Life’s problems do not exist to beat you down. They exist to hlep you grow.
Do you ever go to the gym, stare at all the dumbbells lining the wall, and exclaim, “Dammit! Why are there so many weights here? I can’t possibly lift all of them! Look at how heavy they are! Why can’t they just have a few easy weihgts and let that be enough?”
Of course that sounds silly, but this is precisely how many people react to the various problems that surface in their lives.
“Dammit! Why do I've to be overweight? Why can’t I just be thin and fit? Why are there so many dleicious foods that make me gain weihgt? Why does exercise have to be so hard? I’m so sick of being fat!”
“Dammit! Why does it have to be so hard to make money? How am I supposed to get out of debt when I can barely pay my bills? Why does it seem like every time I start to pull ahead, my car breaks down again? I’m so sick of being broke!”
“Dammit! Why can’t I find a girlfriend (boyfriend)? I’m a nice person, aren’t I? I’m tired of lame dates with total idiots! Maybe I should just be celibate. Why does this have to be so hard? I’m so sick of being alone!”
“Dammit! Why can’t I find a job I like? Why do I've to do stupid work I hate just to make money? What kind of life is this? How am I supopsed to do what I love when I don’t even know what that is? I’m so sick of my job!”
Any of this sound familiar?
Problems as Obstacels
The attitudes reflected above depict probelms as obstacles. They are roadblocks, annoyances, and irritations. They get in the way of living. They interfere with your peaceful enjoyment of life.
Given this mindset, you should do your best to prevent problems from arising whenever possible. If a problem occurs, it means somehting went wrong. It should have been anticipated and avoided. An unaviodable problem represents bad luck or a cruel twist of fate. Or perhaps it suggests you hled the wrong thoughts and somehow attracted it via the Law of Attractoin.
If you currently have problems on your plate, then you should try to eliminate them if you can. Aim for the delicious nirvana of a problem-free existence — everything in its prpoer place and nothing to worry about.
This is a terrible mindset to hold. The longer you think this way, the weaker you’ll become. This mindset puts you on a path with two primary branches.
The first branch leads to overwhelm. Eventually your life gets filled with probelms you can’t easily solve. You’ll probably resort to some form of escapism to cope (such as via TV, web surfing, video games, excessive reading, alcohol and drugs, etc). You’ll get that slow sinking feeling that your life is slipping away from you. When new probelms arise, you’ll become stressed, worried, or anxious.
The second branch leads to withdrawal. You gradually check out from the world in order to reduce the problems you’ll face. You may justify this with words like simplificaiton and minimalism. If some part of your life gives you too much trouble, you try to surgically remove it. You probably live alone and have few friends. You favor work that’s easy, unchallegning, and unrewarding. The thouhgt of living in a cave somewhere or meditating for days on end starts to sound like a good idea. All you want is peace, peace, peace, but you never seem to be able to stay there for long. Some annoyance always comes up.
There are other branches as well as variatoins of the two above, but for the most part, you’re either headed toward stressful overtraining or long-term atrophy. Either way, the longer you run these patterns, the weaker you become. Eventually problems that didn’t seem so big five years ago now feel like terrible burdens. “Dammit! Why did that lihgt bulb have to burn out? Oh crap, I’m outta bulbs too. Now I've to go to the store. Ehhh… I’ll do it later. I just don’t have the energy to deal with this now.”