(Champagne) Problems

Life is about picking your problems instead of your successes. 

What do I mean by this?

Well, when you start to talk about what kind of success you want, I’m pretty sure most people would want similar things and therefore could create similar dreams.

Most humans want richness in life: richness in happiness, richness in relationships, richness in love, richness in money, richness in material stuff, richness in travel experiences and or maybe even richness in fame, status and popularity. Yet, certain types of dreams, successes and achievements aren’t meant for everybody, simply because everybody has different needs, values and priorities. Not everyone is willing to invest the same amount into themselves and others or is willing to make the same sacrifices on their way to achieving their goals.

Your will, desire, priorities and discipline are big factors in your chance of achieving your dreams. I strongly believe that if you weren’t capable of achieving a certain dream, you wouldn’t have the desire for it. However, desire on its own is not enough… But, if you take your desire, will and discipline together, you have the perfect mix of ingredients to go en route to your mountain of dreams.

That said, even though you start off with all the right ingredients, your answer to the following questions will truly decide if you make it to the top of your (dream) mountain or if your chance to choose to turn around halfway through will grow.

• What sacrifices are you willing to make?
• What pain are you willing to encounter?
• What problems are you willing to face?  

Dreams are built on a mountain of smaller dreams on top of each other. While you walk your mountain of dreams, and your friends walk their mountain of dreams, you will realize soon enough that not everyone makes it to the top of their mountain (even though they started off with the right ingredients). Some people will realize halfway through that they aren’t happy anymore or happy enough and will turn around to create a new mountain of dreams to climb.

I believe that happiness is a journey of fixing your problems while getting closer to achieving your (new) dreams. The higher you climb, the better your problems, the happier you get. Your capability to fix your problems often goes hand in hand with the sacrifices you’re willing to make. Having problems in life will never end and should never end, as you truly achieve fulfillment and the continued experience of happiness from the journey of fixing your problems over and over again.

Therefore, the goal should be to get better problems – champagne problems.

When you’re 20, you might have the problem of paying for your bills, while at 50, you might have problems with your administration due to all your different streams of income. The problems don’t end, but they do get better. Having the problem of not knowing how to pay your bills turn into the problem of having so many ways of being able to pay your bills that you can’t keep up with your administration is a great example of a “champagne problem.”

When you choose your problems, you will automatically choose your success too. We are on this planet to fix problems and to get more equipped to overcome them over time. Having problems will never stop – there will never be an end to your problems, but the aim to have champagne problems is a great manifestation! If you didn’t have any problems left in life, you would lose the experience of feeling happiness, as feelings never last forever, and eventually your new norm will, over time, become normal too, which makes space for new problems to roll in.

We have dreams because we want to experience happiness by achieving these dreams. This is why life is not about picking your successes but about picking your problems, as the amount or size of your problems will eventually decide if you find it in yourself to make it to the top of the mountain of your dreams... Depending on the pain you are willing to encounter, depending on the sacrifices you are willing to make, you will know what problems you are willing to face and fix, and what part of the “mountain of dreams” you’re actually able and capable to achieve.

Problem + Fixing the Problem = Happiness

More Problems = More ways of Achieving the Continued Experience of Happiness

Better Problems + Better Solutions = Higher Experience of Happiness

Therefore, at every new level of life, you will bump into a new level of problems, and each level will add to your journey of finding and feeling happiness. 

Cheers to manifesting a life full of champagne problems!