What's On Your Problem's List?

Have you ever felt overwhelmed by your problems?  I often explore in our workshops the power of writing down a gratitude list to change our focus to all we can be thankful for, but Kim suggested the other day writing down a problem's list.  Why on Earth would we want to focus more attention on our problems, I thought?  Well it turns out that with a problem's list, comparing has the potential to offer a positive result.  First, write down on a piece of paper all of the challenges you are currently facing and then for each one, consider how with absolute certainty, someone somewhere is far worse off than you.  You may very well know someone for which this is the case. 

For a silly yet annoying example, let's say I'm complaining about my new progressive glasses that I'm now struggling to assimilate to.  Due to the nature of these glasses, literally everyone to the sides of my lenses are blurry (just forget about peripheral vision) and I have to literally bob my head up and down depending on the distance something is from my eyes in order to keep the object in focus.  You can only imagine how much fun Kim has had with this, case in point, this video.  Laughing hysterically, she keeps walking closer to me and then backing away, enjoying how I have to move my head up and down in the process.  Is that messed up or what?

Then I take her advice.  I write it down on my problem's list, thinking carefully about others who might have it worse.  Hmmmm.  Come to think of it, I guess I'm pretty darn lucky to be able to see at all.  Maybe adjusting to these progressives isn't such a big deal.  Hey, and on second thought, maybe my problem's list is actually just another gratitude list after all?