Go Seek Out Problems
I subscribe to a daily email from TUT.com. Each Monday through Friday, I get emails from the “universe”; daily reminders that there is a higher power than our almighty egos.
Yesterday’s was particularly interesting:
“From here, of course, all earthly problems appear small – really small. That’s because we know they’re fleeting, they prepare you for the “best of your life,” and you chose them, not wanting to obtain their rewards in any other way. But from where you are, of course, they can look gigantic. That’s because they’re often seen as permanent, limiting, and imposed upon you by chance, fate, or circumstances.”
The first time I read it I thought, “What the he#% is that about?” Then I read it about four more times. And it finally sunk in.
What if we took on viewing our problems as “gateways” to rewards, opportunities and possibilities? What if we put down the interpretation that “problems are wrong, bad and a pain in the butt”? What would open up inside that perspective?
I wasn’t quite sure at first. Because my relationship to problems was exactly that described above. What a pain they are. How frustrating they are. How come I’ve got to suffer through these problems? And, Heaven knows, I love to be a victim of my circumstances.
Now, if I’m going to make a major shift in my perspective like this one, I had better be given some proof that it works. So I began to look and here’s what I found:
When I moved to Michigan three years ago, I opened a small business consulting company. I had some early success and then it was completely downhill from there. By month 14, I had almost no clients, $80,000 invested in the business and a Fred Flintstone sized bat I was using to beat myself up for this business failure. This was the biggest problem I had faced yet in my life.
Then I met a coach who introduced me to a training program. I scraped up enough cash to pay for the first month of the year-long training program and headed off to NYC.
That was 19 months ago. Since reeling in that problem called “business failure”, I’ve invested a ton into my skills, my being, my heart and my business. I now have a very successful coaching practice and more opportunity than I can handle.
This was the reward on the backside of my problem.
That problem had a lot to teach me and every problem I now encounter has a lot to teach me. So now I listen. I no longer resist the problems. Sure, they’re frustrating, but what’s so encouraging is that I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that on the other side of the problem is a reward, an opportunity and huge possibility.
So what is your relationship with your problems? What is possible for you in shifting your relationship from resistance to receptivity? What would change in your business relationships if you were to approach every “problem” not as a “pain in the a$$” but as an opportunity to learn and be rewarded?
Try it for one week. You might just find you like them.
Happy Mess-Making,
- Coach Preston
PS – If you haven’t yet checked it out, I highly recommend visiting http://www.tut.com/. You can sign up for their daily “emails from the Universe”.
