Cyril Haearn wrote:The Guardian has interesting articles about mental health and the like, 'this column will change your life' for example
Yesterday it reported about wives of footballers and ex-footballers, they have problems too, not just too much money
A problem is just an opportunity in disguise. After all, we humans thrive on being creative. Suffering an adversity in life can be an opportunity to create a better way of life. It can occur at the minor as well as the major levels of "a problem".
There's a notion about in this laughably-named "individualistic" culture of ours that there is a perfect human; a perfect way of living; a perfect appearance; a perfect face; a perfect bum; a perfect partner; a perfect you-name-it. Many suffering mental problems of the modern ilk seem to do so because they are adopting these "perfection" schemas and failing to adhere to them. The social panopticon amplifies the feelings of failure and inadequacy, these days, as various strivers fail to achieve what they have been told is some necessary perfection then get judged as failures by all, sundry and their dogs.
At a low level, many cyclists are familiar with the phrase, "If it isn't on Strava, it didn't happen". Many others strive to achieve some set of data constructs registered by an assortment of gizmos then feel they are inadequate failures when actual performance doesn't meet gizmo demands.
Personally I avoid adopting perfection-schemas. I was lucky enough to learn, somehow, that competence is a far better thing to aim for than perfection. The former is achievable and the latter never is. As a consequence of being uninterested in perfection-achievement, I find myself happy and content most of the time and merely motivated, when I discover an incompetence in myself, to put the situation right.
Cugel
“Practical men who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence are usually the slaves of some defunct economist”.
John Maynard Keynes