JORGE RODRIGUES SIMAO

For some odd reason a large majority of people think that their problems are a lot more serious than they really are. You may be one of them. It is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that practically everyone else out there has a much easier life than you. But as Socrates pointed out, "If all our misfortunes were laid in one common heap whence everyone must take an equal portion, most people would be contented to take their own and depart." Think that you and your problems are so important?

Just keep in mind that the entire world - with one rather irrelevant exception - is composed of 7

billions other human beings.

Your problems may appear real and important to you - and they are to a certain extent.

The severity of your problems is a matter of perspective, however - and that makes most of them insignificant.

Start with the premise that your perception can be unduly deceiving when it comes to your life situation.

It's all too easy to internally focus on your problems to such an extent that the wonderful world around you may as well not exist.

One reason people have difficulty in handling problems is that they don't stop and ask themselves how serious their problems really are.

Most of our perceived dilemmas are just the result of little things that have gone wrong.

They are not enough to justify anger or dejection.

As a matter of course all of us blow things out of proportion from time to time.

Our minds have a tendency to exaggerate negative events at the expense of our happiness and well-being.

Indeed, some individuals react to a television that starts malfunctioning five minutes before the start of a World Series game as being catastrophic.

Yet it may do them a lot of good not to watch the game.

The thing that is quite striking is how many past events and situations we have experienced that at the time seemed so critical, but have now faded in importance to the point of being totally irrelevant.

Fact is, these events and situations were never important to begin with.

The problems over which you are losing sleep today may have the same relevance in the higher order of life - none, in other words.

In a few days you will be wondering why you wasted your time and energy worrying about something so insignificant.

If you think you have big problems - and you are looking for more big problems - you will definitely have a lot of them.

Instead of giving yourself a nervous breakdown when a difficult situation arises, put the situation into proper perspective.

In the event you find yourself unemployed, sure, it's a problem of sorts. But compared to the situation of a pavement dweller in India, who has to spend twelve hours a day looking for water and food just to survive for another day, your problem of being unemployed in North America is quite a privilege.

One friend mine years ago after being fired from his first engineering job - as he was from his last one - an acquaintance commented that adversity builds character.

It was hard for him to accept such consolation at the time, but as it turned out, he was absolutely right.

Adversity is something you likely won't choose if you can avoid it. But adversity is stimulating in a way because it forces you to use your creativity, particularly when you are really down and out and broke.

Clearly, it's ridiculous to experience self-pity due to ordinary problems.

Even the "big" things that go wrong in your life aren't even dose to being tragedies.

If you want to see really big problems - those that are truly tragic - watch the world news on television for about ten minutes.

The point of this isn't to take comfort in other people's tragedies, but to put your problems and situation in proper perspective.

To minimize your troubles, stop and look at the whole picture.

Your problems will look rather insignificant and irrelevant to the continued functioning of the universe.

What's more, putting your troubles in proper perspective can make most of them look like blessings.

In this regard, Richard Bach remarked, "There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts."