Challenges vs. Problems

I believe words have power.

Do you?

Words start and end marriages.

Words unite and divide populations.

Words start and end wars.

Carefully selected words can redirect insecurities, dissolve toxic narratives, and point everyone toward the light.

Carelessly selected words promote doubt, elevate despair, and perpetuate status quo.

But words we blurt at others aren’t the only ones with power.

It’s also the words we let echo in our own minds.

Are you facing an undesirable situation?

Is there an area where doom is looming?

Have heartache and dread been on repeat?

The natural tendency is to describe these as “problems.”

But that word, “problem,” is actually part of the problem.

See, words have baggage.

When we hear words we associate everything thereafter with previous feelings, experiences, and outcomes that are attached to the last times we used those same words.

It’s all thanks to the brain function known as associative memory.

“Problem,” is a word reserved for friction, loss, harm, and stuck.

When you describe your undesirable situation to yourself and others as a problem, you call those negative emotions to surface by default, because nobody likes problems.

Can I offer you a really simple life hack that my friend Dave taught me?

Choose to identify your problems as “challenges.”

Challenges, unlike problems, are associated with adventure, learning, competing, and winning at life.

Everyone likes a healthy challenge.

And we all secretly know that we get better through challenges.

So when you wrap your situation with the emotions of challenge, it is far easier to act, communicate, and lead with hope.

You aren’t bogged down with problems.

You are alive and triumphing over challenges.

You will overcome them.

You will grow with every step forward, and you will have a joy about you while you conquer whatever game is being played.

And the stories you tell yourself along the way will make all the difference in your energy, confidence, and speed.

Go conquer challenges, my friend.

It’s more fun this way.

Cheers,

BW

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