When I encounter a problem that seems unsolvable or an obstacle that feels immovable, I try to remember to take 5 minutes to think + look hard for a solution.
Because I know that just because my brain doesn’t see a way doesn’t mean there isn’t one.
Often, I just need to take one more step. Or sit for a minute in the possibility that a solution might be available.
I don’t always find one, but often, I do.
Here are a couple of small examples:
- I recently had a 30-second task I needed to do at a location 15 minutes away, and I really didn't want to make the drive for something so small. When I thought about it, I realized I had a connection in that office, so I called to ask them if they could do the thing for me, and they said, yeah, no problem.
- And then a few weeks ago, I learned my swim club was hosting a meet. I really wanted to go, but it was scheduled for the day I was returning from vacation, and I didn’t want to compete if I was going to miss a whole week in the pool right before. But then I realized I could probably find a pool in my vacation spot + that making time to swim a few days that week would be a totally doable thing, which it was.
In both instances, there was about 5 minutes when I was certain I was going to have to make that 30-minute drive and pass on that swim meet -- when I was missing an obvious solution because of an assumption, a gap in my awareness, and a lack of imagination.
And if I’d stopped there, I would have missed it: the solution to my problem + that delicious feeling of my brain finding the answer + creating a way.
So often, I take my brain’s objections at face value + make them my final answer.
But possibility is more fluid + dynamic than that.
And things aren’t as fixed as I often think at first glance.
This practice of believing there are solutions, ideas, and possibilities, even if I can't see them yet, opens so much space for creativity to flow.
It helps me get into a mindset of creative problem-solving, open to the world in a more expansive way, and not shut down possibility ahead of time.
Which is a glorious way to move through the world.
So I'm continuing to practice thinking this thought + making it real in my mind:
There are so many solutions, possibilities, and paths forward to uncover + create that will make all the difference.