OVERCOMING OBSTACLES
Problems can be very serious, but a life without them might be downright depressing.
I say that because while frustrations and setbacks have been painful at times, they have also provided reference points for the joy and satisfaction I’ve felt when I’ve managed to overcome them.
I got another example of that recently when I woke up feeling great, simply because I could hear the water heater was on. It’s been turning on when the timer said it should for 12 years, and the noises never affected my mood in the past, but this time was different.
That’s because the combiboiler that supplies hot water to the radiators that heat my home has been acting up lately. All I knew, at first, was it was losing pressure overnight and refusing to light in the morning.
That was good because it meant the pressure sensor safety mechanism was doing the most important part of its job, but it was also a problem because when the unit has gone off I’ve had to recharge it to get the heat to come on. So, I’ve had a chilly start to quite a few winter mornings this year over here in England.
When I found a leak in the pressure release valve, I ordered a new one on-line, and once it arrived, I slapped it in… and that proper techniques for replacing bit of DIY made me feel pretty one without damaging the seal good. But, the next morning, I on the spring-loaded safety dediscovered my obstacle was notvice. as simple to overcome as I had The problem finally got sorthoped because the new valve was ed, but the reason I’m telling you leaking as well. about my roundabout tactics is
I ordered another one and that I felt much better this time tried again. Same result, so I than I did when I thought I’d carried on getting up 20 minutes solved it without much effort. Of early to pressurise the water course, keeping warm when it’s heater. And when I ordered yet cold outside is one of our primaanother valve on the net, I did ry needs, so that’s probably part some extensive research on the of the reason I felt good about fixing the boiler.
According to psychiatrist Abraham Maslow, that’s how our needs work. When we don’t have sufficient food, water or shelter… or when we can’t keep warm enough to stay healthy, we don’t care a great deal about anything else. And when we satisfy one of those needs, we feel as happy as we will ever feel, because primary needs are clear. Either we have enough, or we don’t.
But when we get into secondary needs, things like the need for love and friendship and the desire for self-esteem, we get into things that we have less control over, so they are more difficult to satisfy. And tertiary needs such as reaching our full potential as human beings are impossible to satisfy completely.
So, I like problems, and I think big problems can be better than small ones… as long as we can solve them.