Don't Worry - Even When Work Doesn't Work

Piggybacking on what I wrote last night, I just found this quote this morning.

 

Sorry if the colors clash.

This quote came from zenpencils.com, which has a lot of good quotes illustrated by comics, most of which have more panels and tell richer stories than this one. If you've got a minute, you might check it out.

Yesterday, I blogged about how working on an assignment can reduce  your level of worry about it, which is pretty close to saying that if you can solve a problem, there's no need to worry about it, so I'll skip that part of the quote.

The other part of the quote talks about the pointlessness of worrying about problems you can't solve. There are always going to be some things we can't do. Despite some of Zenpencils's other quotes, and my own quote about the only hopeless cause being the one we don't attempt, there are limits to human ability. If something you want to or "have to" do is literally beyond your ability, don't let that stress you out. Worry is self-defeating, whether you're worried about something you can change or something you can't.

If there's an insurmountable obstacle in your path, don't let it stop you. Go around it. Or, if that's not an option, choose another path. Banging your head against a wall is nowhere near as productive as walking along the wall until you find somewhere else you can go.

Now, I'm not trying to advocate giving up, except in cases where giving up on something is the most practical thing you can do. Usually, diligence and persistence are admirable traits that are necessary for success. If you're faced with a challenge, you should take a couple of stabs at it rather than immediately running away from it. However, in those cases where even an unlimited amount of diligence and persistence wouldn't be enough, other virtues, such as flexibility and contentment, may serve you better.

If an obstacle defeats you and there's nothing to be done about it, there's still one thing that you can and should do - move on. Continuing to worry about a problem you can't solve is only going to distract you from the problems you can solve. Let go of that worry. Take a deep breath and let it flow out of you. Then find some other mountain to climb. This world is full of problems. Some of them are too big for us to handle. Our job is to do what we can about the rest of them. If you find yourself faced with a problem you can't solve, give that problem to the One who can solve it, and find some other problem to solve. There are a lot of problems that you can  solve with God's help. As for the other problems, it's probably best to leave those ones to Him.