Invisible doorways
It was one of my first seven days in the pharmacy…
Not as a customer, but as a future pharmacist in training. When I revealed to one of the pharmacists that I saw myself in a pharmaceutical company after I got my degree rather than in a pharmacy, she told me, “Begin at the State Institute for Drug Control. They will accept you right from the school, and from there, you will be at a higher demand for pharmaceutical companies.”
Four years later, right after my graduation, I got accepted into the State Institute for Drug Control, stayed for a couple of months, and from there, I seamlessly transitioned into a company.
She showed me the doorway to get where I wanted to go.
Had I not been shown this doorway, I would have acted based on what I had known at the time.
With my unbending determination, I would have found another door, my journey would have taken a different path, and who knows where I would be today. But the seamlessness of being shown the way was an exquisite experience that I am still benefitting from today.
What is the observation I have been successfully applying during my subsequent transitions, again and again?
When we’re just beginning our careers, completing school, and making choices, we are essentially looking for a doorway into the world we want to enter. We look for clear steps to follow. We find the doorway and we walk in.
It can be easy to see the doorway because everybody uses it—everybody is showing us where to go.
As we grow and age, recognising a desire for change can sometimes feel challenging. When we imagine a different scenario and assess our current situation, the enormity of the transition can overwhelm us, making it seem impossible to find a NEW doorway.
Yet, it's important to remember that we simply need to keep our eyes and our minds open to possibility.
It’s also important to realise that not seeing the doorway right away doesn’t mean it’s not there.
Just like with the invisible ships, we may be walking by invisible doorways.
If we don’t know what the doorway looks like or where it’s located (because it’s outside of our current experience), we’ll be walking by invisible doorways, believing that what we want is not possible for us.
But this will only be true until we see it.
If you want to be shown a doorway to a new world, the next step is as simple as speaking with people who are of the world you want to enter, and letting them show you the way.
The moment you see the door and discover how to open it, you walk in.
There is more.
When I was sharing my vision of the future of how I work with my mother, she told me, “I can’t see how this will work.”
At the time, not knowing what I know today, her reaction left me feeling unsupported. And because it wasn’t a one-time thing, I felt chronically unsupported, especially coming from someone as close as my own mother (…also my partner).
Yet, the truth was, she just couldn’t see my vision because it was beyond her experience and understanding of how things work. I was desiring someone who would see what I do, expecting it to be her, and I was experiencing her inability to see the future I envisioned as a lack of support.
The moment I realised this, my feelings toward her response shifted. I was more understanding and compassionate and it didn’t pull me down anymore.
✧
Turning this to you…
Are you currently in a situation that has you in search of a doorway?
Where do you want this doorway to lead you?
How do you respond when people can’t see what you see?
Can you see those situations differently after reading this post?
I hope you enjoyed your reading, and if you did, make sure to let me know your biggest insight. I love hearing from you.
Klara- I love the analogy of the invisible doorways. I'm always intrigued by the ability of how physical objects--real or imaginative--can create passageways that don't exist, haven't yet exist, or that we want to exist. Ancient architecture in Egypt is full of these analogies, and they're rightfully not ashamed of it. Decorative doors made to mimic a real one can be found all their ancient remains---representing afterlife, or the hopes thereof. Your writing is a great reminder of this.