What Is A Sliding Doors Moment?

I just finished watching Gwyneth Paltrow's 73 Questions interview and during the interview, she was asked "What is one sliding doors moment in your life that you still think about today?" to which she responded to the interviewer "I suppose when I said yes to doing the show Glee".

If you have no idea what I'm talking about or what video I'm referencing, then below is the video I'm referring to:

So then, when I heard that question "what is one sliding doors moment" and her response, the question that immediately popped into my head was:

WHAT IS A SLIDING DOORS MOMENT?

Well, according to Wikipedia, a sliding doors moment is "a term popularized in the late 20th-century meaning seemingly inconsequential moments that nonetheless alter the trajectory of future events."

To break that down for you in layman and pop culture terms, the term originates from a Gwyneth Paltrow movie (hence why I believe she was asked about it because I have never heard this phrase used anywhere else in my life). The movie is called Sliding Doors and basically in that movie, Gwyneth Paltrow's character Helen has her life go in two different directions when she either catches or doesn’t catch a train. In one scenario, she gets onto the train and when she arrives home, she finds her boyfriend in bed with another woman. In the second scenario, she doesn't catch him and he keeps stringing her along for a long time as her life disintegrates.

So I guess essentially, a sliding doors moment basically is a moment in your life which you don't realize at the time is going to change the trajectory of your life forever going forward.

So now, to bring it back to Gwyneth Paltrow's response, she said in her interview that her sliding doors moment is saying yes to do the show Glee. But why?

Well, Glee is where Gwyneth Paltrow met her now husband Brad Falchuk. So if she had said no to doing Glee, she might never have met Brad Falchuk and by now, she might either have been single or coupled up with somebody completely different. Saying yes to doing Glee was clearly a humongous sliding doors moment for Gwyneth Paltrow.

So, now that I have given you the definition of what a sliding door moment is and you are now aware of what it is and what it means, I guess one question remains that I just have to ask:

WHAT IS YOUR SLIDING DOORS MOMENT?

I'm curious to hear your answer. Take a minute and really think about it. In fact, to make it more fun and a lot more specific, I'm going to alter that question a little bit.

What is your sliding doors moment THIS YEAR? As the year comes to a close, what moment can you look back on and say wow, if this one thing had or had not happened this year, my life would have been in a completely different place.

Let me know your answer by leaving a comment below. I'm so curious to read what you say.

That's All.

Thank you for reading. Btw, I make money from writing here on Vocal. If you also want to earn money through Vocal, I've created a complete guide to help you get started so we can all eat! Feel free to check it out if you want.

I hope you’ve had fun. Don’t forget to subscribe to my newsletter if you don’t already for more stories like this - collated every week and sent right to your inbox so you don't miss out on anything.