What to do in an Impossible Situation

There are times in your work life and beyond that you will find yourself in a seemingly impossible situation.  You are handed a poorly conceived problem to solve with too few resources and time.  Things don't make sense, pressure is high and you are letting it eat at you.  Your work satisfaction plummets, your sleep and relationships suffer, you begin to question your very existential worth and/or start looking for the exits.  Sound familiar?  If so, then you have three choices when coming up against an impossible situation.

1.  Internalize it.  This is what you are probably already doing.  You fail to realize the situation is impossible and so you think you are the problem.  If only you were smarter/faster/taller/better looking you could solve the problem.  So you beat yourself up, internalize the insanity and start looking around for a savior--someone better who could fly in to save the day.  Stop it.  You are the right person for this situation. Why do I know this? Because you are t…