Low-Quality Problems
I recently heard one of my life coaching mentors, Brook Castillo, talk about problems. She said something to the effect that she still has problems; she just no longer has "low-quality problems".
She expounded by explaining that low-quality problems are the problems we create when we don't manage our mind.
She doesn't have road rage or get annoyed with her mom. She doesn't spend any mental energy stewing about how others should behave, how the weather should be warmer, how the political climate should be different, etc.
These are all low quality problems.
The problems she takes on are of her own choosing, and they are only things within her control.
In her estimation, all the low-quality problems in the world are because we spend our time and mental energy on things outside our control, leaving us with less energy to manage the things we actually can control.
I was inspired by this and took a quick inventory of my "problems."
I've seen myself giving up mental energy to MANY "low quality problems" in recent months. Most notably, I've been stewing day and night about my son who is serving a mission for our church in South Korea. He's barely 18 and is the sweetest and best kid in the world....and he's currently neck-deep in religious OCD and homesickness.
He doesn't need or want me to save him. He doesn't need or want me to do anything really. He's working it out with the help of God and lots of other amazingly supportive people. But my brain thinks it's somehow useful for me to spend hours worrying, talking to people, doing research, and compiling resources to help him.
This is kind of a low-quality problem. Can you see it? Not because my son isn't important to me. He is extremely important. It's low-quality because most of what's going on with him is completely outside my control.
When I spend a significant part of my time and mental energy consumed in worry, I'm left with far less band-width to address the problems in my life that I actually have control over. I'm also less open to intuition and answers that might help him because my brain is stuck in a frenzied, worried energy.
Our brains love to solve problems. And they will spend all day and night on low-quality problems if we don't let go of them and give our brains better problems to tackle.
What are some high-quality problems my brain could use its energy towards? Here are some I thought of right now in my life:
Finding ways to connect with and support the people in my home.
Using my creativity to grow my business to the next level.
Getting coached on things keeping me stuck.
Cleaning up my head space around my close relationships.
Getting adequate sleep.
Being more intentional with my exercise and eating habits.
Meanwhile, all these things have been neglected while I've been indulging in worry. So good to know!
I challenge you to make an inventory of the problems you are facing in your life right now. Take each problem and consider if the outcome is within your control or not, then separate your list of problems into two columns: low-quality and high-quality.
How might you feel more free and energized if you let go of the low-quality problems?
