My Problems are Nothing Special

“If you break your neck, if you have nothing to eat, if your house is on fire, then you got a problem. Everything else is inconvenience.”

Robert Fulghum

“All my problems bow before my stubbornness.”

Amit Kalantri

“A flower blossoms for its own joy.”

Oscar Wilde

I almost couldn’t wait to get home and write tonight.  I’m excited about exploring some thoughts I’ve been having.   Based on the thinking of Steven Pressfield in Do the Work, I began thinking something to the effect of, “The closer you are to success, the harder it gets.  The harder it gets, the closer you are to success.”

What this said to me was that I could expect bad things to happen.  I could expect things to get worse before they got better.  In fact, they would get so bad that I might even be tempted to give up on my house on the beach or that my house would be always and forever an impossible dream.  I believed that I would open myself up to extraordinary troubles and problems that would grow increasingly difficult. 

What if, however, I was wrong?  What if (“Gasp!”) Steven Pressfield was wrong?  What if the bad things were not part of the struggle, but just part of life?   What if there were no diabolical spiritual forces trying to keep me from my goal?   What if the worst thing was my own self-sabotage and what if I could manage that?

It’s not that I doubt the existence of the Enemy.  It’s not that I don’t think I should be prepared.  It’s not that I don’t believe in spiritual forces.  It’s just that I don’t want to make them a constant focus.  Ignoring the Enemy is a trick of the Enemy, but so is constant preoccupation with the Enemy.

For the moment, however, I’m going to pretend there is no Enemy and there is no Resistance other than what I myself create.  I’m going to assume that life has not become exponentially more difficult because I’ve created goals.  I’m going to believe that any troubles I’m having are normal, even if they seem extraordinary.  I’m going to focus on solutions, not problems.  I’m not going to be dramatic.  I’m just going to get things done.  I’m not going to pretend that my problems are extraordinary or overwhelming.   My Muse and I will find a way to solve them. 

All I have to do is Get Started and Keep Going….because my problems are nothing special, but I am.