Are problems “bad”?

Some people believe that using words like problems, challenges, and obstacles is negative and pessimistic. Instead, we should use more upbeat options like projects and opportunities.

But what if all this concern about negativity overlooks the gifts hidden within our biggest challenges? The ways that problems shape our lives? How obstacles guide us to the success we crave?

If you believe that being successful means “having all the answers,” then anything that challenges that identity will feel like a threat. To protect your self-concept, you may tend to only focus on solving the same old familiar types of problems, over and over again.

But what if true success means being able to see new approaches for problems that you can’t already easily solve?

My take is that the most successful entrepreneurs and leaders embrace hard problems, using them as stepping stones to the goals they care about most. The bigger the problem, the bigger the reward for solving it.

“The mind adapts and converts to its own purposes the obstacle to our acting. The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.” Marcus Aurelius

As Ryan Holiday puts it: The Obstacle Is the Way.

What will you do today to start seeing problems as a gift instead of a burden?

Will you consider that your biggest challenges may be the path to achieving your most important goals?