Challenges and the way we overcome them are the building blocks of a person's mental and physical strength, his store of knowledge, his emotional maturity and depth of feeling. In the same way that we cannot hope to build muscle from inactivity, we cannot raise a strong and responsible adult by shielding him from pain and hard work.
Problems also exist to humble us before the great scheme of Nature and the Universe. Man is inherently self-indulgent as it is; imagine how arrogant and complacent we would become if things went our way all the time? We would lose all respect for life and for the world. We would stop deriving pleasure and joy from previously pleasurable and joyful things. Life would lose its meaning.
a person's personal strength can be assessed by the way he handles problems or challenges. Is he inspired by what he can learn from them and how he can solve them? Or is he intimidated by them?
How can one be "inspired" by problems, you may ask. Well, it's a matter of perspective - start feeling "problems" as "opportunities". If you take problems as challenges that make you stronger each time you surmount one, then the more problem you experience, the stronger you become. Thus problems are really opportunities to make you a stronger, better person. With each triumph comes increased resilience, which makes future problems less and less stressful. So really you are building your capacity for greater peace of mind.
Problems also force us to use our minds in different ways; they stimulate creative thinking, and widen our field of knowledge. In order to solve problems, we learn to draw quickly from our mental resources. So problems make our mind sharp and nimble. Adversity is really a teacher, but only if you allow yourself to learn from it.
Now when we think about problems this way, they cease to be so frightening. Problems help us gain new wisdom, keep our mental faculties fit, and prepare us to more easily tackle other problems in the future. Problems are thus really opportunities to improve ourselves and our lives; in other words, problems encourage our personal growth.
And one of the best things about problems is that the more of them you encounter, the more adept you become at solving them. You can then live your life confidently and fearlessly, knowing that the next time a similar "problem" comes around, you can very quickly and easily solve it without getting stressed out about it.
Eugine Loh, 938Live, MediaCorp Pte Ltd
