How do you handle problems?

I'll be the first to admit that there are times I don't handle problems very well.  I may fly-off-the-handle and cuss, but then there are times when I remain calm.

I'm working on increasing the times I'm the latter vs. the former.

Last year was a testament to how I was able to handle problems.  It all started in January with our catastrophic financial events.  We worked through them but not without a lot of blood, sweat, and tears--we worked our butts off!  Then, in April, when my wife was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia and spent the bulk of the remaining year in Rochester, MN, at the Mayo Clinic, I have to admit: being a single father (temporarily) really stunk.  2012 so far is turning out to be on the right track, but it still has it's valleys between the hills.  We still have financial problems (debt, in other words) but have a plan to eliminate them for good.  It's still a long road, and are sure some of the mega-banks are going to try mess with it, but with the tools my wife and I have learned through Dave Ramsey we're going to survive.

Then, when my laptop took a dump last week, I came close to flying off the handle again . . . but remained calm and came up with a plan to alleviate the problem, even temporarily.  And what really stunk is that I have an ebook coming out (for details, go to my Mr. Shoestring blog and click on the "ebook" tab) very, very soon and I'm hoping this doesn't delay it.

How do you handle problems?