There I was, a bit frustrated over the fact that my brand-new phone charger, stopped working suddenly. My phone’s battery was low, and the charger refused to power the phone. I fiddled with it a bit, trying to determine if there was a short in the charger but got no response.
Therein began my focused search for another charger. I was a woman on a mission. I rummaged through bags and boxes, tabletops, dressers, drawers, hoping to find a charger that would satisfy my need. However, despite my manic search, I came up empty.
I slowly began to feel myself getting annoyed with the situation, especially because I had only purchased the charger a couple weeks ago.
I gave myself permission to feel the frustration and then decided that feeling sorry for myself was not going to help the situation. In that moment, a mantra popped into my head. “There is always a way. Even when I cannot see one, there is always a way.”
Soon after, I began repeating it to myself and then out loud, over and over again, which re-ignited my hope to find a charger. While, I repeated the mantra, I felt my self feeling better and more enthusiastic about finding one.
After some time, I then decided to take a break and sit for a while to check my messages. Then, when what felt like suddenly, I remembered seeing something resembling a charger in a box that was sitting on the table for months.
Without even determining the certainty of my memory, a smile immediately emerged from my lips. I then reached over to the box and opened it. Honestly, I felt like I had won the lottery because there was in fact a brand-new charger in the box. I checked the port and excitedly tried it in my phone. It was a perfect fit.
At that point, I exhaled a sigh of relief for a couple reasons. Firstly, I was ecstatic over the fact that I found a charger to charge my phone and secondly but most importantly, I remembered that no matter how dismal the situation may look, there is always a way.
As simple as this experience with the charger may seem, it was a very important reminder for me in that moment.
When faced with a problem or challenging situation, sometimes, we can get stuck in our heads about what is possible for us, usually binding ourselves only to what we can immediately perceive. This very narrow approach often leaves us feeling frustrated and boxed in, because some answers lie outside of our current awareness.
Life Coach, Wendi Jensen states that, “At any given moment there are estimated 30,000 different options for our mind to choose from. By habit and training our mind, we will usually only access those possibilities we believe are probable because we have had some evidence to trust the outcome. Because our subconscious programming has been completely enmeshed in our environment, it is not likely we will choose to answer life’s questions outside of our current paradigm. It has not even occurred to the mind that there are more than 2 or 3 possibilities out of the 30,000.”
When we isolate a possible solution to a problem we are facing, it is always our hope that that one solution produces the results we desire. As we all know, this is not always the case. Sometimes, the chosen possibility, does not, in fact, immediately solve the challenge.
This often leaves us feeling bewildered, stressed and unfulfilled, which also has the potential to consume us, causing us to feel even worse about ourselves and the situation.
Our state of disequilibrium can become overwhelming to the point that it blocks our ability to see anything else but the problem and our failed attempts to solve it. It is usually at this point, we succumb to self-pity, desperation and self-sabotage and even giving up.
This pattern of problem solving seems to be a perpetual habit for most of us. However, it certainly does not have to continue being our default way of being.
I firmly believe that it is very possible for us to circumvent this un-serving cycle of closing ourselves off to the other 29,000 possibilities that exist. How?
First, by recognizing, remembering that there is and will always be another way, another perspective, another option, another possibility to explore.
It is said that the legendary Thomas Edison made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light bulb. When a reporter asked, “How did it feel to fail 1,000 times?” Edison replied, “I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.”
Edison knew in his heart that despite his many so-called failed attempts to solve the problem that was before him, there was always another prospect to discover. And several generations later, we continue to be the lucky recipients of his willingness and commitment to finding another way.
Another way of reminding ourselves that there is always a way, is to recall the many instances in the past when things Sometimes, while we are smack dab in the middle of a challenging situation, we temporarily forget the past, numerous examples of the occasions, when what felt like an impossible situation, showed us that impossible really means ‘I’m possible.’
If we allow ourselves, to remember these inspiring occasions, they act as a motivator, helping us to re-focus and re-align with all that is possible.
Additionally, learning how to control and use our emotions, can be one of our greatest assets as we navigate our way through challenging experiences.
For a large majority, fear, doubt and frustration seem to be our default state of being, when faced with difficult situations. Habitually, we seem to isolate the worse possibility first, which serves to create the unpleasant emotions. Once these unpleasant emotions build sufficient momentum, they overwhelm and inundate us.
Our emotions are a part of our sophisticated internal navigation system, helping us to become aware of the quality of our thoughts.
Pleasant emotions indicate that our thoughts about a subject matter is serving and in alignment with what we believe at our core. However, unpleasant emotions, which usually do not feel good, indicate that our thoughts are unserving and not in alignment with our truth.
By learning how to tune into our emotions and use them to guide our thinking to more serving, uplifting thoughts, which ultimately creates a pleasant, open state of being, we allow ourselves to become more available to the vast possibilities that always exist for us.
Finally, taking a step back from the situation can also tremendously aid us in clearing our minds, to explore what we may not have been able to see previously.
A guaranteed way of testing this is to take a nap or do something different and fun when you feel stuck with a challenge. By giving our mind a break, we allow it the space it needs to explore the several other possibilities to the challenge we may be facing.
The truth is it all comes down to our choice. We can choose to limit our experiences by focusing on what we perceive to be dead ends. Or, we can choose to remember that we live in a universe that is filled with infinite possibilities. The choice is and will always be ours.
“If Plan A didn’t work. The alphabet has 25 more letters. Stay cool!” – Unknown.