A simple strategy to handle tough challenges

 There's this colleague of mine from a different time-zone that I have a great rapport with. We enjoy working with each other. We've tackled some really complex technical challenges together and there's a great lesson I learnt from him, which I won't forget in this lifetime. 

Every single time, we got to the part of the problem that was particularly hard or open-ended, he would invariably start laughing and say "This is the fun part".  Initially, I found it a bit strange that he could be so light-hearted knowing that we are staring at a tough challenge ( a typical example would be that the customer reports that something doesn't work once in 63 times. and the number 63 keeps changing.  Random failures are always challenging to debug ) 

But after a while, I fell in love with his line - "This is the fun part". It reminded me that every technical problem or any problem , for that matter, that I've faced has run its course and is no longer a part of my life at the moment. 

Yes, this is the fun part... 

Since the last few months, I've been training my son in advanced ( for his age) math. He enjoys it, but sometimes he will stare at a problem and immediately respond with -"this is very hard".. In the last few weeks, I've been calling these problems as "Laddoo problems" and I will crack some silly jokes about how we're gonna eat up those problems and how tasty they'll be.. 

And he's caught on. He's more willing to attempt hard problems. He himself says - "Appa, this is a laadoo problem" :D. And he will crack some silly joke on it. The problem is no longer intimidating. 

This is the fun part 

This is a Laadoo problem. 

Pick one of them, or make up your own .