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I always wanted a life without problems.

I soon realized that my desire was merely wishful thinking.

Life without problems doesn’t exist. The challenges we hate are an inevitable part of life, and we can’t just avoid or deny them.

There are two types of challenges: the ones that are unavoidable versus the ones that are self-inflicted.

In Buddhism, unavoidable challenges include sickness, aging, and death. These occurrences are universal truths that are bound to happen in life.

Anti-aging creams might temporarily help slow down aging. A healthy diet might help prevent sickness. But there’s no magic elixir that might push away death.

In fact, we can’t push away any life-given consequence. We must accept and face life’s challenges with courage and mindfulness. However, we have control over some of the challenges that we create.

It’s hard to believe that we are capable of creating problems when, in reality, all we want is happiness and peace of mind. The truth is there are plenty of challenges that are preventable. Most of them are internal and live within our minds.

Self-inflicted struggle is avoidable only if we are willing to let go of a fixed mindset and focus on a growth mindset instead.

Here are six ways to uncomplicate your daily life:

1. Accept life’s inevitable challenges. Most of our daily stress results from our inability to control life’s traumatic events. We all want health, youth, and a few more decades with the ones we love. And if there were a way to achieve immortality, I’m sure we would all seek it. But all the above remains elusive, and the fact that we are unable to digest it makes life so damn hard.

We need to accept life’s natural consequences so we can focus on living the present moment fully, appreciating our loved ones, and focusing on what truly matters.

2. Ditch perfectionism. The persistent pursuit of wanting everything to be perfect can make us (and our life) miserable. Perfectionism is simply unattainable, so trying to consistently achieve it creates an immense pressure on some people that causes accumulated anxiety and stress.

Instead of setting unreasonable standards for yourself, accept your skills and competency as they are while understanding that you can still be successful and unique even if you make a few mistakes.

3. Identify your stressors. What stresses you out the most in your life? It could be your job, your relationship, or a friendship. Stressors could also include poor time management, financial instability, poor decision-making, or malnutrition. If you can identify your daily hassles, you can learn how to manage them and reduce their impact on your overall well-being.

If some of your stressors are consistently taking a toll on your mental and emotional health, you may need to make big lifestyle changes, such as seeking another career or leaving a toxic relationship.

4. Stop trying to control everything—and everyone. If you’re a control freak like me, you know how ugly it is when things don’t go your way. But you must know by now that having the urge to control everything in your life is sometimes futile (and often stressful). Releasing control over external factors significantly lowers your stress levels and helps you understand that some things in life thrive in places where unpredictability and uncertainty rule.

So breathe and know when to stop and let things be. Recognizing the difference between what’s controllable and what’s not can help you to reframe your mindset and become a generally happier person.

5. Get out of your head. Getting stuck in repetitive, negative thoughts often moves us away from the present moment and what it has in store for us. We’re always inclined to worry, ruminate, and replay unnecessary mental chatter because we think that constant thinking may help resolve our most complicated problems. Mental chatter keeps us safe and offers momentary solutions without taking real action.

So get out of your head and get into your life and present moment instead. Train yourself to take action instead of dwelling on reactions and situations.

6. Embrace change. One of the ways we complicate our life is refusing to accept the natural flow of things. Everything in life is in constant fluctuation, and if we can’t or find it hard to accept this universal truth, chances are we might continuously struggle with new beginnings.

Starting fresh and letting go of what’s certain and predictable is undeniably scary. However, if we want to decrease our stress levels and optimize our happiness, we must step into the unknown. The unknown eventually becomes known; we just need to be brave enough to dive into the temporary path of uncertainty.

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