When the door closes behind you...

Today I completed my last day of employment with the company I've been working for. The day draw to a close at 5pm and that was it, I walked out. I had made the choice to leave, to move on to new horizons; Many people don't have the luxury of choice though and find a door closing behind them with no plan or alternative.

It reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend a little while ago. Through downsizing she was made redundant at a previous role as State BDM for an international cosmetics company. It devastated her as she badly needed her income.

After the usual small talk about the way her redundancy happened, how she may be able to adjust financially and what plans she had for the immediate future she started feeling better. She felt a great deal better one week later when 3 offers rolled in. She accepted the best suited option and the rest is history.

You see, I am a firm believer in the one door closes and another opens paradigm. I am not naive enough to think it's that simple of course, but essentially I prefer to believe opportunities exist, one only needs to look for them. It's not blind faith, I call it proactivity. So, rather than seeing a door slammed shut behind me and I'm out in the cold, I prefer to think of it as the door closes behind me and I'm in a corridor...Full of more doors. Do I have the skills and attributes to open every one of them? Probably not, but there's some I can, and will. That's my thought process anyway.

Occassionally I get to relate my door closes/corridor paradigm to someone who has just lost a job. At that time most people can't see light ahead and are consumed with their financial woes; Paying for their car, house mortgage, school fees etc. I simply try and shift their own paradigm to encompass this alternate one. I help them see themselves as a valuable asset and to view the corridor of doors as an opportunity. Sure mourn the past, but only for a moment. One doesn't look out the back window when driving forward and activity creates activity.

Sure, there's a lot of other aspects to job hunting, interviewing and appointment in a new role however this simple process, this mind-shift can assist in refocusing the person quickly and to get them moving in the right direction.

This paradigm is not just about jobs and employment either. Think relationships. Think about regret. Think about negative influences. It's simple. Close the door and find yourself in a corridor full of new ones. Take one and see where it leads, and if it's locked go to the next.

Thanks for reading. Now, go open some doors.

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