Daily Practice ·
The practice of inner measure: grow one centimeter bigger than your problem today
A brief exercise to stop waiting for a life without difficulties and start enlarging the person who faces them: look the problem in the eye, find its useful part, and take a small step before it grows.
By Pedro J. Pérez
Almost all of us have wished, at some point, for a season without jolts: for money to stretch without calculations, for work not to creak, for relationships not to ask more than we give. It is an understandable fantasy and, moreover, a useless one. Setbacks do not arrive by mistake nor do they leave because we ignore them; they are part of the landscape of any adult life. What is in our hands is something else: the stature of the one who faces them.
There is an enormous difference between a problem that overwhelms you and that same problem seen by someone with more inner resources. It is not about denying the difficulty or dressing it up as an opportunity, but about recognizing that each uncomfortable situation you face in time, without covering it up, leaves you something you did not have before: judgment, fortitude, a proof that you can. Today's practice does not eliminate any problem. It helps you grow a little within it.
The practice Duration: 15 minutes
Choose one, not all
Sit down with paper and pen, or open a note on your phone. For three minutes, write down the difficulties that occupy you right now. Then choose just one: preferably the one that is just beginning or the one you have been dodging for a while. Working with only one keeps the practice from turning into an anguished review of your entire life.
Give it honest measurements
Spend five minutes describing that problem without drama: what exactly it is, what part depends on you and what part does not, and what would happen if you did nothing for a month. Writing it down precisely usually reduces it. Many worries take up more space in the head than in reality, and seeing them on paper restores their true size.
Look for the usable part
Now ask yourself two questions and answer them in writing: what is here that can be useful to me, and what is this teaching me about myself, about my limits, or about how I make decisions. Do not force an uplifting answer; if nothing appears, write "I don't see it yet" and ask yourself again later. The lesson rarely shows itself on the first try: it usually surfaces on the third or fourth.
Take a small step today
Choose a minimal action you can complete in the next few minutes: a call, a figure to review, a pending conversation, asking for information. Do it today, even if it is imperfect. The goal is not to solve everything, but to keep the problem from continuing to grow in the shadows. What is attended to early usually costs less than what is postponed.
Don't cover it up
Before closing, check whether you are trying to cover the matter with something that only postpones it: a purchase, an excuse, a debt, a distraction. There is no need to judge yourself for it; naming it is enough. Write down what you will do instead when the temptation to hide it returns. Facing something while it is small is the cheapest way to grow.
To reflect on today
At the end of the day, ask yourself: in what way has my capacity to hold this grown today, even if the problem remains the same?
To finish
Problems are not going to reduce their size so that you feel comfortable. What you can do is increase yours, a little each day, with each matter you look in the eye instead of going around it. That is the only race worth running: not the race for a life without difficulties, but the race for a person increasingly capable of inhabiting them.