The Keys Were in my Pocket

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Let me share another true story with you.

A painful one.

A couple of years ago, as I was closing my car door with my left hand in the parking lot a local business, I got distracted and I slammed the car door with my left hand on all four of my fingers on my right hand, trapping all four of my fingers on my right hand in between the car door and the car body, with the car door locked.

Ouch!

It was immediately extremely painful and was an instance of adversity in my own life.

I am right handed.

I had my cars keys in my right pants pocket, but because of how I was standing, I had to awkwardly reach across my body to get them to get them with my left hand.

In the process, my car keys slipped from my fingers of my left hand and fell to the ground.

There was no people around me at that time I could ask for help.

I had to pause, take a deep breath, reset, lower myself down, all while in extreme pain to pick up my car keys.

I had to apply emotional CPR to myself to address the pain I was in.

I was able to pick up my car keys and unlock the car door. I had a serious crushing injury on the four fingers on my right hand that did require medical attention.

Sometimes a situation in your own your life “slams the door” on you, causing you unexpected pain or an obstacle that leaves you momentarily trapped or is a setback in your life.

You feel your access to progress in your own life is blocked by a locked door.

When you find yourself in such a situation in your own life, how can you pickup the keys and unlock the door that is blocking you?

1. Dropping Your Keys: Even when you locate your keys in your own pocket, providing the solution to your current adverse situation, you may not handle it gracefully. Fear, anxiety, or other limitations (like trapped fingers in my story) can cause you to “drop” your own opportunities to find a solution to the situation that slammed the door on you. Remember, progress isn’t always graceful and it is best to view your current situation with discernment, that is, without judgement.
2. Picking Up Your Keys: Despite pain or frustration, you have to pause, breathe, and pick the keys back up to your current situation. The act of picking up your own keys represents resilience, persistence, courage and the willingness to keep trying even when it hurts. Each time you pick up your own keys, you build a little more confidence. That allows you to feel that even when you drop your keys and your are in pain, you can pick them up to address the situation that has slammed the door on you.
3. Unlocking the Door with Your Keys: Finally, with the keys in your hand and even though you are in pain, you unlock the door that is blocking you. The struggle is behind you, and you are free to move forward again. As you unlock the door that blocks you ;with your own key, you obtain not just relief from the pain, but a sense of personal strength, transformation and success earned from facing the obstacle and picking up your own keys and personally unlocking the door that was blocking you.

Life will slam doors on you from time-to-time. You always have the keys in own pocket to unlock such doors in your own pocket. You my drop your own keys. Even in such a situation when you do, you can bend down, pick them up, unlock that door and keep going and create a positive impact in your own life.

Out There on the Edge of Everything®…

Stephen Lesavich, PhD

Copyright © 2025 by Stephen Lesavich, PhD.  All rights reserved.

Certified solution-focused life coach and experienced business coach.

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