Personal development theories and advices:

A young priest asked his bishop, “May I smoke while praying?” The answer was an emphatic “No!”

Later, when he sees an older priest puffing on a cigarette while praying, the younger priest scolded him, “You shouldn’t be smoking while praying! I asked the bishop, and he said I couldn’t do it!”

“That’s odd,” the old priest replied. “I asked the bishop if I could pray while I’m smoking, and he told me that it was okay to pray at any time!”

http://litemind.com/framing/

 Einstein is quoted as having said that if he had one hour to save the world he would spend fifty-five minutes defining the problem and only five minutes finding the solution.

http://litemind.com/problem-definition/

And even more of Einstein:

Albert Einstein stated that “problems cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them.” Einstein, of course, was right. Sometimes our problems require more than life hacks, tips, tweaks, etc. Sometimes our lives don’t need optimization, they need to be fundamentally reconfigured.

http://zenhabits.net/2008/07/8-great-anti-hacks-to-fundamentally-change-your-life/

The way you define a problem is often the key to solving it. Take a current problem from your life that you’re having difficulty solving. Then ask yourself: How can this problem be redefined as a financial problem? A health problem? A time management problem? A human resource or staffing problem? A technology problem? A prioritization problem? A communication problem? An education problem?

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/03/changing-perspectives/

And the how-to style article:

As a person is growing, that person has a certain way of looking at what happens before his or her eyes. Once you’ve seen life from a different point of view, you gain a very wide knowledge of your world. Try and see the world from a new perspective! It’ll be worth it.

http://www.wikihow.com/Gain-a-New-Perspective