What Do You Do With Closed Doors?

When God closes a door, somewhere He opens a window. – Anonymous

The last post was about what you do with the open door. Today is about what you do with the closed door.

After I thought for a bit about open doors, I started thinking about closed doors and realized that God doesn’t shut doors so you can stand and look at them and try to figure out how to open them again. If a door has been shut, isn’t it best to look for that open window (or door) instead of spending time trying to figure out how to open one that’s been shut?

I have this mental image of me standing at the shut door, trying to open it over and over again, only to find out, yet again, that the door is locked. Eventually I start to pound and yell at the door, trying to get someone on the other side to open it for me again.

It’s exhausting to do that over and over again! But how often do I do that in my life? Instead of being grateful for the opportunities that I was able to experience on the other side of the door, I’m upset that I’m not there anymore.

I find myself doing just that in one area of my life in particular. There’s a group of people that I loved spending time with that moved on to a new part of their life. I miss spending time with them and hearing about how they are and what’s going on in their lives. It’s a normal part of life, people come and go based on what’s going on in their life, but adjusting can be hard. Instead of missing how it used to be, I can be grateful that I had time with them and take advantage of the times they visit.

Do you try to re-open closed doors in your life?

Photo credit: Historic door by Sue Hasker

One Small Step at a Time

Apparently this week’s theme is looking back over the last year.  As I once again think about what’s happened over the course of the last year.

Just over a year ago I hired a life coach to help me answer the infamous question “What do I want to be when I grow up?” A lot has changed in the last year. For one, I had to accept that although conventional wisdom tells you to do what you love, no one was going to pay me money to watch YouTube videos all day (and I’d probably quickly tire of it).

Anyway, a lot has changed for me in the last year. I decided to become a life coach and started training. I left a job (well, really a family) that I had for basically eight years and started my own business. And then I completed my life coach training and turned my focus completely to being a full-time life coach. While it fits in a few sentences, it feels like a lot, right?

Well, yes and no. There’s a funny thing about big changes: they generally don’t happen all at once. Looking back, it looks and feels like a lot. But really, change happens one small step at a time. Yes, some steps are bigger and scarier than others (like quitting a job), but I was surprised to look back and see what I’ve accomplished over the last year.  Most steps didn’t feel huge and scary because they were small steps toward a larger goal.

The point of telling this story is to ask you: what changes have you not made because they feel big and scary?

Take it one small step at a time. And find someone to help you through it.  This could be a close friend you really trust, a family member, someone in your faith community or someone you hire. And remember, generally life changes one minute at a time and in small steps. Look up at where you want to be and put your focus on the next small step to take you there.

So, what changes (or tasks even) are you avoiding because they feel big and scary?