I know a couple of people who are struggling with big life problems, including the loss of career (and the loss of income that goes along with a career), legal issues, financial issues, and relationship issues.

These people are in a place where they are struggling to find workable solutions. Every solution seems to have impossible challenges. Most of the solutions require some money (which requires a career and an income stream). If you lose your career and your income stream, you lose money, and then you lose a lot of options.
—–
There is a legend of the “Gordian Knot”. A Gordian Knot (according to Google) is named after Gordius, king of Gordium, who “tied an intricate knot and prophesied that whoever untied it would become the ruler of Asia. It was cut through with a sword by Alexander the Great.”. Other definitions of Gordian Knots include an “intractable problem” or “impossible knot”.
—–
I have had some problems in my life that seemed impossible. When I was 21, I was newly graduated from college, with a mountain of debt and no career prospects. I had no meaningful relationship, no career, no real income stream, lots of debt, and no idea how to move my life forward.

I also had a failure of imagination. I thought that the way my life was at the age of 21 was the way it was going to be for the rest of my life. If you had told “21 year old me” that I would be where I am right now, doing what I am doing, married to my best friend, with two wonderful daughters and the greatest dog in the world, I would have asked “what kind of dog?” That is who I was back then. I focused on the problems, and lacked imagination. I lacked the imagination to believe that great things were possible in my life. I had no capacity to believe that something much better was in my future.

When Gordius asked someone to solve the problem of The Knot, he thought that the only way to undo the knot was to untie it. Alexander didn’t bother untying the knot, he cut through it instead.

I hope that I can help my friends to cut through their knots instead of trying to untie them.