Have you ever found yourself in a tricky situation and you really don’t know any way to solve it? Have you ever felt stuck, trapped, or lost, with no way out? Have you ever felt helpless, hopeless, and alone? Well, I found myself feeling all of those things in a unique situation this week. I am very grateful that I said to myself, and actually believed, there has to be a solution to this dilemma.

As I mentioned in last week’s blog, I have just moved into a new home. When you move, there is always an adjustment period, especially for pets. My little fluffy-faced daughter, Joia, has taken a little time to get used to the new place. This was made very clear to me one-night last week. Just to give you the lay of the land of my new apartment, there is a nice little courtyard area out the front, off the lounge/dining room, and another small outdoor area out the back, through the laundry, with a clothesline. This back area is very enclosed by the house, the garage and very close neighbours all around. An exciting feature of the laundry door leading out to this back area is a doggy-door. Which is awesome, except Joia has never used a doggy-door before, so it is going to take some time to train her.

Anyway, last week was a full-on week, with the move and the launch of my new book, TEARS of Joy. So, I was loving any sleep I could get. I went to bed on Wednesday night after my online book launch, feeling happy and inspired. At midnight, I heard the unmistakable squeaking of my little Maltese Shih Tzu, who wanted to go out. Tragically, I had not trained her how to use the doggy-door yet. So, I got up, let her out. After about 5 minutes she came back in, and I went back to bed. At 2am, it happened again. Aaagh! With love I got up, let her out and was back in bed 5 minutes later. You won’t believe what happened at 3:30am! Yep, again with the squeaking!

This time I decided I would show her the doggy-door and leave her to decide if she wanted to use it or not. There is a fly-wire door that needed to be propped open so she could get through the doggy-door. I went outside, propped the fly-wire screen door open, just as the laundry door swung closed behind me. Little did I know at that time, the deadlock had not been unlatched. So, yes, you guessed it. At 3:30am in my PJ shorts and t-shirt, I was locked out of my house, with no keys and no way back in.

My initial reaction was panic. Then, I woke up a bit and realised the gravity of the situation. I had no keys, no phone and no way into my house, or even out into the street. Whilst I could get into my garage through a backdoor, the garage door itself was locked. Even if I could get out into the street, what would I do then? So, as you can imagine my brain was scrambling for ideas and a solution. Whilst my situation seemed hopeless, I knew someway and somehow there was a solution.

I thought to myself, there has to be a way back in. Aha, the doggy-door! I got on all fours and tried to squeeze my way through the doggy-door, and almost got stuck. Nope, no good. I tried a couple of other times from different angles, with different strategies, but each time, I almost got stuck. Joia was inside looking at me as if I were a lunatic. In my mind, I was thinking about the neighbours, who had a two-storey townhouse with a window overlooking this outdoor area. If they heard some commotion and looked, they would have seen my butt hanging out of the doggy-door!

I went into the garage, found a screwdriver, and unscrewed the doggy-door, thinking that would give me more room to get through. Nope. Now I just had a hole in the door with splintered edges that hurt even more as I tried to get in. As I was halfway through the doggy-door, I looked up at the handle, and then a little higher was the deadlock. Maybe I could reach it. Well, I tried as hard as possible, imagining my arm was rubber, but was not even close. I tried to reach it with the screwdriver, still no luck. Then finally, I found my hammer. No, not to smash in the door, although I was tempted! I grabbed the head of the hammer and reached up, the rubber coated handle caught the deadlocked and slid it into the unlocked position, and the door was open. Problem solved!

At 4am, I fell back into bed, grazed and exhausted, and slept soundly till my alarm went off at 5:30am! I think conservatively, I had maybe three hours sleep the whole night. But do you know what? I didn’t care. I was back in my house and the problem was solved. I am grateful, that I have a solution-oriented mindset. I knew there had to be a way, and there was. In my podcast this week, called Clarity is King, I speak with self-leadership guru John Carroll about the power of clearly knowing what you want.

There is something powerful about believing that there is a solution. When you do, your mind switches on and starts coming up with ideas that can help solve the problem. Had I believed there was no solution, I would have switched my brain off, and might still be stuck in my back courtyard right now. So, as you are trying to get unstuck, or find your way through an undesirable situation, jut know in your heart that there is always a solution and trust me, when you do, the solution will appear.