3 Facts About Life Problems We All Should Be Aware Of

The pursuit of a problem-free life is unrealistic, impractical, and ultimately, pointless.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels

“Don’t pray for an easy life. Pray for the strength to endure a difficult one.”
— Bruce Lee

Let me guess. You’re currently doing your best to deal with a series of problems. Now, how can I possibly know this? Well, that’s because I am too, and so is everyone else you know and love (Surprise, surprise).

But what if we didn’t have to? What if someone came along and offered us a magic pill — Matrix-style — to do away with all of life’s difficulties?

Just imagine all the trouble we’d be saying good-bye to: The gut-wrenching worries keeping us awake at night, the never-ending string of bills to pay, the boring jobs we endure to make ends meet, the mind-breaking decisions we can’t make, the stormy relationships we continuously end up landing into, and the stinky, noisy farts we barely manage to hold in during office meetings.

Sounds like heaven, am I right? I mean, who needs problems in life?

Well, I do. And, believe it or not, you do too. You just might not know that yet. And before you close that tab in disbelief, please allow me to elaborate my point in these three simple facts:

Shit happens, you know. Photo by Michael Jin on Unsplash

1: There is no such thing as a problem-free life — what we have instead is a call-to-action type of life.

“We are continually faced by great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems.”
— Lee Iacocca

You will encounter problems in your life regardless of your intelligence, academic degree, economic situation, social status, physical appearance, age, sexual orientation, marital status, or any other variant you can think of. They are inevitable. And no matter how hard you try, you will always find them sneaking into your life, one way or another.

But hey, here’s some good news: Problems are also necessary to life. They are the driving force dictating the course of your actions and decisions every single day. Every time you perceive there’s something wrong going on in your life, you start doing something to change it (or at least, you should).

For instance, whether you love or hate your job, you do it mainly because you need to make a living out of something. Your need for money is the problem and your main motivation to look for a job and do what you can to keep it. But then, what if you decide your job sucks? Well, you quit and then you look for another one.

Need more? What if you have serious relationship problems? You take action and talk to your partner about it. If that doesn’t work, you look for advice from your friends and family. You might even seek professional help if the problem continues. And if all else fails and you realize you can’t take it anymore; you end the relationship.

Not convinced yet? Well, what about the potential problems in life? Things like car accidents, property damage, unexpected medical complications, or identity theft. What do you do about those? Simple: You get insurance.

See? You take action before problems even show up, precisely because you know they’re somewhere around, lurking in the shadows, waiting to bite you in the ass the first chance they get.

As you can see, there are no problem-free jobs, problem-free relationships, or problem-free study plans. All aspects of life are bound to problems, all of which demand a call to action from you.

Problems encourage action. Action generates change. Change promotes growth. Growth brings wisdom. That’s the beauty of it, and the reason why the pursuit of a problem-free life is pointless and useless.

Think about it. You will rarely meet a wise, efficient, and balanced person with an easy past. Chances are, they have had to go through an unfathomable amount of crap that molded them into the person they are today.

You see, when you change your point of view, those annoying problems turn into opportunities for personal growth and self-improvement.

• That horrible job you left taught you a lesson on the type of environment you don’t want to be in, the kind of co-workers you don’t want to deal with, and the sort of work you don’t want to ever do again.
• That failed sentimental relationship taught you a lesson on the type of person you don’t want to get involved with, and, in the best-case scenario, you will have learned not to be that person yourself. Hopefully, you’ll also have learned from your own mistakes during the time you were together.
• And, of course, that little car crash of yours taught you the importance of having insurance.

Now, there’s no guarantee that all actions taken in the face of trouble will promote growth and wisdom. As humans, we are capable of messing up big time when dealing with our problems.

• Beating up your spouse, for instance, won’t solve the communication issues in your relationship,
• Ignoring your responsibilities won’t make a nasty work environment any better, and, of course,
• Deciding not to have insurance won’t magically eliminate the possibility of shit to happen.

It goes without saying that taking action requires good judgment and a healthy amount of common sense so you don’t sink even deeper in your own cesspool of problems.

So, the next time you decide to do something to deal with your problems, do yourself a favor and sit down for a while. Clear your thoughts, and consider the possible outcomes of whatever you plan to do, so that when it’s time to jump out of the frying pan, you don’t end up landing into the fire.

Photo by Olav Ahrens Røtne on Unsplash

2: Problem-solving is a neverending circle or upgrades and downgrades

“Your problems never cease. They just change.”
— Phil Jackson

You might remember the Law Of Conservation Of Mass-Energy from your school days. You know, the one that states that “Matter is neither created nor destroyed. It is only transformed.” Well, problems kind of work like that, too.

Our problems always have a way to be either upgraded or downgraded, but they never really go away. I’ll give you a quick example:

In my home country –the smallest in the continent–, most people can’t afford a car. Yeah, the economy is that bad. So I, being a regular citizen, spent a great deal of time traveling by bus before buying my first car.

