We Are the Problem and the Solution

I was speaking with a young man in Woodbury yesterday (let’s call him Jack Henry), and he began to talk to my grandson enthusiastically about basketball. I asked him if he played high school basketball and he replied, “I did until I had some academic difficulties.” He immediately corrected himself, smiling, “Well, I should say until I had some Jack Henry difficulties.” That is a beautifully true admission. We are the source of most of our difficulties.

The brilliant Miami Dolphins running back Mercury Morris says that he began to truly recover when he stopped telling himself he had a “cocaine problem” and admitted to himself that he had a “Mercury Morris problem.” We are the source of most of our problems. We are also the solution to most of our problems, and that gives us great hope of moving forward toward inner peace and self-acceptance.

We cannot expect other people to facilitate our change. We control our own fate. A key component of good emotional and physical health is self-discipline. Now hold on, you might say. Doesn’t discipline mean we are being forced to do something we don’t want to do? The truth is that self-discipline leads to peace and joy. Looking back on our old undisciplined behaviors, we can’t claim they brought us peace and joy. Self-discipline gives us the freedom to be who we are, without apology or approval seeking, and to walk the path toward peace and positivity, even when it feels unfamiliar. At long last, we feel worthy.