regrets - The One Door That Leaks

Most people don't think that doorways have a mind of their own. When one door shuts, truthfully, another door often opens and at times it even opens wide right before you know it. Sometimes you're too busy looking down the hall or behind something rather than in front of it.


The truth about closed doors though is that they cause rethinking all of that very same thing. Because it's such a common occurrence, most people don't even notice it anymore. The second thing it causes rethinking about is when one door closes and another one opens. We often receive credit for opening it; but we're too busy looking at something else. This is human nature; everyone's guilty of it to an extent.

But the truth about when one door closes another one opens is that it makes everything else look so much better. Like if you get into a scrap book and find yourself staring at one page in the book and you realize that you can't remember the information between when one door closes and the next one opened. The information that you need for that particular page must be there. But if that page isn't there, then what's left? Or worse, if that page is missing from your scrapbook, then how will you know which information you need if you can't find it, right?

If you've ever been through a "check your blank scrapbook" cycle and come out empty handed, then you know exactly what I'm talking about. It's hard to look so long and regretfully upon the closed door that we don't see the one we need. If you're like me though, it is often easier to put the entire thing in a scrap book and skip right to the fun part - making a full statement! Here's why.

First off, there's the question of familiarity. When one door opens, some people look so long and regretfully upon the closed door that they don't even see the one that just opened. If you have some information in your scrapbook that is completely forgotten, but you've gotten rid of it, or if you are looking at a photo in your album and it's faded, or the original isn't available, then you have the perfect opportunity to make a full statement with just one sentence. If you write a short six-word adage that says: "Look so long and re-read the next six words," then people are going to have to look again. You've refreshed their memory with one sentence.

Second, there's the simple art of copywriting. When one door closes and another opens, it's tempting to simply close the other one and put the new one on the shelf for good luck. However, if you're anything like me and you enjoy re-reading things and making statements using short quotes and six word sayings, then this temptation is your worst enemy. Instead, consider the opposite: when one door closes and another opens, it can be a chance to say something like: "Look so long and re-read the next six words." This can be a chance to refocus on the idea that there is a real problem that you want to solve and that by fixing that problem, you will solve others as well.

Finally, and most importantly, consider the future. If one door closes and another one opens, it can be a time of great opportunity. You might regretfully lose sight of the larger picture: that when one door closes, the doors upon the other ones continue to open, and that this is an example of the cumulative effect of human action. The cumulative effect is called forward momentum.

When one door closes and another one opens, we can either look forward to the receding tide of history and say that this is the way it is, or we can act in a proactive manner, anticipating the future. If we do not anticipate the future, then it is impossible to reap the benefits of our actions. Those who are able to foresee the future do not regretfully upon the closed door that we don't see the other one. Those who cannot foresee the future don't move forward, and neither do those who have been able to foresee the future. Thus, we should all act in such a way as to leave the world better off tomorrow than it is today.