Now, I remember my bus-riding days. They were horrible.

• Buses here are almost inevitably crowded way beyond passenger capacity. So much so, in fact, that you often see men literally hanging on metal rods installed outside.
• Most drivers are terribly reckless and they don’t care much about your safety, comfort, or destination (Note that I said ‘most drivers’; to be fair, some of them are responsible).
• There’s music of the worst kind playing at top volume all the time.
• Thieves and pick-pockets ride along with you all the time. I was robbed more times than I can even count.
• There are so many people packed inside buses here, that you need Houdini-like escapism skills just to work your way to the back door and get off.

Thought I was kidding? This is an actual photo of a typical bus ride in my home country.

In short: It was hell. That’s why I made the decision of buying a car. And by doing so, I said goodbye to all that bus-riding crap I endured for years. Yay! Problem solved, right?

Well… kind of.

Now that I have a car, I have to face the following difficulties:

• The constant expenditures associated with fuel replenishment, general vehicle maintenance (both preventive and corrective), monthly car insurance I always pay but never actually make use of, and the car loan I had to get in order to buy my second-hand sedan.
• Careless people who text and drive, and clueless pedestrians who text while crossing the street.
• The frustrating search for available parking spaces.
• The changing of flat tires in the most inconvenient circumstances, and
• The occasional, yet inevitable idiot who parks next to me and pops their door open hitting my car in the process without any hint of remorse, concern, or care in their face.

In short: It is hell. Through sheer experience, I learned that riding the bus sucks, but then again, so does driving.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’d rather go through this car-riding hell than go back to my bus-riding days. I solved my transportation problems by creating other transportation-related problems. The difference is, I prefer these new problems over the old ones.

Your solving of a problem invariably ends up creating another. You don’t get the chance to actually fix your problems, you merely change them for better ones. The trick is in taking the right course of action to upgrade your problems, not downgrade them.

Quick example: You don’t think you’re making enough money, so you ask your superiors for a raise. They say they cannot give it to you, but they grant you an opportunity to compete for a promotion that, should you win, will double your current salary.

So, you enter the competition, outperform your competitors, get promoted, and start earning twice as much as you were some days ago. Congratulations, your problem’s been solved.

Or has it?

Did you take a moment to consider the changes you’re about to go through? Do you feel ready to withstand the pressure of a higher position? Are you capable of taking on the new, more challenging responsibilities associated with your new job? Can you deal with the inherently-increasing accountability that is bestowed upon you when you move up your career path?

If the answer to those questions is yes, then you have successfully solved your problem by changing it for a new, more bearable one. If your answer is no, and you consider a higher salary is not worth the stress of your demanding new position, then you need to reconsider your options.

That is not to say, however, that you should never venture into the unknown. Never forget that change inevitably takes you out of your comfort zone and that you need some time to adapt to what is new. Keep that in mind.

3: The biggest problem you’ll ever face has no solution — and that’s actually a good thing.

“The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.”
— Mark Twain

Some years ago, I came down with Guillain-Barré Syndrome. True story.

Guillain-Barré syndrome is a rare condition in which your immune system goes berserk (usually because it’s trying to get rid of a virus) and ends up attacking the outer sheath of your nerves.

As a result, your limbs go numb, and you experience difficulty walking and coordinating the movements in your arms and legs.

But that’s not the end of it. If you don’t take action like, soon, this numbness devolves into progressive paralysis, starting from bottom to top. This, if left untreated, results in cardiac or respiratory arrest.

Simply put, you’ll be meeting your maker unless you go to a hospital and get the right treatment ASAFP. You know what that F stands for.

So that’s what I did. And let me tell you something: I hate hospitals. Being admitted to one with the possibility of not getting out alive was beyond terrifying to me.

To make matters worse, I could only afford a public hospital and, believe me: You do not want to be admitted to a public hospital in my home country.

They kept me in a ward with about 35 other men, some of whom died before my very eyes. And since I want you to continue reading rather than throw up, I’ll keep the rest of the details to myself.

Now, as anyone who’s ever been in an intensive-care unit can tell you, when your life’s in danger, and you can almost see the Grim Reaper strolling around doing his business, something interesting happens. All your worries become inconsequential as you face life’s ultimate problem: Death.

From the moment we’re born, we’re living in a constant state of death avoidance. Life is literally the game of staying alive. Thus, whether you realize it or not, most of your actions are oriented to avoiding death:

• You get up every morning to go to work, mainly because you need the money. You need the money to pay for food, shelter, health, and basic services; you know, all those things you and your family need to survive.
• Experts recommend eating healthily, doing exercise, and kicking bad habits such as smoking, in an effort to extend your lifespan as much as possible.
• You endure your job for about thirty years because you hope to retire peacefully someday so you don’t have to starve in your old age.

