Call it a problem and you’ll feel stuck. Call it a puzzle and you’ll start looking for pieces.

The word you reach for sets your posture before you do anything else. A problem is something happening to you that has to be survived. A puzzle is something in front of you with pieces that can be moved. Same situation, entirely different first move.

Try renaming one thing you have been dreading, then ask what somebody who found it interesting would try first. Not everything qualifies, since some situations are genuinely heavy and deserve to be called that. Plenty of what you are carrying, though, is a puzzle filed in the wrong drawer.