Why may we be trying to fix the wrong problems?

To succeed in self-development, just like anything else, one should focus on the right problems. 

This may seem obvious, but as science shows, we often fall victim to our misguided intuition.
A common phenomenon referred to as the Streetlight Effect has been widely documented to have an undesired impact on scientific research, medical treatments, environmental assessments, and many more.
What’s important to understand for our purpose here is that humans are inherently fooled by their intuition.
We tend to look where information is most abundant and convenient rather than where it matters.
To show you what I mean. Let’s say someone is trying to reach a goal, whether losing weight, quitting smoking, or making more money. They struggle to maintain their new habit. The harder they try, the more frustrating and difficult the task becomes, causing them to burn out and drop the attempt altogether eventually.
They may feel that lack of motivation was the cause of their failure, but the problem was their approach and the unrealistic expectations they’d held onto from the beginning.
While they battled to stay motivated, no attention was paid to the scale of their expectations, only focusing on the result.

Identifying the right problem often simplifies the issue, allowing for a more structured and attainable solution. This is critical as we only possess a limited focus span at any given time before a good habit starts to feel not so good. 

I draw your attention to this phenomenon because simply being aware of its existence helps us to identify and avoid it.
Observing when it takes place (we’re trying to fix the wrong problem) eventually sparks that “Aha!” moment when we realize it’s happening to us, and we can correct our actions accordingly.

The tools to identify the right problems lie within each of us and are accessed through self-observation.