Did your parents ever yell at you, “close the door, you’re wasting energy!”?
Mine did all the time. For some reason, I couldn’t be bothered as a kid to shut the door after me. I grew up in a place where it would regularly get to be 120˙F/48˙C in the summer. It took a lot of energy, keeping our house hospitable, and here I was, leaving the door wide open, letting it all out.
I just finished Tara Gentile’s Quiet Power Strategy (a great book for creative entrepreneurs), and in it she said something like this: Most people think they don’t know what to do next, but really they just don’t have the guts to close off options.
This got me thinking about my habit of leaving doors wide open. So I asked myself:
What kind of energy are you letting out of your life by not closing the door behind you?
Have you ever stood in a doorway having a conversation with someone? It’s awkward, standing there between two rooms, your butt holding the door open, your arms hitting the doorframe as you gesticulate, your legs trying to keep your child/dog/pet gerbil from running outside.
I always seem to have doorway conversations when I’m trying to prolong a visit or procrastinate doing what I’ll have to do when that door closes. Which leads me to this conclusion:
The only time you should be having a conversation in a doorway is if there is an earthquake going on and that is the safest place for you to wait it out.
Otherwise, choose a side. Either stay in, or go out. Straddling two places at once only wastes everyone’s energy.
Once that conclusion was made, I had no choice but to look at my life and see where I was leaving the door open and letting out energy. I asked myself these questions:
- What finished relationships are you still clinging to?
- What past career goals are you still trying to achieve?
- What decision has your gut made that your brain hasn’t accepted yet?
- What bits of your old self are you refusing to let leave?
We all love to keep our options open and it takes strength to close heavy doors, but continually letting your energy drain out is not an option for a driven, stunning, thriving soul like yourself.
What doors need to be closed in your life? What side of the doorframe do you want to be on? Comment below to let me know.
