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When people took their problems to the legendary
insurance giant W. Clement Stone, he used to shout out,
“You’ve got a problem? That’s great!” It’s a wonder he
wasn’t shot by someone, given our culture’s deep super-
stition about problems.
But problems are not to be feared. Problems are not
curses. Problems are simply tough games for the ath-
letes of the mind and true athletes always long to get a
game going.
InThe Road Less Traveled, one of M. Scott Peck’s
central themes is that “problems call forth our wisdom
and our courage.”
One of the best ways to approach a problem is in a
spirit of play, the same way you approach a chess game
or a challenge to play one-on-one playground basket-
ball. One of my favorite ways to play with a problem,
especially one that seems hopeless, is to ask myself,
“What is a funny way to solve this problem? What would
be a hilarious solution?” That question never fails to
open up fresh new avenues of thought.
“Every problem in your life,” said Richard Bach, au-
thor of Illusions, “carries a gift inside it.” He is right.
But we have to be thinking that way first, or the gift
will never appear.
In his groundbreaking studies of natural healing, Dr.
Andrew Weil suggests that we even regard illness as a
gift. “Because illness can be such a powerful stimulus
to change,” he writes in Spontaneous Healing, “perhaps
it is the only thing that can force some people to re-
solve their deepest conflicts. Successful patients often
come to regard it as the greatest opportunity they ever
had for personal growth and development—truly a gift.
Seeing illness as a misfortune, especially one that is un-
deserved, may obstruct the healing system. Coming to