Last week I was speaking with the CEO of one of our customers and he shared with me that although he has been in his role for almost two years, he feels like every door he opens presents itself with an opportunity for improvement. And although he was referring to the areas of his business, it made we wonder if the rest of us maybe looked for doors to open where we could also make improvements personally or professionally.

This time of year, I have often written about goal setting and goal achievement in the past as New Year’s Eve in all its New Year’s resolution splendor calls for us to think about what we may want to change, do differently, do better, or improve. Some take this time very seriously and have a well thought out and balanced plan for how they are going to enter the year, start strong and finish even stronger. Others take a more casual approach, maybe even waiting right up unto the clock strikes midnight before declaring their resolution.

And then there are those of us who simply do not believe in the nonsense of New Year’s resolutions — if we are going to make changes and improvements, we just get it done on our time and when we are good and ready.

Let’s revisit what my customer shared about opening doors and finding opportunities to improve. What would it look like if we put some intentionality behind this year’s game plan for our lives, goal setting, or business planning? Looking at all doors, every area of our personal and professional life, to identify areas that if we made some level of improvement, that it would bring us greater joy, success, wealth, vitality, or help to get us in better shape physically, mentally, or spiritually.

Maybe we start by looking to open those doors that we haven’t opened in a long time. As a matter of fact, these doors have remained locked for so long that we must give them a firm tug to pry them open. These are those doors to opportunities that we have always known we should have opened long ago, but we made the decision to focus on those other areas of our lives to make changes to instead. Or our desire to change gave way to laziness, and then laziness gave way to procrastination, and procrastination eventually led to defeat.

Next, we can start with those doors of opportunities for change that we opened last year, last month, last week, or even yesterday and then for whatever reason we closed them. We had an inspiring or motivating moment, we opened the door, saw an area of life or work that we wanted to improve, and we may have even started before closing the door again. These are the easiest doors to open and re-explore as they once had our attention and intention to want to change. Something we wanted to start doing or maybe even something we wanted to stop doing, and those feelings are probably still in our hearts and top of mind.

The first doors were those hard ones, the second doors were the easy ones, and now here are the most intriguing doors. These are the doors of opportunity we have yet to think about. Behind these doors lie untapped potential, new and creative ideas, bold steps, and big goals. By opening these doors, we become energized with new direction, inspired by what we see, and motivated by what we might become along the route of this journey.

Are there doors that are rusted shut, needing to be pried open? Are there doors that could be opened quite easily getting you back on track? Are there doors waiting for you to open, those doors of opportunity that could lead you to bigger and brighter goals and change? I would love to hear your story at gotonorton@gmail.com, and when we can place intentionality behind seeking opportunity behind all these doors, it really will be a better than good life.

Michael Norton is an author, a personal and professional coach, consultant, trainer, encourager and motivator of individuals and businesses, working with organizations and associations across multiple industries.