How do you know when you encounter something, whether it is a problem or not? This may seem so very simple but you need to be able to identify a problem as a problem. We will encounter many things as we travel along our journey and not everything that we run across is truly a problem, it may actually just be an inconvenience or even just a bump in the road. If we remember back to the definition of a problem that we defined in the introduction a problem is something that causes us distress. So, one of the first things we must determine is, “Does this situation cause me distress?”

If the answer to this question is no, then what we are experiencing is merely a discomfort, a bump in the road and we can rest assured that we will pass through this season of living quite easily and we need not be concerned any further. If the answer to our first query is yes, then we need to follow up with, “How much distress is this causing me?” and if the level of caused distress is tolerable or not, is it bearable or not?

If we find the distress to be mostly tolerable, we should be able to push through the discomfort and be fine. If we are experiencing distress,then we must work to identify the issues that are causing us the distress. Look at what the circumstances are, what is the environment that we are in and place some sort of a rating on the level of distress we are experiencing. The higher we rate our level of distress the more important it will be to look more closely at the problem and define it more appropriately by identifying the factors that are involved.

Remember, that not every obstacle we encounter along our journey is a problem and we must be sure not to artificially inflate an obstacle into a problem, but if the obstacle is causing us a level of distress that is not acceptable to us, we will need to figure out the factors that are involved with the distress and define it further.

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