Problems Are Not Your Problem

By Mark Victor Hansen

You see, problems are going to come and go. Your life is not going to be perfect every day. Even if you have the most positive mindset, problems are going to present themselves. That’s a fact. You can’t change it.

What I want you to understand is that PROBLEMS ARE NOT THE PROBLEM. They are just situations that are presented to you. You have two choices when presented with problems: You can see them as destructive, spirit-breaking potholes in the road of life; or you can see them as constructive, mind-expanding opportunities to problem solve and move forward to success. It’s that simple.

Remember: Encountering difficulties is part of life. Count yourself lucky as you’ve been “chosen” to seek out and learn a valuable lesson! The only people who don’t have problems are dead people.

“Claim and believe hard tasks are easy and they will become easier and be accomplished more quickly.”

THIS WEEK’S ACTION STEP
In closing this week, I’d like to offer an exercise to complete in the week ahead:

I want you to look at your life. What do you consider to be problems? What are the problems that you worry about on a daily basis? Take out a journal or notebook and a pen. Sit down and close your eyes. Write them all down. Remember, we’re talking about the present, not the future – that will come soon enough.
Is money an issue? Your physical appearance? Your health? Fear of failure? What is it that you worry about?

Now, look at the problems you have written down. These are the things that you have allowed to have power over you. They have pulled the wool over your eyes and led you to believe that this is where you have to stop thinking – these problems are the end. Instead, start thinking “These problems are just the beginning to new discovery!”

When you were given math homework in school, the teacher didn’t say, “Okay, kids. Take these problems home and worry about them, and tomorrow I’ll give you more problems to worry about.” The teacher said, “Here are the problems. They have answers. Solve them.”

That’s what I want you to do. I want you to take your list and write one problem at the top of a sheet of paper. (Do this for all of them.) Then under each problem write another header: “Solutions”. Now, here’s where the fun starts – yes, it’s going to be fun. I want you to “think outside the glass” and come up with new, creative, crazy solutions to each problem. I don’t care how impossible you believe your solutions are, write them down. Crazy solutions are genius in disguise.

Write 20 solutions for each problem. Afterwards, break each solution down into action steps. Once you’ve done that, I want you to decide which solution you are capable of doing right now, at this very minute. Then do it. Do each action step until you have completed that solution. If your problem is still there, try another solution. Keep going until you have discovered the one that works.

Remember Thomas Edison. Once he was asked what he had to say about the fact that he had failed thousands of times while trying to create the light bulb. Edison said he had never failed, he simply “had to run through enough learning experiences to find a way that worked.”