Well hello listeners, I wanted to share this interesting yet simple differentiation that I was introduced to recently The problem versus the predicament It's the differentiation between two different types of situations and while it's simple I believe it's incredibly powerful and I wanted to share it in the hopes It might give you the language to better address some of the pressures in your life. So let's get going Welcome to Head of Thrive. I'm your host Kate Snowwise. This is a podcast with people who are ready to step up and live a happier life.
It's for those of us who are dedicated to understanding ourselves and getting the best that we can out of this thing called life It's a mix of psychology and modern spiritual thought always with a focus on practical advice so that you can take it back and apply it to your own life I don't believe we're here to merely survive. I truly believe we're here to thrive. So let's get going Okay, so a little bit of background I speak frequently and level workshops on stress management burnout and well-being This is what I specialized in grad school and I can talk the legs off a chair when it comes to the stuff Yet until the other day I had never heard the simple yet uber powerful differentiation between a problem and a predicament And so when I stumbled across it, I was like, you're kidding me How have I not known this for this long? I've since had it pointed out by a client no less that sometimes the predicament part of this equation is referred to as a situation So you could also think of this as a problem versus a situation I feel like problem versus predicament though I'm way more likely to remember like a PPP alliteration, but let's I'm sure at this point You're like hey, can you just tell us what on earth you're meaning?
So let's jump into some definitions So I did some dictionary diving for us. It might have been Google searching Let's be honest and this is what I found is the difference a problem is a difficulty that has to be resolved and a predicament on the other hand Is an unfortunate or trying position or condition? So a loss of a job could be a problem if you take action you can find another one COVID that's a predicament There's nothing we can do to make COVID disappear I mean there is some elements right give excited all that stuff, but if we're trying to be simple here problem versus predicament Around my Google researching it does look like a guy called John Michael Greer may have first made this distinction in his writing So we'll give him a shout out to thank you John Michael Greer So why does it actually help us to know the difference between a problem and a predicament? Being able to recognize the type of pressure we're dealing with helps us understand if we can do anything about it or not If we're dealing with a problem then there are active steps we can take to improve it We can simply start doing things that will actually help solve the problem or at least move it forward This ties in really nicely with my last discussion about the dark side of self-care If there are things you can do reduce your pressure and then you continually turn away from those and focus on numbing forms of self-care Really that's procrastination and making excuses and you're not helping yourself So go if you want to have a jogger on that and I thought what's around the dark side of self-care head back a couple of episodes If on the other hand you're dealing with a predicament, this is a situation that doesn't have any solutions There's no actions to take it might be as simple as moving towards acceptance My favorite mantra of don't fight what is is an essential kind of settling practice for me And while there may not be any actions specifically to take it also might be a case of it's a situation that's gonna last for a step period of time like I will often talk about with my clients if there's a push period at work or you're hiring a new employee There's not a lot that you can do in that short period of time It's more about enduring until you get to a point where the situation's actually changed It reminds me clearly of the serenity prayer God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change the courage to change the things I can and Wisdom to know the difference.
It's what we're talking about here You still have to deal with a predicament like I said, there's the enduring maybe acceptance This is where you also call on your internal resources to simply manage the impact and keep your head above water So to speak this is where your self-care nourishment being energized really helps So a problem has actions that you can take to improve things you can do something a predicament is simply it just is There's nothing you can do that will change it, but you still have to live with it Why I think this is so useful is that if you have this language the problem versus the predicament is You can look at the situations you're dealing with and label them and it kind of frees you to move on with things It highlights the pathways forward if you're dealing with a problem It can open up that the next step is to consider what action to take you may not know how to deal with things completely But even the next right step or a small action can move you in the right direction momentum is everything when it comes to managing our pressure A predicament on the other hand it can also hasten your acceptance We can spend so much energy fighting against something we simply don't want to be true and identifying it as a predicament Something that we do not have the power to change but must live with actually brings you a sense of freedom is crazy as that might sound So I hope you have found this simple quick 10-minute differentiation as useful as I have It's totally the type of thing that you can use to step back and reframe your thinking when you are managing others when you're managing yourself Player up with it. I hope it will be useful So great to have you all here and thank you for tuning in next time I am talking about fun. This is from Catherine Price's latest book The Power of Fun Which honestly is one of the most useful concepts I have written a book in a very very long time I have already started using her three components with my clients and I just feel like she really breaks down fun into something that is usable She actionalizes it. Is that a word actionalize?
I'm gonna make it a word Which I think is everything in the meantime before we dive into that conversation Just keep thriving beautiful people keep thriving