Reframing problems as opportunities: The path to becoming even more badass
Hello and happy Monday! Congrats to whichever team won the Super Bowl last night (I’m writing this beforehand). I hope it was the Chiefs because that’s who my daughter and I will be cheering for, but I won’t mind if it was the 49ers since they haven’t won one in three decades! But the real winner is my stomach because it’s the only time of year I make a seven layer dip. Yum. I’ve held a golf club maybe once since a family wedding 15 years ago, but this weekend I went to Top Golf with the family and had a great time. If you haven’t been, imagine a driving range combined with a bowling alley; it’s got analytics for all your shots, golf games, and bar food. We’ll definitely be placing it in the rotation of “things to do” around town. The environment was relaxed, everyone had a ton of fun, and the two hours really flew by! We were hitting balls right up to the last second and no one was ready to leave. I’ve been pleasantly surprised to see my Garmin-reported Hill Score move up by two points (34 to 36) thanks to all my hill running! I’ve gone hill running five times since the beginning of the year, focusing on being consistent and getting quicker. The overall outcome I’m looking for is increased VO2Max, which is hard to move. The Hill Score is a nice little mini-milestone along the way! If you’ve seen any progress on your own habits and outcomes this year, I’d love to hear about them! Reply back to heykev@kevinnoble.xyz and let me know how it’s going. Kevin A QuoteThree Things1 - 🌴 Newly Discovered Fossilized Tree - It’s cool that we’re still discovering fossilized species! This new tree, Sanfordiacaulis densifolia, was discovered in Canada and sheds light on “Romer’s Gap,” a 15 million year dead zone in the fossil record. The discovered tree has been described as “an upside down toilet brush” or as something from a Dr. Seuss book - it’s certainly a unique shape! 2 - 👨👩👧👦 Podcast on Parenting, Engaging with Others, and Regulating Emotions - Being a good leader is about becoming a good human. While a lot of this podcast is directly related to engaging with kids, it also naturally weaves into the related topics of engaging with adults and how to navigate your own emotions. 3 - 📚 Robert Greene’s “The 48 Laws of Power” - This was the final book I read in 2023 and I’ve found myself referencing it quite a bit in the months since. As someone who didn’t understand power, or the related aspects of politics at work, this book has been an eye-opener into the dynamics of interpersonal relationships. It’s well-structured, well-researched, and has copious anecdotes to support the principles. Deeper Dive on Your Mindset Toward ProblemsDo you ever wish you didn’t have to deal with all these problems? That you could just time travel to the future when life is calm and you can relax? I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you will always have problems. It’s life. It’s what it means to be human. To meet an obstacle and overcome it. You will always have problems, so change your relationship to problems. They’re not something that will ever go away, so stop thinking that you’ll only be happy once they’re gone. Learn to be happy with problems. The badass you are today is here because of those past problems. Surmounting those problems developed skills and character that made you into who you are. Instead of a resistance to problems, cultivate a love for the process of solving problem. Instead of focusing on what problems cost, appreciate what they enable. Elysium is a myth. One does not overcome an obstacle to enter the land of no obstacles. On the contrary, the more you accomplish, the more things will stand in your way. There are always more obstacles, bigger challenges. You’re always fighting uphill. Get used to it and train accordingly.
- Ryan Holiday in "The Obstacle is the Way"
A Perspective ShiftYour relationship to problems is a classic perspective shift. You’re shifting from seeing problems in one (detrimental) way to seeing problems in a new (beneficial) way. Perspective shifts are hard. You’re influencing the way you think. The difficultly of perspective shifts makes them rare, and their rarity is what makes them valuable for those who undertake them. Seeing problems as problems is what makes you want them to go away. None of us like pain or difficultly. We’re hardwired to resist it. This makes sense when the pain is a hot stove, but it’s hindering our development when the thing we’re trying to avoid is actually there to make us better. Past ProblemsWhat’s on your resume? If you worked somewhere and there were absolutely no problems to solve, you’d have nothing to say! This was part of my experience at Ford Motor Company, my first job out of school. When I left after a few years I realized I hadn’t learned much. I hadn’t been solving big problems. It was hard to update my resume and find a new job because I hadn’t developed myself as much as I could have. If you look at your resume, every line on there is speaking to a problem you overcame. Every problem you overcame helped you develop yourself. Adversity reveals character, so those problems helped you develop yours. You learned new skills. You learned more about yourself. The badass you are today thanks to all the past problems you met, and overcame. So why would you wish away all the problems you have today? They’re helping you become a more capable version of yourself. Don’t deny yourself that growth opportunity! Behind our urge to race through every obstacle or challenge, in an effort to get it “dealt with,” there’s usually the unspoken fantasy that you might one day finally reach the state of having no problems whatsoever. As a result, most of us treat the problems we encounter as doubly problematic: first because of whatever specific problem we’re facing; and second because we seem to believe, if only subconsciously, that we shouldn’t have problems at all.
- Oliver Burkeman in "Four Thousand Weeks"
The ReframeProblems may feel like problems, but we need to get our brains to see them as the allies they are. They’re here to teach us what we need to know. A classic technique for getting past resistance is curiosity. GIFs will be rare in this newsletter, but this classic Shaq-Cat gif really embodies the feeling I’m trying to get at. When you’ve got problems you’re dealing with, this is the feeling you’re trying to push for. Since feeling follows action, I suggest you pause and practice. Pull your lips into a kissy face. Shimmy your shoulders in a perfect mirror of Shaq. I’m willing to bet you’re feeling just a little lighter, and maybe more curious, than you were pre-Shaq-shimmy. The question you should ask alongside your shimmy is, “What’s the opportunity here?” What skill can you learn? What virtue or value can you practice? How will this make you a better person? What’s this going to look like on your future resume? With a reframe, these problems are no longer problems. They’re fun opportunities to develop yourself. Today, the way we think you get peace is by resolving all your external problems. But there are unlimited external problems. The only way to actually get peace on the inside is by giving up this idea of problems.
- Naval Ravikant in "The Almanack of Naval Ravikant"
Bringing it All TogetherYou will always have problems, so rather than wish for them to be gone, develop a friendly relationship to them. Your past problems have taught you the skills and character that made you into the person you are today. If you shift your perspective from problems as problems, to problems as opportunity, you’ll enjoy the process of working through them. They’ll be less stress-inducing and more curiosity-inducing. The problems you’re working through today are creating your future badass self. Call to ActionGet started on your perspective shift. Are there any problems you’ve been wishing would go away? Reframe them into an opportunity. What could you learn? How will this make you better? When in doubt, make a kissy face, shimmy your shoulders, and see what happens! Kevin PS - If you enjoyed this, I'd love if you could forward this to a friend. |
