Problem Solving and Time

The subject for today in “The Roadless Traveled” is Problem-Solving and Time. We are still touching on delayed gratification in this section. Anyone can solve any problem if they are willing to take the time.   Once you become aware of a personal problem, are you so discomfited that you demand and immediate solution and you are not willing to tolerate your discomfort long enough to analyze the problem?  Do you say, “It is beyond me?”  Can you discipline yourself to take the time necessary to analyze the problem so as to develop well-thought-out and effective solutions?

There is a defect in the approach to problem solving which is more primitive and more destructive and that is the hope that the problems will go away of their own accord.  Problems do not go away. They must be worked through or else they remain, forever a barrier to the growth and development of the spirit.  

This inclination to ignore problems is once again a simple manifestation of an unwillingness to delay gratification.  Confronting problems is painful. To willingly confront a problem early, before we are forced to confront it by circomstances, means to put aside something pleasant or less painful for something more painful. You can choose to suffer now so that future suffering will not be necessary. The longer the problems are ignored, the larger they become and the more painful and difficult to solve.