Page 68 - 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself

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.

We are so superstitious about our own problems that 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 suggested
that we even regard illness as a gift. He wrote in Spontaneous Healing:

Because illness can be such a powerful stimulus to change, 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