We all have problems in our lives, different from one another. Some are hard, some are easy. And they are part of our everyday life. They have different forms. A disease ? Can’t find a new job ? Your partner leaves you? There are infinite problems you can have, and they can make you feel really bad. But what if I told you problems don’t have to weigh you down? What if they could simply be tasks that help you move closer to your goals ?
I was in discussion with a friend of mine (Hello Edwin), and we were talking about some life challenges we each might have faced. Then I realized something : I couldn’t actually call anything in my life a “problem” (even though I have plenty). For me, everything was just fine and chill.
At first, I thought I was in denial. Maybe I was trying to bury my stress under layers of fake positivity. But as we continued talking, it hit me, my brain doesn’t label things as problems anymore. It just asks a simple question: “How long will it take to solve this one ?”
Let me explain. I’m a developer, and if there’s one thing you get used to in this field, it’s bugs. Bugs everywhere. A bug crashes your app? Fix it. A feature breaks in production? Fix it. A client requests an impossible feature? Figure out a workaround and fix it. At first, this constant stream of challenges feels overwhelming. But over time, something strange happens, you stop stressing about bugs. Instead, your brain trains itself to break them down into manageable tasks. Every bug is just a puzzle waiting to be solved. For me the only real question becomes: “Fuck !!! how long will this take?”
Somewhere along the way, this mindset bled into my real life. Let me give you an example. I had an issue renewing my ID card. If I didn’t get it in time, I could have potentially lost my job. Instead of stressing or spiraling, my brain immediately categorized it: “Bug detected. ETA for resolution: maybe 1 week or more.” The action plan was simple: I looked up the process on the government website, gathered the required documents, and scheduled the next steps. It wasn’t a “problem” it was just another bug to resolve.
This shift didn’t happen overnight. When I first started coding, bugs would frustrate me endlessly. I’d spend hours debugging, spiraling into self-doubt. “Am I even good at this ?” But with every resolved issue came a little more confidence. I started seeing patterns, anticipating potential issues, and tackling them head-on. Slowly, my brain stopped associating bugs with failure and started treating them as challenges. It was empowering.
The same applies to life. When something unexpected happens, I’m not going to lie, in the first minute, I’m frustrated and furious. But then, I’ll take a deep breath, let it settle, and start asking the important questions: “What’s the next step ? How do I fix this, and how long will it take ?” . Sometimes i even don’t have the answers, what i did will be just ask friends. Stack-overflow show me that whatever my problem is, someone in this world have already encounter it before.
I’ll admit, this mindset isn’t perfect. Sometimes, life throws you challenges that aren’t quick fixes. Grief, heartbreak, and health issues don’t have ETAs. But even then, approaching them as puzzles to navigate rather than unsolvable problems helps me stay grounded.
Now, when I hear someone venting about their “problems,” I can’t help but wonder if they’d feel better rephrasing them as “bugs.” Bugs can be fixed, bugs can be resolved, and bugs, once solved, make the system better. So why not treat life the same way ?
Next time life throws something your way, try this: You’ll be frustrated and even furious in the first minute, but take a deep breath and ask yourself, “How long will it take to fix this ? What can i do to fix this ?” . And who knows? You might just find yourself living a life with no problems just a series of adventures and a lot of bug fixes.
Someone once told me: Life doesn’t give you what you want, but what you need. Thanks for reading ❤️. See you 🙂.
