Problems. Everyone I have ever met has one or more of them…
Have you ever noticed the quality and content of your problems? If you wrote down a list of problems that you have, or have had recently, would any patterns start to show up?
Some of the problems I have had recently:
1. Getting organized and taking small actions toward my goals.
2. Getting overly wrapped up in my perceptions about what other people might think about me.
3. Holding back how I really feel in order to fit in to what I think other people might want from me.
4. Thinking far too much about the women in my life and what they think of me.
5. Not relaxing and receiving massage.
6. Not playing music and flexing my beautiful and sexy creativity muscles.
7. Not having multiple enjoyable streams of income to satisfy my needs and desires.
This short sampling displays a pattern. The pattern shows that I do not express myself fully and creatively enough. It shows that I spend more time listening to my ideas about “other people” than I do working on projects that I enjoy working on.
This pattern extends itself into the actual productive, creative work as well. When I sit down to create, I notice a psychic censor in my mind that compares all of my creative ideas to that of famous virtuoso artists, and then finds my work lacking. Of course, the grounds for actual comparison are themselves erroneous, but on the screen of my mind, the ideas seem real enough.
At any moment, these problems could find themselves overwhelmed by a parade of angry soldiers marching through the streets, a giant earthquake, or any of a vast array of possible large-scale problems.
Of course, at any other moment, I could wake up from the nightmare of all of these fake problems, and begin creating the works that I wish to create, and tell the psychic censor to go fuck itself in some dark corner of my brain. Then, my problems become how to enjoy more of my time, how to find the right supplies for what I want to produce, how to sustain my life and enjoy myself at the same time, and other such enjoyable challenges.
When I go rock climbing, my fake problems take a back seat to challenges involving knots in the rope, a lack of nice holds in the rock, climbing a bit above my difficulty level, and paying close enough attention to keep myself alive.
Looking at how you frame your problems can provide much insight into how you have arranged your life, and how your mind works at the moment. Examining problems in this way can also reveal just how many of the problems exist simply to keep you from taking creative responsibility for your life.
In one of the many books of the talks of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, I recall one where Osho asserts that yes, he can take away the problems of those who come to him, but that they would hate him for doing so, because they would be left without a personality.
The problems I now seek are the problems of adventure, dealing with storms at sea in my yacht, dealing with rope and gear while climbing huge mountains, dealing with turning losses into gains. I seek the problems of a billionaire, how to make subtle shifts in my businesses in order to create the most value, enjoyment, and freedom.
Finally, I seek the problems of a person with no limitations, with having to creatively define every moment of my life, and to respond with joy to all that comes my way.
Enjoy your problems, and thank them for giving you priceless information about how you organize your mind and your approach to living life.
Another way to approach problems is to drop them into the following philosophical meaning grinder:
There Are No Problems, Only Experiences.
Of course, that path may present more problems than the path of problems, eh? What would you create with a life free of problems?
In the spirit of finding better problems than the ones that currently plague my stream of experience, I leave you with a segment from a talk by Osho. Bear with him through the thick accent, and notice how your mind gets a chance to breathe during the long pauses. Here, he talks about the problems of Gawd and Evolution:
“God is not a solution, but a problem.”
If you enjoyed that little snippet, you can read it in context, along with much more in:
One final thought, from the words of an old professor of mine, Timothy Gianotti, when asked what wisdom he would leave with us, his former students:
“Learn to love your miseries.”
I’ll leave that one for all of you to puzzle out on your own. I hope that isn’t too much of a problem for you.
Love, Wildness, Chaos, Joy, and Problems,
-GTD
