You are a puzzle (...not a problem)
Welcome to the ArtsBound Newsletter. Every Tuesday, I share three thoughts or insights meant to help performing arts students and young professionals flourish in their life and career. Today we’re going to scrutinize the way we see problems in our lives.
- 4.5-minute read -
(NOTE: I started ArtsBound because I believe the world would be a better place with more people living their true calling. If you know a student or young professional who is searching for their niche in the performing arts world, consider forwarding this email to them. If this email was forwarded to you, you can sign up to receive my newsletter every Tuesday. It's free, and I’ll never share or sell your data.)
1. Dealing with your problems.
We all have problems. And of course, our problems exist along a spectrum of severity and a continuum from superficial to spiritual.
On the superficial end of this continuum, we get flat tires, forget our purses, and get stuck in traffic. When these types of problems happen, we might get frustrated or embarrassed, and it might negatively impact our day. But if we have a decent degree of functionality as an individual, we eventually deal with the problem and move on.
On the other side of the continuum, we find much deeper problems: addictions, chronic arguments with members of our family, loneliness, and a sense of meaninglessness in life. The feelings evoked by these problems may be similar to those evoked by superficial problems (frustration/anger, embarrassment/shame, etc.), but they affect us on a deeper level and can be much harder to shake.
In his best-selling book on intra- and interpersonal effectiveness, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, the late Stephen Covey asserted that, “The way we see the problem is the problem.” In this simple sentence, Covey conveyed that every situation can be interpreted through multiple perspectives and therefore yield many different meanings. Therefore, our experience of ‘having a problem’ is actually one of many interpretations of a situation, and we actually have the power to choose a different interpretation.
Another popular take on this way of looking at things is, “Everything happens for a reason,” or as my coach often says, “Things don’t happen to us; they happen for us.” With this perspective, we can accept that we are stuck in traffic (we can’t change it!) and settle into the audio book we’ve been enjoying.
It’s easier to apply this approach to our superficial problems, but it’s even more important to apply to the spiritual end of the ‘problem’ continuum… and that takes us to the next item.
2. Transmuting problems into puzzles.
Spiritual problems like those listed above can be a huge drain on your personal energy and therefore negatively affect your relationships, career, and well-being. And of course, approaching these problems is much more complicated than calling the doctor’s office to say you’ll be late and putting the spare tire on your car.
What I’m calling ‘spiritual problems’ are often the result of misalignment within your life - choices or attitudes that are at odds with the core of who you are. Because of the complexity of these issues - and the change that is often required of us to resolve them (!) - it can be very tempting to avoid them all together, finding temporary fixes or distractions.
In his Red Book, depth psychologist Carl Jung wrote, “You’ll think up clever truisms, preventive measures, secret escape routes, excuses, [and] potions capable of inducing forgetfulness...” to avoid confronting the misalignments within yourself and your life.
Jung believed that what we recognize as psycho-spiritual problems are actually parts of ourselves that we have suppressed (because we find them to be painful, shameful, or otherwise unpleasant) trying to make themselves known and emerging as symptoms. Attending to and embracing these parts of ourselves - what he called the shadow - is the only way to resolve the symptoms.
So let’s try and synthesize these ideas from Covey and Jung.
Covey said, “The way we see the problem is the problem.” Jung said (I’m paraphrasing), What we see as the problem... is actually the cure.
We are prone to resist what we see as problems. Very few of us want to get stuck in traffic, and it might take a bit of work to accept it when it happens. Therefore, when we are faced with a big problem such as feeling stuck in our job or career, it is tempting to ignore it (and continue forward while secretly feeling more and more entrenched) or find and easy way out (like jumping to a new job without examining why you are unhappy in the first one).
Through a Jungian lens, instead of seeing a problem, we might view ourselves as a puzzle - something to embrace rather than resist.
In the ‘puzzle paradigm’, there is a wholeness inherent in our being; but we discarded some of the pieces because they weren’t our favorite color, and we’ve tried to replace them with other pieces that don’t fit. We suffer existential pain as a result of this misalignment. However, instead of ignoring or covering up the pain, we can use it as a collection of clues as to what pieces don’t belong (so they can be let go) and where we left the pieces that really do belong (so they may be retrieved).
(For another take on this concept, read my past newsletter, “Re-membering who you are”.)
Doing this is not necessarily pleasant. We might have to go digging through the trash to find the missing pieces and get our hands pretty yucky in the process. But as you probably gather, it’s the only way to genuine wholeness, fulfillment, and flourishing.
3. The puzzle of purpose.
Over the last decade, when the millennial generation became a significant portion of the workforce, employers and researchers noted that old forms of incentives were not as effective for motivating high performance and encouraging job longevity. These workers were motivated by a sense of purpose more than a paycheck. I have my own thoughts on why this is, but regardless of why, we are experiencing a significant shift in how we think about our work.
I would argue that the quest for discovering purpose in our work is the very same process of ‘assembling the puzzle’ described above.
As artists, I find it helpful to acknowledge that different types of art serve different purposes, and we are more likely to tap into our unique creative energy when the purpose for our art is in alignment with our core values.
I’ve written an article that goes into more detail:
READ: 5 Purposes of Art: To Which Are You Being Called?
If you are interested in exploring your own puzzle, and think you could benefit from a guide, don’t hesitate to reach out.
See you next week!
Lee
PS - I started ArtsBound because I believe the world would be a better place with more people living their true calling. If you know a student or young professional who is searching for their niche in the performing arts world, consider forwarding this email to them. If this email was forwarded to you, you can sign up to receive my newsletter every Tuesday. It's free, and I’ll never share or sell your data.