What's your problem?
How to stop complaining, turn your problems into opportunities and live a life of success via gratitude.
You won’t succeed because you got too used to complaining
One of my Pro Muslims had a great business idea.
He had discovered a new area of law that was largely unserved. There were potentially thousands of people needing legal representation for this very specific matter. The problem was he didn’t know how to reach them. And even if he could… he had no track record to prove he was the man for the job.
We all have problems.
But the problem with having problems is it’s far too easy to complain about them. And in doing so we fail to recognise the great opportunities presented to us.
Someone said when we ask Allah for patience, He gives us trials to test our patience.
I think it’s the same with money. (Or practically anything else for that matter.)
Have you noticed how you have so many business ideas but never seem to be able to do anything about them? Well maybe it means you’ve already been given the opportunity for more money. But you just haven’t executed—yet.
Complaining blocks us from the opportunity.
Complaining passes the responsibility over to someone else or to our circumstances… instead of realising the opportunity we’ve been given.
Just like the person who asks for patience but complains when they’re tested.
So if you’re facing obstacles in the way of earning more money… don’t you think there’s an opportunity in disguise?
Constraints need goals
Seeing only problems without an end goal is like playing a game to not lose instead of trying to win.
In that case why bother playing at all? You can’t lose if you don’t play, right?
This is the reality of complaining about problems. You’re unable to see opportunities when they’re right under your nose.
The Pro Muslim with the business idea could only see his constraints:
No budget
Didn’t know how to reach customers
No track record
The list is much longer. But the point is he couldn’t see past his constraints. So the goal of starting this business got lost in the weeds. It was “safer” to not do anything.
And this is what happens to many of us. We want something. Then we start going through all the reasons why we can’t have it.
We move on to the next idea. And we go through life repeating this cycle over and over again.
I want you to change your thinking:
Instead of letting constraints kill your goals… tell yourself CONSTRAINTS NEED GOALS.
Your challenges and problems aren’t there to hold you back. They’re telling you precisely what you need to move forward.
He had no budget. I showed him how to do it without money upfront.
He didn’t know how to reach customers. I showed him how to make customers reach out to him.
He had no track record. I showed him how to sell an idea without needing to build credibility first.
It wasn’t because I had a specific set of skills that happened to fit perfectly for his goal.
It was because I knew something that applies to practically any challenge you face. It’s the thing I’ve repeated several times in my emails to you.
And it will help you see opportunities where others make excuses…
The problem is the solution.
And applying this is really simple.
You take the constraint and turn it into an opportunity.
I want you to try something:
Make a list of all the reasons you haven’t pursued your goals in life.
This is different from the traditional idea of goal setting. You’re not listing what you want to achieve. You’re listing all your excuses.
It’s going to take a little honesty. But don’t worry. I’m not going to ask you to show me your list (although you can DM me privately if you want me to go through this exercise with you 1-on-1).
Write your reasons on separate lines and keep a line gap between each one.
Instead of reverting back to complaining each time you want to achieve something in life… you’re going to go all out and write down all your complaints right now.
All your self-doubt. All your fears.
Once you’ve written your list and realised you didn’t die… I want you to write how you’re going to do it anyway. Let me show you some examples of what I mean.
I don’t know how to code. → I’m going to write code every day.
No one wants to read my writing. → I’m going to make a daily post.
I lack the confidence to speak to customers. → I’m going to speak to 10 people each day.
My hope is by reading this you realised this truth:
Success depends on gratitude.
Because a few powerful things are happening when you do this exercise…
You’re acknowledging so-called problems now instead of letting them show up when you want to achieve something.
You exercise gratitude for having the opportunity to do something by actually doing it.
You end up getting the thing you want when you tackle the problems head on.
Someone who writes code every day can’t help but get better at coding. You build an audience by posting daily. And you’ll inevitably gain confidence when you speak to more people.
Constraints can also be broken down into smaller and more manageable pieces… just like goals. And being able to conquer each piece is how you overcome problems and ultimately live a life of success via gratitude.
Think about how you feel when you want something in life but can’t see a way to get it.
Remember what you were doing before this exercise? Effectively complaining about your problems.
When you turn your problems into solutions, complaints are replaced by actions. And you figure out a path you would have otherwise never known.
Take the last one—lacking the confidence to speak to customers—as an example. Can we break the solution into smaller parts? Absolutely!
You do this by breaking the problem into parts. If the problem is the solution… the smaller problem is the smaller solution.
Or another way to think of it is adding more detail to your complaints.
Is it that you lack the confidence to speak to customers? Or people in general? Are you more confident online than in person? Can you DM people instead?
A smaller solution might be to message people you already know first. Then messaging strangers who aren’t necessarily potential customers. Then you can shift to potential customers but not selling anything to them. Then you can try selling via DMs. And so on.
Be honest. Is there any doubt at all in overcoming this problem for a person taking this approach?
Can you apply this to your constraints? Yes!
So remember. Constraints are a good thing.
Your problems are the solution.
And you can break it into smaller problems to build on smaller solutions.
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PS… What's your most annoying constraint right now?
Drop a comment below.
I read every single one and often turn the best questions into future newsletter issues.