Principle 38-Life is Like a Long Hallway
Open as many doors as you can
When I was a teenager I had a thought about life that is probably common enough that many people have described it as I did, but this was my teen perception of life:
Yes, life is like a very long hallway with thousands of doors on either side. Some doors are open to us, and some are locked.
What locks a door? When you cannot physically or mentally handle what’s on the other side of the door. So for instance, biologically speaking, at my moment of conception there were certain doors closed to me:
I was never going to star in the NBA or as a lineman in the NFL. I simply wasn’t going to be tall enough or physically broad enough to make it no matter how determined I was. Those doors were locked.
I was never going to take a profession that required 20-20 vision because from conception I was on a path where I needed vision correction relatively early in life.
Then there were doors that, while not locked at conception, were very likely to become locked unless I worked very, very hard:
A professional tennis career requires I start early and stick with it.
Same for being a pianist or a professional violinist.
Oh, I could do those things, but it required a lot of hard work.
On the other hand, the writer door was wide open to me. I just had to read and learn some basic rules, and then practice.
Some doors were open when I was a kid, but closed when I reached adulthood. Conversely there were some doors that could not open until I reached maturity.
Late in life most of the doors become locked. At some point in my life I will never play baseball again, and late in life there will come a point when I will never run again, and if I’m not lucky, there may come a point when the unaided walking door will close.
But let’s not be gloomy. The point of the door analogy is we have many, many different doors to choose from. A fulfilling life is one that sees us enter as many doors as we can.
The sad life is to see a door open to us and we just can’t find the time to go through it.
I wish you a long and happy life of entering doors. Don’t wait for them to close!
Nick, Your reflection on life as a hallway with many doors really got my thoughts going. I so appreciate how you name that some doors will never open to us—that feels so true to life and our individual paths.
I found myself sitting with this line:
“A fulfilling life is one that sees us enter as many doors as we can.”
It sparked a little shift in me. I wonder if fulfillment isn’t so much about how many doors we walk through, but more about which ones we determine are worth opening.
Thank you for opening this door today😉—it was well worth stepping through.
I love the idea of honoring the doors that open naturally for us, while also recognizing the ones that ask a little more from us. Your analogy reminds me that while not every door stays open forever, the journey itself, i.e, the curiosity, the courage to step through, is what makes a life worth living. Happy Monday, Nick - I hope you have a good week ahead.