Taking Problems Seriously

Think of a problem hampering your daily existence. Think of something inhibiting you or a loved one from living a full and abundant life.

Maybe it’s physical: knee pain or diabetes.
Maybe it’s financial: unhealthy spending habits or debt.
Maybe it’s psychological: depression or anxiety.

These are all serious and sometimes debilitating “problems”.

Now what?

Taking them seriously means respecting their complexity and outsourcing the solution to a professional, an expert, someone with letters behind their name.

But what if taking them seriously meant boiling them down to smaller problems? I don’t mean disregarding their complexity or severity; I mean honoring their complexity and severity by taking them so seriously that we are willing to do the hard work of understanding ourselves.

Instead of becoming a patient, we become more curious, more interested.

Instead of becoming a bystander, we become engaged, invested.

Instead of becoming detached, we become more empathetic.

Taking our and others' complex problems seriously means we take ourselves seriously enough to become a student.