My good friend Blake Buchanon is one of the founders of Bahama Buck’s, The Original Shaved Ice Company. Bahama Buck’s is excellent in every way. The only thing that would make them better in my book is if they brought back my favorite blackberry flavor. That’s not likely as they tell me I was the only person in the country who ever ordered it.
Blake related to me part of what he told his Bahama Buck’s corporate team during a new year planning session. He said the company needed to “solve all their old problems so they could make room for new problems”.
I like that thought.
Problems are a given in our fallen world. Too often our approach to problem solving is like playing the “whack a mole“ game at the arcade. We knock a problem down and enjoy momentary relief before another problem pokes up its head.
The drawback to this “whack a mole” method of problem solving is that it treats problems as the enemy instead of an opportunity for growth. Most of us relish the thought of a problem free day, week, month, year. Yet aside from the fact that living problem free in a fallen world is right up there with rainbow unicorns and magic fairy dust, it fails to acknowledge that genuine success is never achieved apart from the ongoing process of problem solving.
As I write this, I have problems. A big list and some of them large. Yet they are significantly different problems than I had nine years ago. They are better problems. Nine years ago I was starting my life over from scratch in a place I never wanted to live. My problems included not knowing anyone, trying to find a new job/career, and being a single parent. All while feeling lonelier than the third verse of a Baptist hymn.
Today my problems include learning to balance marriage and parenting with my writing/teaching career, making time for the many friends God has blessed me with, defeating old habits like fear and procrastination, and finding the money to fix the seemingly endless projects in our fixer-upper house on our little spot at the lake.
That’s just the short list. Yet it’s easy to see these problems are infinitely better. Better to wonder how you’ll find time to spend with your friends than to not have any friends. Better to sweat over an unexpected plumbing bill than to wonder where you’re going to live. Better to struggle balancing the time challenges of family and career than to be alone and not have a job.
Instead of crossing off our problems on a throw away Post-It note hoping they never come back, how about we write them on a white board where solving/erasing one makes room for a new one? A bigger and better one?
As un-American as this sounds, the goal isn’t to attain a carefree existence. First, it’s not possible. Second, if it were, to live a problem free life would require the path of least resistance in order to sustain itself. Not unlike holding your breath while walking around in a store of delicate, expensive china.
Reality is life is messy business, loaded with problems. Let’s solve the old ones to make room for new ones. Fix why it is that you keep bumping your head on the same number of sales every year so you can have the problem of handling 30% more sales. Fix the customer service issues you’ve had for the past three years so you can make room for the new problem of increased call volume from new customers. Leave the problems of a past relationship behind so you can move forward into the challenges of a new and better friendship.
The bigger the problem solved, the greater the growth. Greater growth means greater capacity. Greater capacity means increased capability to solve bigger problems. Bigger problems solved equals greater growth.
That’s the cycle. The quicker you jump in, the quicker you’ll realize the potential God has for you.
“If a problem cannot be solved, enlarge it.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower
Todd A. Thompson – toddthompson.net
