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Problems Are a Part of Life. Here’s Why They’re Essential to Your Happiness
Having problems you want to solve is a valuable life tool
“Max, we need to talk about your grades,” my parents told my 13-year-old self. “You’re coasting.”
To me, my parents were making it out to be a bigger problem than it was. Lessons weren’t that difficult, nor were they that important to my overall education. I was doing okay and frankly comfortable coasting.
It felt like an avoidable and unnecessary problem.
Nevertheless, I worked hard enough to get them off my back, and eventually, the problem went away. To my surprise, more arose.
In the following years, I had appendicitis, my first essential exams, and my parents divorced. After each problem died, another took its place. And so the cycle continued.
I left my comfortable home life and went to university, only to feel lonely there—another problem. But, as I learned, that’s life.
Life is filled with problems. Sure there are ones you won’t like solving, but according to Mark Manson, the author of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck:
“True happiness occurs only when you find the problems you enjoy having and enjoy solving.”
