When You Stop Forcing the Answer

There’s a phrase I’ve been coming back to lately—one I first heard from Gabby Bernstein:

“I am open to creative solutions.”

Simple, right?

Not too long ago, I signed up for a coaching certification program. I loved the introductory course. It felt aligned. Exciting. Like something I actually wanted for myself.

And then… everything went sideways.

Technical glitches. A heavier workload. Life doing what life does. And before I knew it, I found myself struggling to catch up.  I was still within a 30-day window where I could ask for my money back and hope to join at a future date, but this thought had me in tears.

And suddenly, I was stuck in that familiar mental trap: Push through and stress myself out trying to catch up…Or walk away and feel like I just quit on something that mattered to me.

Neither felt right.

So instead, I threw my hands up (literally) and said: “I am open to creative solutions.”

The camera pans to me tapping my foot and looking skyward expectantly. I looked around me.  No burning bush.  No thunderous voice from beyond or magic genie, for that matter.

But a few hours later, something shifted.

I remembered that the program runs multiple cohorts throughout the year.

So I sent a simple email: Is there any way I could join the next round instead?

Within hours, I had my answer. Yes.

And just like that… everything that felt heavy… didn’t.

Here’s the thing. The solution wasn’t complicated. It wasn’t hidden.

It was there the whole time. I just couldn’t see it because I was stuck in either/or thinking.

This phrase opened my mind up to explore an out-of-the-box alternative. The solution was already there.  I just wasn’t seeing it. It’s the most satisfying form of surrender.  It’s like taking the most onerous task on your to-do list and reassigning it to the Universe.  “Here!  You do it!  I trust you.”

It’s being open enough to acknowledge that there might be another way.

These days, when I feel that pressure building—that urgency to figure everything out—I come back to that phrase:

I am open to creative solutions.

Not because it guarantees an answer.

But because it reminds me: There is almost always more than one way forward.