Finding Another Way, One Hoop at a Time -

It’s not how long it takes, but the impact it has.

Greetings from Melbourne, where I’ll be visiting my daughter and granddaughters until 14 January.

Yesterday, we found ourselves locked out of the house by mistake. How long does it take to close a door and forget the key? Less than a second—but what impact does that have?

Frustration, a locksmith fee—and an unexpected gift of 40 minutes to do something unplanned, like shooting hoops with my granddaughter. And yes, I even made a few!

This minor mishap reminded me of an important lesson. Stoic wisdom says, "The obstacle is the way." Moana teaches us, "There is always another way." And as Dory’s father in Finding Dory said, "When something is too hard... there is always another way."

Take my self-created obstacle: I didn’t pack my hearing aids for this trip (please don't ask me how that happened!). I could be frustrated for six weeks—or find another way.

The friendly folks at Hearing Australia and Bloom Hearing here in Melbourne were eager to help, but getting a new pair would still have taken two weeks. So, I called my audiologist in Cape Town, who is preparing a trial set for me. I’ve arranged for a courier, and I’ll be hearing the children’s stories clearly by the weekend—all at a fraction of the cost of new hearing aids.

And I’m confident my old pair will show up when I return home!

Going forward—not just this week but throughout life—let’s always look for another way out of difficult situations.

Here’s a challenge for you: Write down the most difficult situation you’re facing now. Then list everything you’ve done to try to resolve it. Finally, brainstorm another way. It might take some time to discover, but the solution is waiting for you.

Let me know how it works out for you!

Wishing you a week of finding other ways,

Gerrit Cloete - Dedicated to enjoying life.

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts." — Unknown (often attributed to Winston Churchill)