It happened about 10 years ago. I had gone to Darjeeling with my husband and my in-laws. Every time we came across a beautiful view, my father-in-law would pull out his phone —a simple Nokia keypad phone with a camera—and click a picture.
And every single time, he'd complain. "Yeh phone ka camera achha nahi hai." The phone isn't good. This went on for over a year.
Then one day, my husband picked up the phone to see what the issue actually was. And what he found made us laugh so hard that we still talk about it years later.
A plastic cover was on the screen—the kind that comes on new phones—and it was covering the camera lens too. My father-in-law had never noticed. He'd been complaining about the phone for a year, blaming the camera, blaming the device... when the real problem was one thin sheet of plastic nobody had bothered to peel off.
The moment my husband removed it and my father-in-law clicked a picture, the satisfaction on his face was priceless. And the rest of us? We couldn't stop laughing.
Why I'm telling you this
This story is funny, but the reason I keep coming back to it is deeper.
We do this all the time — not with phones, but with our lives.
We feel stuck. We feel like something isn't working — a relationship, a habit, our confidence, our sense of direction. And instead of really investigating the problem, we jump straight to conclusions. We judge ourselves, others, and our situation. We try solution after solution. We'll change this and fix that.
But the real problem is often sitting somewhere quietly, watching us struggle with the wrong thing entirely. Like a piece of plastic nobody thought to check for.
So how do you find the real "plastic cover" in your life?
The next time you catch yourself thinking, "This is my problem" — pause and go deeper.
- Since when did this problem enter your life? What was happening back then?
- Why do you believe this is your problem? Be specific.
- What clues support this belief — and what clues contradict it?
Verify everything before you settle on a statement. Once you've tested it from every angle, what remains is your actual problem — not the story you've been telling yourself about it.
Only then can you focus your energy where it belongs, instead of complaining about a "camera" that was never broken to begin with.
One more thing
Remember — every problem took time to form, so give it the time it needs to resolve. Don't rush yourself, and don't be afraid to ask for help along the way.
If you're sitting with a problem right now and can't quite tell what's the plastic cover and what's the actual camera — that's exactly the kind of clarity work I love doing with the women I coach. Connect with me; I'd be glad to help you find it.