It’s not everyday I take the messages on a fast food bag seriously, but I do take my lessons when and where they happen. Perspective is a valuable thing. The other day I was happily eating my protein rich Chipotle salad after a workout and happened to glance at a quote on the bag:
“Often in life, the most important question we can ask ourselves is: do we really have the problem we think we have?”
-Sheri Fink

The full article on the bag was also quite intriguing however; for purposes of this blog, I’m going to take it my own route. How many times have you stopped yourself from trying something in life because of a perceived problem? One of the prime examples I hear all of the time are the reasons why someone can’t workout or eat healthy: “Because I don’t have enough time, because I work too much, because I’m too busy, because gym memberships are too expensive, because healthy food is too expensive, because I have a bad knee/back/hip…” The list goes on and on. When I hear this, I simply nod and smile. I never try and confront the person to actually problem solve because I know it’s an excuse. There is always a way to overcome (seemingly) impossible hurdles if the desire/motivation is present. Just ask any self made entrepreneur, college student who was told they could never afford or get into a college, or special needs athlete who is actively competing.

I’m guilty of it as well. There are weeks/months when I don’t accomplish the things I’m capable of at work because I don’t want to put in the actual effort that’s required. I (inevitably) have an excuse or ‘problem’ at the ready to explain why I am not achieving what I can. There’s a way to overcome this, and the answer lies on that Chipotle bag. We need to actually analyze our problem and determine if it actually exists or if it’s an excuse that we can easily overcome with proper planning, effort, and prioritization.

If you’re not sure how to start, my favorite analogy is to treat yourself like a child. If a child said they couldn’t do “x” because of “y”, we would simply walk them through all the ways they could overcome “y” in order to achieve “x” or we would present another approach to “x” that makes avoiding “y” completely possible. For example, if a child said: “I don’t do well in science because I don’t have the time to study for all of the tests” we would quickly problem solve with them. Perhaps we would go the route of: “Well, walk me through your day and let’s see where we can gain an extra 20 minutes for you to study” or we might suggest “If doing well in science is a priority, we may need to determine what else we can stand to cut down/out in order to make time for it” or we might find a way to multitask such as “studying for science while you travel to/from your basketball games.”

In all of these cases, that solution to the problem seems simple to us. In fact, it probably seems like a ‘made up’ problem to begin with, or an excuse. I intend to use the Chipotle bag as a reminder to stop making excuses or “problems” and instead to rededicate myself to achieving the things that I value and find important in life. I hope you’ll do the same. Secondarily, I hope this reminds you that inspiration is out there everywhere (and often in the most unexpected of places).