Maybe it was a door you\u00a0closed yourself, either a door you\u00a0deliberately slammed shut or one\u00a0you gently, quietly\u00a0pulled tight as you slipped away. \u00a0Perhaps it was a door someone else\u00a0closed on you<\/em>, one you\u00a0preferred stay open – at least a little longer?<\/p>\n However it happens, we all face those closing doors. \u00a0But fortunately, hopefully, almost always get to see another door open in its place. \u00a0In a figurative way, our lives are really journeys along a long passage way of doors. \u00a0Some doors we choose to pass\u00a0through\u00a0and remain\u00a0on the other side a while, others we can tell right away its not a place worth lingering, so pass by or exit as fast as possible. \u00a0As parents we try and teach our kids the right door from the wrong door and hope they ultimately learn to find their own way. \u00a0As adults we try to remember those lessons ourselves but many times it’s easier to preach a message than practice it.<\/p>\n What I’ve learned about life’s hallway journey is it’s best to have a strategy for selecting which doors to open and when to close those doors and move on. \u00a0I’ve also come to accept that what may lie behind a door isn’t always what the sign suggests on the outside; it could be better, worse or simply false advertising. I’ve learned that making the trip down the hallway is far more important than any one door – particularly if your strategy for knowing which ones to enter and which ones to close is perfected. \u00a0I’ve learned that in hindsight doors that seemed minor detours at the time can turn out to be significant journeys in themselves – so be prepared for surprises and the unexpected.<\/p>\n Perhaps what I’ve learned most of all is this, once a door is closed the best decision\u00a0is to keep moving down the hallway. \u00a0Don’t turn back or second guess your choice. \u00a0A closed door – whatever the reason it was that shut it in the first place – should remain closed, sealed and locked.<\/p>\n So, have you closed any doors lately? \u00a0Congratulations if so, now remember, keep moving forward!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Faced\u00a0any closed doors lately? Maybe it was a door you\u00a0closed yourself, either a door you\u00a0deliberately slammed shut or one\u00a0you gently, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8237"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8237"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8251,"href":"https:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8237\/revisions\/8251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}