“A problem is something that can be solved. A fact of life is something that must be accepted.”

A thought by John C. Maxwell (2000-03-08) from his book, Failing Forward: How to Makethe Most of Your Mistakes (p. 67). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

I am overweight. That is a problem. I am short. That is a fact of life. There is nothing that I can do to get taller. I will never be taller than what I am today but I can get smaller. I have this week already lost 3 lbs. I at one time weighed 260 lbs. I had to do something about that and I eventually got down to 210 lbs. Now through different situations I had gotten back up to 223 lbs. and decided that I wanted to do something about that. So that is a problem that I am striving to solve.

Now John says, “Some people get into trouble because they focus their attention on things beyond their control.” Somebody leaves you. They may die or they may decide that they don’t want to be married anymore so you go to pieces and your focus becomes something beyond your control.

He then says, “Failure is an inside job. So is success. If you want to achieve, you have to win the war in your thinking first. You can't let the failure outside you get inside you. You certainly can't control the length of your life— but you can control its width and depth. You can’t control the contour of your face— but you can control its expression. You can't control the weather— but you can control the atmosphere of your mind. Why worry about things you can't control when you can keep yourself busy controlling the things that depend on you?”

Such a good thought.

So what problem is there that you need to solve?

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