By: Stephen Rogers
The most overlooked step in the creative process is taking action. Not just any action, but the right action steps necessary to make real, lasting change.
Many people have fallen under the spell, "If I just ask, pray, hope, wish, envision, or whatever, Universe, Source, Spirit or the Universal Law of Attraction will bring to me, give me, attract to me whatever I want."
Though being clear about what we want is crucial to achieving what we want, it is but one step in the creative process. Once we are clear about what it is we want, and have enough emotional fire or passion to sustain this vision, we must walk through the doors and windows or opportunities that our vision opens for us. And, this is the toughest part.
Why?
Because taking the right action steps means walking through fear, pain, rejection and all of the other obstacles that manifest themselves when we embark in a new direction.
Plus, many times the new path isn't clear, which can lead to indecision or a feeling of being stuck. Most of us have heard the saying, "When one door closes another opens." Well, this is true. But, I also heard a preacher once say, "its hell in the hallway." Meaning it feels like a living hell waiting for the new door open after we've closed the old one.
Why must change be so tumultuous?
Well this is the case when we haven't prepared or taken the right action steps that would clearly open a new door. For this reason, instead of moving forward towards our dreams, we get caught up in the dilemma, "Should I stay or should I go?"
This debate inevitably prolongs the experience from one door to the next, and we almost always end up going back to the same old door for comfort (or at best making a lateral movement by going through a side door). The only thing that changes in the side door is the names and faces of the people and places, but the situations stay the same.
To ensure successful growth and avoid the time spent in the hallway, it is so important to not just move, but to prepare.
How?
In the words of an old mentor, "Do the next right thing!" The next right thing is whatever is in front of us left unfinished. It's usually something we don't want to do, because its new or unknown, and therefore, it's likely painful at first.
So, if you find yourself stuck, in a holding pattern, or "in the hallway," do the next right thing, the unfinished thing. Once this is done or almost finished, the new door, not a side door will begin to reveal itself. This is the preparation that creates and opens the door. And, it seems that the faster you can finish the next right thing, the shorter your duration in the hallway will last.
Onward!
