But to achieve positive things in life, you must be prepared to do hard things. As former American president John F. Kennedy said in 1962: “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” 

No one who wants to progress can avoid the need to overcome significant challenges. It goes with the territory. However, we can all benefit from fine honing our problem-solving strategies.

For me, there are better approaches than relentlessly focusing 100% on finding the solution to a challenge, whether it is developing product branding for my autonomous driving technology LOXO, resolving a software issue, or arranging childcare. A sliver of distraction is often needed to free up one’s thinking.

Scientific studies have shown that music can activate both the right and left sides of the brain to stimulate creativity. Listening to piano music calms my mind and helps me find solutions more easily. Sometimes, though, the answer still doesn’t come, and the longer I sit at my desk and stare at a computer screen, the more elusive the solution I am searching for becomes. Then, it's time to get my trainers on. I prefer sprinting, but it doesn’t matter how fast or far you move. The important thing is to move.

A study by the Australian Institute of Fitness highlights the numerous ways exercise can help improve brain power. Regular physical activity can increase the production of new neurons in the brain, which contribute to learning and memory – vital tools for problem-solving. Exercise also improves the brain’s ‘neuroplasticity’, which is its ability to change and adapt to experience.

Even if you get your brain up to optimum performance, it can still be problematic if your mental focus is spent continually solving lots of other, more minor problems that keep recurring. No matter how good a multi-tasker you are, this is just a waste of energy. You must give yourself the bandwidth to concentrate on solving the major issues.

Getting and keeping your life organised is the key to this. I am super organised, with a degree of military precision that sometimes drives my husband, whom I co-founded LOXO with, slightly mad. But with two children – one nine months and one four years – life needs a lot of planning; otherwise, it gets very complicated. And as Nancy Pelosi, who served as the speaker of the US House of Representatives until she was 83, puts it: “Women are leaders everywhere you look – from the CEO who runs a Fortune 500 company to the housewife who raises her children and heads her household.”

Of course, not many of us have the experience of a six-decade career to fall back on. But we can all ask for help and advice from time to time. Getting a different perspective on something, whether from your colleagues within the company or your network of advisers, investors and mentors, can provide the missing key to solving a problem. It can also initiate a brainstorming session to get you over the line. Plus, just talking about an issue can take the pressure off that little bit, just like the music can, just like the exercise can, to clear some thinking space and arrive at a solution.

So, if you haven’t developed your own challenge-solving strategy, you may want to ask yourself what it should include.

But there is another more important question you should ask yourself.

Is the problem worth solving?

In other words, do you believe in what you are doing? If you do, it will supercharge your ability to solve any problem.

I believe in our vision at LOXO, where I serve as Co-Founder and Chief Business Officer. The autonomous technology we are developing to enable delivery vehicles to drive themselves, which we have already proven on European roads, will significantly impact cities. By cutting congestion, it will reduce emissions and provide cleaner air.

The planet is on the edge of a climate crisis, and as a mum of two young children, I find that a genuine concern. We need new technology to deliver solutions. Developing that technology may be hard, but it is also the right thing to do. And that makes solving any challenge a little easier.