What if the key to happiness was knowing how to deal with problems?

BarcelonaLife is, in essence, a constant challenge. The wisest people know this: our passage through this world is an inevitable succession of difficulties. The loss of a loved one, the premature death of someone close, unexpected illnesses, children going through dark times, betrayals by partners or friends... The list may seem endless, and often it is; as we age, these obstacles seem to multiply. But it's not enough to be aware of this reality. What makes the real difference is not what happens to us, but how we decide to face it and, above all, how we learn to resolve it.

With this premise in mind, the recently published Homo solver (Kitaeru, 2025), the new book by Àlex Rovira and Francesc Miralles, authors of other achievements such as Ikigai and Good luckIn this new work, both propose a new evolutionary leap: to stop being just Homo sapiens (what you know) to become Homo solver (what it solves).

"We are educated to accumulate knowledge, but we are not taught to solve real-life challenges," explains Àlex Rovira. That's why in the book the authors have synthesized fifteen essential challenges, differentiated into five parts. In this way, the chapters cover aspects ranging from discovery and personal management to resilience and acceptance, dealing with aspects such as relationships, learning, temperance, stoicism, and fulfillment.

"We don't come into life to be happy, but to solve problems and grow through them," notes Francesc Miralles. Along similar lines, Álex Rovira adds: "Life is not designed to make you happy, but to constantly challenge you, to live it and overcome obstacles." And it is precisely to the extent that we accept this reality – that life is a path full of challenges rather than a comfortable place to stay – that, perhaps, as if by surprise, "happiness can pinch us from time to time."

"What theHomo solver "There's no need to desperately search for happiness, joy, or a specific meaning in life, because all of this will come to you in small doses if you're able to work to solve everything that life throws at you," Miralles explains. He adds: "We will never stop having to face challenges; the key is to learn to live with them and keep moving forward."

Accept what comes

For all these reasons, the authors believe it's important to educate people to accept that life is difficult, and that there are natural challenges we'll have to overcome in order to later say we've faced them. However, acceptance shouldn't be confused with resignation. "Resignation is an energy of withdrawal and escape. Balzac said that resignation is daily suicide," explains Rovira. Acceptance, on the other hand, is an energy of serenity, of not running away. "It's pure stoicism: what I can change, I change; what I can't, I accept. And within this acceptance, I can change the way I live," she continues.

For the authors, acceptance is a mechanism that allows us to "de-neuroticate" ourselves and mature. "You can think 'I'll grow old,' accept it, and forget about Botox," says Rovira. Accepting life as it comes, not making dramas or adding drama to drama, are some of the points Miralles and Rovira advise us in the book. "When you have received many blows, you can return a cynic or die, or you can embrace these blows as the keys of Chiron, with gratitude," says Rovira. "And if you ask yourself what life is for, as José Luis Sampedro said, it is to understand and not hinder." And he continues: "No one is against you, everyone does what they can with what they have, therefore try not to bother and make it easy: if they have lent you, return; if you have made a mess, clean; if you have opened, close. This is a Homo solver, a person who solves."

And when the darkest moments arrive, those days when everything seems to weigh more than necessary and the light is difficult to find, you can always follow the example told in a story by Anthony de Mello. In this story, a man tormented by sadness and discouragement becomes dejected. The teacher answers him simply: "Encourage others."