It’s often difficult to recognize opportunity, even if you’re looking for it. That’s because opportunity doesn’t bop you over the head and say “Congratulations! You’ve won an all expense paid vacation to Maui!”.
Instead, as Thomas Edison said, opportunity “comes dressed in overalls and looks like hard work.”
You see, we have all kinds of opportunities every day — opportunities to improve our finances, advance our careers, start a small business, or even just to get better organized.
Those opportunities just look like piles of debt or a thick old book on investing. Or maybe they look like volunteering for extra projects that are outside your normal job duties. Or working hours every night on your own stuff while holding down a full time job and taking care of the kids. Or something a simple as paperwork that arrives in the mail.
Taking advantage of those opportunities once we do recognize them means several things. Often we have to start by taking a risk and dispelling doubts, even if it’s just the risk of change. We’re often so set in our ways — even if we’re unhappy about them or longing for something else — that it may seem easier just to keep things as they are.
We ask ourselves things like: What if the alternative is worse? What if we find out we can’t fulfill our lifelong dream of becoming a veterinarian or running our own business? What if we try to get out of debt and find out that we’re just so terrible at managing money that it’s impossible?
Even if opportunity is practically bopping us over the head — such as when we’re offered the chance to go back to college for free by our employer — we still have doubts.
Once we do decide to go for it and take action, a whole bunch of hard work usually follows. And that work can extend for a long time; sometimes for years and years. It can be tempting to give up, but welcoming opportunity also means sticking with it despite setbacks and exhaustion.
For me, the doubts don’t usually set in until I’m partway through making a change, working on a new endeavor, or trying to reach a goal. Then the doubts hit hard. (Along with the temptation to just go and do something else instead, or to start a new project.)
That’s when I remember another quote by Thomas Edison: “Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.”
So, just remember that opportunity doesn’t come gift wrapped. It comes disguised as hard work, much of which involves working through the doubts — or just plain old continuing on despite them, especially if you know they’re mostly irrational. And remember that you can get to where you want to be.
Posted in Setting & Achieving Goals on 07.14.10 with 10 comments.
Very insightful post! More and more, I’ve heard that the difference between ‘lucky’ and ‘unlucky’ people has a lot to do with whether or not they keep their eyes open for (and recognize) opportunities as they present themselves.
It seems like the enemy of opportunity-spotting is being overly-busy. Being too busy seems to be the general enemy of humanity and morality! I’m sure you’ve heard of that experiment (I can’t remember the name) where Harvard divinity students were given an assignment to write a sermon, and told that if they didn’t finish within a certain period they would fail. The experiment, it turns out, was to plant a suffering person in their path, someone who desperately needed aid. ALL of the divinity students rushed buy the suffering person without stopping–and these were DIVINITY students! When repeated without the time pressure, the ailing person was attended to.
Wow, no, I hadn’t heard of that experiment. That’s really interesting about the impact of business on noticing and attending to things, but it makes perfect sense.
Opportunity and choices can cause stress, that is for sure. Sometimes people are bopped right in the nose with opportunity, but fear makes them turn the other way. Change can be very scary for some, and not everyone can see past those initial barriers.
If my husband had run away from opportunity, I would not be lucky enough to be home with my kids. I think it takes a certain personality to be open to opportunity.
Very interesting post!
I think change is scary for a lot of people, including me. I always figure though that things are going to change one way or another, so I may as well try to aim them in a direction that’s positive.
I’m the kind of person that has doubts beforehand so I never get started. My husband has doubts during. We usually push each other through, lol. I have no idea how many opportunities I have missed because I’ve talked myself out of them…it’s depressing…
It sounds like you guys are a good team. As far as talking yourself out of things before you start, maybe it would help to think about opportunities that you did take that turned out well. (Like starting a blog.)
Great post Jackie! I guess in a word….. TENANCITY! If we have tenancity as well as a bit of courage to stick through it, we’ll have a lot more successes.
Nice Thomas Edison post! I’ll remember that!
Tenacity is my favorite word
Basically,
I think it comes down to not living life with a set of blinders on. Recognizing opportunity is what improving your finances is all about!!
A lot of us go through life that way, just focused on the things we’re used to seeing. But recognizing opportunity is definitely a huge factor!