Resolving Problems

I do not like to deal with problems..

Oh, I know we have discussed aspects of this before.  How I like to keep my options open.  How I like to think that I have multiple choices and do not want to fence myself in with any one.  But this week - literally yesterday - I came to another conclusion:  I do not like to resolve my problems.

I do not.  I would rather let things ride, hoping that they will work themselves out.  In fact, I will go to great lengths to avoid having do to something in the expectation that events will work themselves out.

This is occasionally true, of course.  Sometimes things get better.  Sometimes the rattle goes away or the calcium deposits dislodge themselves from the water valve or the cut heals.

Sometimes.  But not often enough.

The reality is that most of the times problems do not work themselves.  They simply become worse.  Because nature of problems is that they expand, not contract.  Why?  Because typically they represent an aberration in the functionality of a system or process which have been caused by factors that are resulting in the problem.  Without eliminating the factors that caused the problem the condition will only worsen, not get better.

So why do I refuse to deal with such things?  Why do I turn my face away, hoping in hope - often the most vain of any exercises - that something will get better?

Because (if I think about it) dealing with a problem actual has costs and consequences. It can mean time.  It can mean money.  It can most certainly mean that you were wrong about the way you were addressing the situation and that you need to change.  Most importantly, it means that you are actually taking responsibility for the problem, that you will become the point person for resolving the issue.  It is far easier to merely sit back and hope that the situation resolves itself - or hope that someone else will see the issue and try to resolve it themselves.

But no more.

My problems - all of them - are not going away by me hoping that they will.  They will only get resolved by making a decision and taking action - indeed, taking responsibility - towards their resolution.  In some real sense, it means growing up and realizing that you are the one that has to resolve them, not somebody else.

Problems happen.  But resolutions will not necessarily do so - unless I make it so.