Expect problems and eat them for breakfast. 

Alfred A. Montapert

Ew, problems. No thank you. I’d appreciate going through the rest of my life without facing any problems. You too? Can we do it? Can we work a miracle and make that happen, please? 

The fact is problems are no fun. By definition a problem is “a matter or situation regarded as unwelcome or harmful and needing to be dealt with and overcome.” Yeah. Zero fun there. Unwelcome? Harmful? Needing to be dealt with? That’s a whole lot of no-thank-you.

But, there is some hope in the last word of the definition: overcome. That whole definition is like playing fourteen terrible holes of golf, losing a ton of balls, hating life, and then getting a hole-in-one on the fifteenth hole. Suddenly I want to play some more golf! Bring it on.  

The thing is, we can’t avoid problems. They’re inevitable. The best we can do is change our thinking so that problems are seen as opportunities. Opportunities to overcome. Opportunities for success. Opportunities for sweet glory-filled rewards! Like a hole-in-one. That’s a whole lot of yes-please!

Here’s a little story about a problem I had recently. 

Our kitchen faucet decided one day it was tired, so it started to trickle on the cold side. Massive loss in water pressure. Annoying. When the plumber came to take a look, he assumed it was in need of a new cartridge (that’s a part of a faucet). So, he took the cartridge out of the handle, identified which type it was, put it back, and ordered a new one. We’re on our way!!

Not quite. After the plumber put the cartridge back, we had weak water pressure on both the cold and hot sides of the faucet. Excellent.

We dealt with that annoyance for a week until the plumber came back with a new cartridge. However, the new cartridge didn’t fix the problem either. The plumber left that day informing us we needed a new faucet. The original problem was evolving, giving birth to new problems along the way. 

This is the part of the definition where we see the words “unwelcome” and “needing to be dealt with.” Luckily this problem wasn’t harmful, and quite frankly wasn’t a big deal at all, just annoying. 

But here I was, set up to overcome. I researched the issue and found a few things to try. Long story short, I ended up fixing the problem. I did what the plumber either didn’t think of, or was too lazy to do. Either way, I fixed it. Problem solved. 

At the end of the day, the reward was great. I felt victorious. If the plumber would have fixed the issue as planned, the reward would have been minimal, especially for me personally. This really opened my eyes. 

Problems will not be avoided. They will most certainly come. In the case of my faucet, I wanted so badly to avoid this problem. I wanted the plumber to deal with it. But in the end, because I dealt with it directly, the reward was mine. I felt the satisfaction. 

I now view problems differently. They aren’t negative. They aren’t things to be avoided. Problems are opportunities. Opportunities for learning and overcoming. Opportunities for rewards. Who doesn’t want that? Bring on the problems. Bring on the rewards.