why do I feel that change means significant changes to the structure of my life? Because any change would mean a change in income and lifestyle, which I don't know I am able to handle."

"So, a change which would mean an insiginficant change in income and lifestyle would be okay? Yes."

"Then what is that change?"

And so it goes. This is a pretty brief one and fairly generalized, but the Logic Tree approach works well. Notice that we've already seemingly ascertained that the reason for feeling trapped is I feel no options due to lifestyle and income. My choices then would be to change lifestyle, change to a similar income status, or perform the exercise again to see if I can narrow things down further.

The question in all of this is if I have the mental tenacity to do it. Am I willing to discover the true root cause, even if it implicates my most cherished beliefs, or will I hide behind lesser causes that may make me feel better but will change nothing?