Problems are inevitable. They come and they go… or do they? Every once in a while we run into a problem that doesn’t seem to want to disappear. It sticks around longer than expected, and then manifests itself over and over again in a dozen different ways.
But a problem is what you make it and a certain point, we turn our problems into bigger issues than they really are. And the longer it continues on, the worse it can become. It can go on endlessly for years, if you let it.
“The universe sends you a problem and it stays there until you get the spiritual lesson.” – Tony Robbins
We often think that our problems are contrived and controlled by outside forces, when in reality, all it would take to resolve our issues is a small shift in our own thinking. For example, if you end up with the wrong partner over and over again, there comes a point where you have to re-evaluate how you select your partner, that is, your “picking” mechanism or criteria. Or maybe think deeply about why you choose and/or attract the people that you do.
There is a lesson there that you’ve yet to learn,and it will keep appearing in your life until you do. It’s easy to say everybody you date is “crazy,” but it’s far easier to look at what others are doing wrong. The more difficult task is to examine yourself and reflect on why you keep making poor decisions but are still expecting different results.
You can look at a problem in one of two ways: as an obstacle for you to overcome and learn from, or an as an issue caused by an outside force you cannot control — in which case, it will never die. If you tend to look at your problems the former way, here’s how you can get past it:
1. Look at the bigger picture — do you recognize any clear patterns? Interrupting old patterns that don’t serve you is the quickest way to get better results. That means taking a deeper look at yourself and why you do the things you do.
2. Change something — if you keep doing the same thing, you’ll keep getting the same results. Decide what 2 millimeter shift you need to make in order to change the outcome once and for all.
How you choose to view a problem will directly influence how you deal with it. If you are able to search for the gift within that problem by looking within, you can use the problem to grow instead of being defeated by it. Sometimes our only problem is how we’re looking at the problem itself.
