Enjoy all your problems

Enjoy all your problems

Every solution has a problem.

You can't have one without the other. So why do we say that we hate
problems? Why do we claim to want a hassle-free existence? When
someone is emotionally sick, why do we say, "He's got problems"?

Deep down, where our wisdom lives, we know that problems are good
for us. When my daughter's teacher talks to me during open house and
tells me that my daughter is going to be "working more problems" in
math than she worked last year, I think that's wonderful. Why do I think
it's wonderful when my daughter gets more problems to solve, if I think
problems are a problem?

Because somehow we know that problems are good for our children. By
solving problems, our kids will become more self-sufficient. They'll trust
their own minds more. They'll see themselves as problem-solvers.
Because we ourselves are so superstitious about our own problems, we
tend to run from them rather than solve them. We have demonized
problems to such a degree that they are like monsters that live under the
bed. And by not solving them during the day, we tremble over them at
night.

When people took their problems to the legendary insurance giant W.
Clement Stone, he used to shout out, "You've got a problem? That's
great!" It's a wonder he wasn't shot by someone, given our culture's
deep superstition about problems.

But problems are not to be feared. Problems are not curses. Problems
are simply tough games for the athletes of the mind and true athletes
always long to get a game going.

In The Road Less Traveled, one of M. Scott Peck's central themes is
that "problems call forth our wisdom and our courage."

One of the best ways to approach a problem is in a spirit of play, the
same way you approach a chess game or a challenge to play one-on-one
playground basketball. One of my favorite ways to play with a problem,
especially one that seems hopeless, is to ask myself, "what is a funny
way to solve this problem? What would be a hilarious solution?" That
question never fails to open up fresh new avenues of thought.

"Every problem in your life," said Richard Bach, author of Illusions,
"carries a gift inside it." He is right. But we have to be thinking that way
first, or the gift will never appear.

In his groundbreaking studies of natural healing, Dr. Andrew Weil
suggests that we even regard illness as a gift. "Because illness can be
such a powerful stimulus to change," he writes in Spontaneous Healing,
"perhaps it is the only thing that can force some people to resolve their
deepest conflicts. Successful patients often come to regard it as the
greatest opportunity they ever had for personal growth and
development—truly a gift. Seeing illness as a misfortune, especially one
that is undeserved, may obstruct the healing system. Coming to

see the illness as a gift that allows you to grow may unlock it."
If you see your problems as curses, the motivation you're looking for in
life will be hard to find. If you learn to love the opportunities your
problems present, then your motivational energy will rise.

I'm reading: Enjoy all your problems