However, no matter how hard you try to avoid it, sooner or later, your time will come. This is something we’re all aware of (even as kids), but we don’t like to think about, even when remained of it.

We know we’re going to die, but we tend to downplay death as much as we can. We delude ourselves into believing our dying breath is so far into the future, that it’s not even worth considering. But as it turns out, however, we couldn’t be more mistaken.

I remember lying on that hospital bed wondering how on earth I had been unfortunate enough to come down with a condition so rare it only affects 1 out of 100,000 people a year.

At the same time I kept replaying in my head a couple of phrases two different people had nonchalantly told me during my first two days there:

“Oh, Guillain-Barré syndrome? Yeah, I have a cousin who had it. He’s in a wheelchair for life now,” and, “Guillain-Barré syndrome, huh? I met two people who got it. They died.” Those people at the hospital sure had a way with words.

Fortunately, my condition was painless. That gave me time to think and reflect on my own life. And for the first time, I was mindful of the fragility of it, and how all my problems had faded away, as Not-Dying had become my top priority.

I decided I still had a lot to offer. I had dreams that hadn’t yet come true. I had ambitions for a life of significance.

After realizing this, not only did I survive, but also I had a full recovery in record time, which is a rare occurrence. All because I had become truly aware of the inevitability of my own death; the problem I can’t possibly ever hope to solve.

At weddings, brides throw their flower bouquets up in the air at unmarried female attendees, in the belief that whoever catches it will be next to get married. Some other people traditionally play jokes on unmarried guests at the reception, telling them “You’re next.”

Now, what if we started doing the same thing at funerals?

What if you proposed taking a personal belonging from the deceased and randomly throw it up in the air at the attendees, in the belief that whoever catches it will be the next to kick the bucket? What if you suggested greeting each other at wakes by saying “You’re next”?

You’re next. Photo by Rodolpho Zanardo from Pexels

No one would take you seriously, of course. In fact, everyone would say your idea is tasteless and disrespectful to the deceased and their family, and that you’re a complete jerk for even thinking of it.

I, however, say that’s exactly what we should do.

If every time we attended funerals everyone reminded one another about their impending demise, we would all become truly aware that our time on Earth is limited. That, in turn, would make us reconsider our life choices, our present ambitions, and our future plans.

It’s this awareness of our own death that makes our lives worthwhile. It’s what makes us reflect on how we’re spending the precious little time we have.

It’s the knowledge that we’re ephemeral that makes us take action to right our wrongdoings. To make up for the time we’ve wasted. To seek a life of legacy and significance. A life worth living.

It is because we know we’re going to die one day, that we should make the most out of our remaining days. Death, our ultimate problem, ironically is also our greatest motivation in life. A life in which we need problems to grow and be happy.

It’s like a tennis game. You know it has a time limit, so you must take advantage of every minute you have if you want to win the game. Also, you want your game to be challenging, so you can feel good when you finally win.

A difficulty-free tennis match would be pointless and boring. When there’s no challenge, all you get is an empty victory. Likewise, you need obstacles to overcome to make your life meaningful. Those obstacles are your problems.

Have you ever noticed how a surprisingly high number of millionaires make life decisions that seem absolutely crazy to you? They become junkies, go to rehab, relapse, lose their shit in public, get married and divorced just a few days later, buy bananas that have been duct-taped to a wall for huge sums of money, and some even commit suicide.

In the meantime, the rest of us scratch our heads in confusion and disbelief, saying things like “Gee, if I had all that money, I sure would know better than that.”

Well, that’s because the rich don’t have the same mundane problems we do. They don’t have to worry about food, shelter, medicine, or retirement funds, simply because they have an overabundance of monetary means to deal with all that.

In other words, the wealthy have little to no challenge in their lives when it comes to their most basic physical needs. And just like the game of tennis, without a challenge, there is no reason to play.

That’s the reason why their first-world problems take an unexpected turn towards the side of existentialism. They don’t know what to do with so much money, and the more they spend it on their weird eccentricities, the emptier they feel inside.

Some other millionaires, on the other hand, are aware of life’s most basic problems, even though they don’t have to deal with said problems themselves.

These people know they have the responsibility to help those in need, and so they create altruistic foundations, become activists for actually-beneficial causes, start education and labor programs in developing countries, and donate a considerable amount of their money and time to charities.

These people have a reason to live while they enjoy their millionairehood: Helping the less fortunate with their problems. They have come to the realization that monetary power –like all power– when used correctly, can do a lot of good.

We might as well learn a thing or two from them.

Bottom line: A problem-free life would inevitably be a meaning-devoid life. So stop complaining about your problems and begin seeing them as what they are: Steps toward personal growth and self-improvement. Tools to give meaning to your existence and the limited time you have to be here.

So get up. Think of all the possibilities. Choose the right course of action. Solve your problems by changing them for better ones, and then look back in pride, saying to yourself: “It wasn’t easy, but I made it through.”