A short while ago I stepped outside of my comfort zone and discovered that I had inadvertently left the key on the other side of the door.
Needless to say I wasn’t filled with mirth and joy by the realization that I couldn’t just unlock the door and walk back inside. For a moment I stood at the locked door and wondered if there might be a way to jimmy the lock open.
Had the door been fitted with anything resembling a lock it might have had real potential but the sad truth was that I was faced with a flat surface and nothing but my hands with which to try and pry it open.
For a moment I considered trying to batter the door down but conceded that even though I have a body that is made for demolition some things are built to withstand the pounding that flesh and bones can provide.
Or maybe it is more accurate to say I gave in to curiosity and wanderlust and decided to try and use this time to go on my own walkabout.
“All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.”
The Fellowship of The Ring- J.R.R. Tolkien
There is a certain amount of joy in being forced to change and take steps you might not otherwise have done. There are experiences you might not otherwise have had and moments that never would have come.
You could argue that sounds like nothing more than someone trying to rationalize their actions and I wouldn’t fault you. Nor would I try to stop you from saying it sounds like an excuse.
That is because the difference between excuses and reasons are often limited by what side of the fence you are standing upon. The choices we make don’t have to be based upon the choices that others would have or want us to make either.
“Don’t be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment.
The more experiments you make the better.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson, Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson, with Annotations – 1841-1844“Logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere.”
― Albert Einstein“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”
― Theodore Roosevelt
One of the other benefits about standing on the other side of the door is the way it forces you to distinguish between what you want and what you need.
If you are very lucky your wants and needs intersect in ways that make it easy for you to obtain both but I am not real sure how often that happens for most people.
What I am certain of is that it is worth taking the time to figure out the difference because when you do you enable yourself to take action. You create a situation in which you can build an outline or map that you can use to figure out what you need to do to obtain what you need and with a little luck even grab some of what you want.
And that my friends is where I am at and what I am trying to do. Stick around for a while and you just might found out how it all works out.
“Finish each day and be done with it.
You have done what you could.
Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in;
forget them as soon as you can.
Tomorrow is a new day.
You shall begin it serenely
and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with
your old nonsense.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
Totally agree with Brian Meeks about your most brilliant line. I am also drawn to the concept of understanding what you want and what you need most often (except in those rare individuals) being two entirely different things. And being on the other side of the door (outside of your comfort zone) does, indeed, motivate one to try to discern between the two. Valuable lessons in the journey, for sure. Lessons that I am learning every single day. And…slowly but surely, the distance between want and need is getting smaller.
Loved this.
Hi Claudia,
If living on a farm in the midwest is the key to merging the goals of need and want I might have to consider making another change. OTOH, all that snow does concern me, I am not sure I want to grow accustomed to having to live in an igloo. 😉
Seriously, the best part of moving and getting older is learning in more detail what those things are for me. I suspect it is something that has much to do with why people who are a bit older end up being amongst the happiest or so the studies show.
I really liked the quotes you chose to include, but by far the best writing in this post was, “A short while ago I stepped outside of my comfort zone and discovered that I had inadvertently left the key on the other side of the door.” <That is freaking brilliant! I wish I'd written it.
Hi Brian,
Thank you, your compliments mean a lot. I don’t mean to disparage or minimize those I receive from others but it is always a pleasure to hear from writers.
I just started a new blog that is part of a 365 endeavor. It’s difficult to explain but makes perfect sense when you read it. I often use quotes or just a word to motivate my blog for the day. It’s amazing where one word, one simple thought can take you.
Hi Melissa,
A 365 day endeavor sounds like it could be a lot of fun. I’ll have to visit and see what you are doing.
Hi Josh
So here I am a few days later and I assume you got back inside! Hopefully without any damage to the house.
I always live on the cautious side, I pack a spare key somewhere. My husband locked the keys in the car at the mall one time and I had to take a taxi to get a key to open the car. Taxi driver told me that he keeps a spare key in his wallet. My husband now packs a spare.
Well it got you outside for a nice walk and lots of time to think.
Mary
Hi Mary,
I am still wandering but that is ok and not unexpected. I guess it wasn’t clear, I wasn’t literally locked out of the house, it was more of a metaphor.
But all is good and I am one of those people who is big on having a spare key. It is really important.
Hope you had a great week.
Hey Josh
I’m not one to step outside of my comfort zone very often but it does you no end of good everyone once in a while.
Giving up work to look after the kids was certainly a biggie for me and one that I’m so glad I did. I will never look back.
The question is though will I make any of these words that I type daily into something meaningful or when the kids go back to school will I end up back in the rat race. Only time will tell!
Hi Tim,
I get a little crazy sometimes when I read posts where people try to say it is the greatest thing that ever happened to them. Call me a skeptic, but I don’t believe all of them.
But I do know that sometimes it really does work and it has been good to me, not every time but enough to make it intriguing.
I have a feeling you are coming close to figuring out the answer to your question.
So, let me figure you out…1) A door bashed you in the head. 2) The grass is greener on that side of the door. 3) You really want to stay in your comfort zone, but instead you went for a walk in the neighborhood.
K.
I’m tracking. Let me give you the moral to the story. Get a spare key and wear it around your neck.
Madame Jamoke,
You got me dead to rights. 😉
This sort of key doesn’t come with a chain, wish it did. Good things are tied into it, big things.
There are some great quotes here Josh, and I include this one among them: “That is because the difference between excuses and reasons are often limited by what side of the fence you are standing upon.”
Lori
Hi Lori,
Thank you for the compliment, I appreciate it. Those quotes are part of how I figured out how to come up with that other one.
They have real meaning to me.