What would you do if you arrived at the airport after waking at 4am, only to find out your ticket didn’t exist?

That’s exactly what happened to me on my way home from Norway — a trip that got cut short for reasons back home. After rescheduling my flight (never easy, rarely inexpensive), I arrived at check-in to discover the agent who’d sent my confirmation email had forgotten to release the tickets. No flight. No boarding pass. A connection to catch.

Ninety minutes of calls, conversations, and negotiating later, I had a valid ticket — and sprinted to the gate at the furthest end of the airport. I made it.

I could have fallen apart. I could have resigned myself to being stranded. Instead, I chose to move with the situation rather than against it.

Working With vs. Against

Unexpected change is inevitable — it’s our response to it that makes all the difference.

That distinction — with vs. against — shows up everywhere in our lives, not just in airports.

When we resist unexpected change, we spend enormous energy fighting something that’s already happening. When we lean into it, something shifts. Solutions surface. Stress eases. Forward motion becomes possible again. That’s what adapting and pivoting really looks like — not giving up or giving in but finding a new way through.

I see this play out constantly in the mediations I facilitate. When parties let go of their positions and focus on what’s possible together, they almost always find a path forward. The same is true for us individually, which I see when working with clients in a coaching engagement.

So I’ll leave you with a few questions to sit with:

• What do you notice in your body and mind when you’re working against a situation?
• What changes when you work with it instead?
• Can you think of a time when an unwanted change actually led somewhere better?

What might open up if you stopped resisting?

Imagine being open to adapting and pivoting.

If you’re facing unexpected change at work, navigating a conflict, or feeling stuck — I’d love to connect and explore what’s possible. Let’s connect.

“Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.” – Stephen Hawking