LIFE IS A TEST
This past week, I had one of those conversations you don’t forget, one that was with my 90-year-old grandpa on viewing problems as tests and opportunities.
Jack Williamson is one of the kindest, wisest people around. He spent over 30 years as a therapist, and now he spends his time pouring wisdom into anyone who asks. I happened to be the lucky one on the receiving end of an important conversation that I asked him to repeat and share with you this morning.
I hope this blesses you.
x LG Curry
What is the difference between a ‘problem’ and a ‘test’?
“The first major issue is that people assume anything bad is a problem, and with the word problem comes all kinds of negative weight: headaches, inconveniences, detriments, expenses. That’s how people see a problem. But what if, instead of calling it a problem, you called it a test? The word test changes the entire game.
Most of what we call problems aren’t really problems - they're challenges, experiences, or opportunities. So instead of immediately labeling something a headache or a burden, stop and ask:
‘Is this problem a test or an opportunity?’
It’s the difference between seeing something as future harm or future good.
If you stay stuck in the word problem, you stay stuck in fear. But when you view it as a test, you start to ask: ‘What is this teaching me? How can I grow through this?’
Problem has to become possibility, and what I’m suggesting is that you need to think that all things work together for good.”
How do people shift from seeing things as problems to seeing them as tests?
“It starts with your perspective. You have to actively choose it. You make choices every single day, and you have to actively choose to change your perspective into thinking something is a problem into knowing that it’s a test. You can move your mind from, ‘Why is this happening to me?’ to ‘What is this doing for me?’
That shift alone changes everything.”
What are the benefits of seeing something as a test?
You start to see the tests as having positives. You have to ask yourself:
What part of me is making this choice in seeing this situation as a problem?
Based on that view, is this an actual problem or can it be a blessing?
Positive thinking is a cultivation, and viewing things in a positive light brings you out of the dark. Sometimes you just have to think, ‘I don’t like it, but there is a blessing in it.'
Any last words of wisdom?
“Every human being is born into a world of two forces: good and evil, light and dark, positive and negative.
The key is learning to listen to the voices of the up.
If it’s a problem, and you treat it like one, it’ll stay flat.
But if you treat it like a non-problem, like a test, it becomes an opportunity.”