The real problem
One of my duties as a home inspector is to investigate water damage. I arrive, the homeowner points to an area and says:
"That’s the problem."
Most of the time, it’s not. It’s where the problem shows itself, but the root cause might be a broken pipe behind the wall in the next room.
Right now, I don’t have to deal with those tasks since I’m on vacation in Thailand. What I do deal with, though, whether I’m in Sweden or Thailand, is my bad shoulders. Here, I have the luxury of getting a daily massage.
So I explain the problem and point to the areas that hurt, but those spots are hardly touched during the treatment. Just as I know the stain on the wall isn’t the real problem, the massage therapist knows where to focus.
A few years back, during an all-time low period of my life, I was neither at work nor on vacation. I was stuck in my head, feeling miserable.
Somehow, I still managed to land four different jobs in just a few months. The longest one lasted four days. Not because I got fired, but because I quit them all.
There was always something wrong with each workplace. The real problem, though, was my mental health.
Somewhere deep down, I knew it even back then, but I was too embarrassed and afraid to admit it. It felt easier to point fingers at anything external. There’s the problem 👉
It took a long time, but I finally managed to admit that the spots on the surface weren’t the problem. It was the inside that needed care, just like a broken pipe behind a wall.
What’s the real problem? Exploring and trying to find the underlying answer to that question makes all the difference.