There’s always something to be unhappy with. Airport lines are too long. Insurance paperwork is ridiculously complex. Wifi keeps going down.
While I appreciate the sentiment in Louis CK’s famous “Everything is wonderful and nobody’s happy” soliloquy, I also appreciate discontentment. It needn’t make your life less fulfilling to be aware of things that could be improved. The question is, what do you do with the realization of imperfection?
There can be catharsis in simply pointing it out. Insight can come from detailing the root causes of inefficiencies. But criticism as something simply offered to the universe has the potential to corrode and warp your worldview. If you enjoy venting problems you’ll get better at seeing problems to vent about, but if you don’t discipline yourself you’ll lose sight of solutions.
Dissatisfaction can be a powerful creative force that sows the seeds of its own resolution. It can also be self-righteous and dis-empowering cynicism. Some say to reduce the risk of becoming cynical you should train yourself to stop seeing problems around you, and only tune in to beauty and opportunity. That might work. But the real problem solvers, wealth creators, and positive revolutionaries see every irritant as an opportunity, every problem as a potential solution, every ugliness as beauty unrefined.
Rather than tune out the problems around you, no matter how big or small, tune in to them. Before you declare your frustration, challenge yourself to see potential solutions, and get excited about the possibility of improvement, rather than getting angry about the status quo.
Life is fun when you see the imperfection in everything, but choose to take it as a challenge to make things better.
December 3, 2013
