“If opportunity doesn’t knock,
build a door”.
Milton Berle
Build a door.
It’s so simple. Yet so seductively complicated. And this is where we so often stumble.
Work.
Good ol’ fashioned work.
The strategic step to a well lived, meaningful life, is build our door without applause, without certainty, without any pre-orders, and without any guarantee from our labour.
Work.
That’s it.
A shovel. A pile of dirt. Our hopes. Our dreams. Our muscles. And the numbing, unsung repetition, of diggin’ ditches, and building doors.
No questions. No hesitation.
Work.
But there is more.
Some of us never build the door, and so opportunity never knocks. But some of us embrace the work, but will come to resist the fruits of our labour. We will lay down and hide in fear, never daring to let that door fling it open.
You’ve come so far. You’ve worked so hard.
Yet you run and hide.
You’ve put in all that time. You’ve measured. Re-measured. Glued. Sanded. Painted. Varnished. Stood back and admired your beautiful door, and then a knock. And then another.
You stand still, frozen with fear. Paralyzed with possibilities. Overwhelmed with what is to come, and who you’ll become.
Learn to let go.
Opportunity knocks, but it won’t knock for long.
So, learn to live with the resistance.
Open that door.
And learn to dance with fear.
Open that door.
Aren’t you a little curious what’s on the other side?
