Often the problems we encounter in life are actually more a question of perspective.

One of my favourite quotes comes from an old Chinese proverb:

“If your problem has a solution, then why worry about it? If your problem doesn’t have a solution then why worry about it?”

In fact I have read about various sources of this quote or similar, some saying it is actually a Swedish proverb, a similar quote attributed to the Dalai Lama and something similar from Stoicism: “If there’s no solution there’s no problem” which puts it nice and simply.

The point of all of this comes down to a few key principles that I keep coming back to in various guises (Mindfulness, Zen, Taoism, Wu-Wei…) and that is that our actions define us more than what is inside our head (and the latter can actually cause us quite a lot of problems, stress and misery if we allow it via our neurotic ego) and that we should not waste time worrying about things that we cannot do anything about (Cicero’s 2nd mistake). This coincidentally also often means staying in the present moment and dealing with reality as it actually is.

Once we do that, we will then find we have 3 choices…

Our 3 Choices When Faced With Problems

In fact we only really have 3 choices when faced with any given challenge:

1. Address: You can try to solve the problem.
2. Adapt: You can adapt yourself, your goals, or your mindset.
3. Accept: You can just accept it and move on.

Adapting may mean there isn’t actually much of a problem there at all. Maybe the problem was really you and your way of looking at something. Once you change your mindset or view of that particular situation, the problem might even vanish.

Accepting means accepting that the world just isn’t always the way you want it to be. Sometimes bad things happen, sometimes life can be unfair, sometimes it may feel like the world is against us. At times like these the correct judgement call may be to actually accept the situation and move on rather than fighting it.

That’s it, there are no other choices. The important thing to realise is that it’s not always #1. Some people go through life trying to ‘fix’ everything. Do this and sooner or later you are going to come across a problem where this approach is unwelcome, unnecessary or unmanageable.

The great Carl Gustav Jung once said “The greatest and most important problems of life are all fundamentally insoluble. They can never be solved but only outgrown.”

Accepting our struggles isn’t always easy but it often can be the best way to deal with certain problems.

Final Thought: Make The Right Choice

So now you know the only three choices you have when faced with problems, it is just a case of making the right choice.

You don’t need to find a solution to every challenge you face. Sometimes, you need to be adaptable and some other times, you just need to accept the situation as it is.

i.e. You don’t need to solve every problem: Sometimes, you can outgrow or just accept them.