The Problems That Grip You

The problems that grip you are the portal to your destiny.

“The problems that grip you might contain your destiny” – @jordanbpeterson

— Joel Runyon (@joelrunyon) November 25, 2018

I heard this on the version of Rubin Rerport and Jordan Peterson live. I saw them in Denmark (thanks Dave for the tickets!) and this was just a few days later.

I’ve listened to Peterson a lot, but this quote struck me:

The problems that grip you might contain your destiny.

A lot of people talk about problems as problems. But having problems isn’t a problem. That’s just a fact of existence.

You don’t get to choose to not have problems. They’re built into life.

But, if you have to have problems, you can make sure that you have good ones at least.

And, chances are – if you’re interested in enough things – you’ll find one or two that grip you.

A lot of people talk about following their passion. I’m not a huge fan of this. I’ve talked about this before here and here.

Follow the problems that grip you.

I like this way more.

It connects something you know – your interest – with something calling, yet unknown – your potential destiny. More-so, instead of following a specific action or falling in love with a specific plan – you’re committed to solving a problem – one that you’re not even sure has an answer – but you’re willing to challenge it. To tackle it. To struggle with it.

Maybe that’s annoying to you. Maybe you wish you had more control of the things that seemed to pull your interest. Maybe it’s fun to think you had different problems. Maybe you wish your had other people’s sexier problems.

But you don’t.

You have yours.

And maybe you don’t know why…yet.

But maybe that’s what your job should be – to find out.

It’ll be hard.

It won’t always be fun.

But they might contain your destiny.