Are You Solving for Survival or Freedom?

This thought came to me on my walk this morning.

I realised how often I default to solving short-term problems. Things like how to get more done today, how to make a bit more money this month, how to fix the latest pain in my back.

It’s not that these problems don’t matter, they do, but I started to notice that most of them come from the same place: survival. Avoid discomfort. Get through the day. Solve what’s in front of me.

And it made me ask myself:

What problems am I actually giving my mind to solve?

Because the mind is always solving something. That’s what it does. But the quality of the problems we set it determines the quality of the answers we get back. Most people — and I include myself here — spend years solving the same handful of problems, over and over. The ones that scream the loudest. The ones that hurt the most when ignored.

But rarely the ones that would actually change the game long-term.

Solving for Survival

Money is a good example.

For years, I was solving the “make enough to live” problem. I grew up without much money, and by 23, I’d finished university with debt and no savings. So I started playing poker. Not because I loved it at the time — that came later — but because I needed a way to survive financially. My thinking was simple: if I can just make enough to cover rent, food, and a bit of freedom, I’ll be okay.

And it worked. I got good at poker. I made money. Within a few years, I had what I thought I wanted.

But weirdly, the money problem didn’t go away. Even when I had a buffer, even when I wasn’t in debt anymore, I still felt like I was just a few bad months away from being back where I started. The stress didn’t leave — I was just a few extra layers away from the pain. And the reason, I now see, is because I hadn’t actually changed the problem I was trying to solve.

I was still solving for survival.

From Pain Relief to Real Freedom

It wasn’t until I got to around 30 that I started to think differently. I began asking myself — what would it look like to actually solve my money problem? Not to patch up. But remove it entirely. What would it take to not have to think about money every month?

That’s when things started to shift.

I picked up the book I Will Teach You To Be Rich, and the concept that stuck with me was this idea of putting your money to work. Investing a small percentage every month. Building something that compounds over time. Then I found the FIRE movement — people saving and investing half of what they earn, not so they can get rich, but so they can buy their time back. Financial freedom. That hit me. These people weren’t reacting to bills. They were solving a completely different problem. They had given their minds a better question to work on.

And I realised — I didn’t even know that game existed. I was too busy playing the reactive one.

The crazy thing is, I probably could have started solving my money problem years earlier — but I hadn’t even considered it. I hadn’t thought to give my mind that job. That’s what struck me most. The mind will come up with solutions, but only for the problems you assign it. And if you never assign it a long-term, meaningful question, it will keep trying to win the short-term ones on loop.

A Different Kind of Game

Health is another area where this plays out, but in a different way for me.

Unlike money, I’ve mostly approached health with a longer-term lens. I’ve trained consistently for over 25 years. I enjoy it. It’s part of my identity now. I eat well. I take care of my body. Even during my early twenties when I was drinking too much and living a bit recklessly, I was still training. Health has always mattered. I want to be strong and active when I’m older. I don’t want to be fragile. That long-term thinking has always shaped my decisions — even when I wasn’t consciously aware of it.

But even now, I’m being tested.

My lower back has been playing up lately. It’s stopped me from lifting heavy. I could easily go into reactive mode here — try to get rid of the pain, do a few stretches, rest for a bit, then get back to my program. But that’s not what I want. I want to understand what caused it. What was weak, tight, or imbalanced. I want to build a back that doesn’t just recover — but is bulletproof. I don’t want to get back to where I was. I want to go beyond it. That’s the new problem I’ve given my mind to solve.

And it’s such a different energy.

Instead of reacting to pain, I’m investigating. I’m learning. I’m getting curious. And slowly, I’m starting to build something stronger.

Give Your Mind a Better Problem

That’s the whole idea I’m sitting with today:

What if I gave my mind better problems to solve?

Because the mind is always solving something. It’s built to analyse, fix, and forecast. Yet most of the time, it’s solving the problems that feel the most immediate — the ones that hurt, nag, or stress us out in the moment. And so we default to reacting to short-term problem solving.

But what it we flipped the script?

What if, instead of always reacting, we start to move towards being more proactive and focus on solving the problems at their root?

Not all in one go, but steadily over time. Instead of giving your mind the job of how to make enough money this month, give it the job of figuring out what it would take to not have to worry about money again.

Rather than trying to lose weight or fix your back pain, focus on what it would take to be healthy and strong for the next 30 years.

We all get handed similar challenges in life — money, health, relationships, happiness.

But the real difference is in how we approach them.

Short term solutions leave you stuck in a reactive cycle.

Long term solutions can solve the problem for good.

Adam