Problems make us wiser even if most people actually hate them. That’s why the first sign of trouble sends them into panic. They see problems as interruptions to life, while in reality, problems are just the price we pay to be alive.
The French philosopher Michel de Montaigne gained this insight more than 400 years ago. He lived through civil wars, political chaos, and religious violence. Entire cities were consumed by blind hatred, hysteria, and fear. Yet, instead of becoming bitter, Montaigne reached a powerful conclusion: problems are our greatest teachers.
Think about it. Nobody becomes courageous when everything is easy. Nobody develops patience, resilience and wisdom when life gives them exactly what they want. We only gain wisdom when we are forced to deal with setbacks, uncertainty, and pain.
In fact, some of the qualities we admire most in people (strength, self-confidence, self-reliance, good judgement, and critical thinking) are usually the result of facing unwanted problems.
Montaigne noted that adversity forces us to reexamine ourselves, develop new skills and increase our self-reliance. It exposes our vulnerabilities, challenges our assumptions, and pushes us to think independently.
Every difficulty becomes an opportunity to perceive the world more accurately, and make better decisions in the future.
This is why trying to avoid every problem is actually dangerous. A life without challenges doesn’t make us safe. It makes us fragile. A person who has never struggled might collapse at the first sign of real obstacles.
The uncomfortable truth is that our current problems may be doing something beneficial for us, something that comfort and good luck could never do. Problems are teaching us patience, forcing us to adapt and build strengths that we don’t even realize we’re developing.
Problems are painful. Nobody wants them. But they often become the very experiences that make us wiser, stronger, and more effective than we were before.
If you want to apply rational ideas in all sorts of situations, I recommend my book “On becoming unbreakable: How normal people become extraordinarily self-confident.”