Opportunity Mindset Action

I regularly come across individuals in social media who seem to be thriving because the spotted an opportunity, or were offered one and they grabbed it with both hands and ran with it.

On the other hand, I equally come across people who seem to be caught in a world view, where there is no opportunity, where there are only challenges, and where everything seems to have that aura of dejection and a constant drudgery of meaningless effort.

Somewhere in between, there are the dreamers (and I do count myself among them, well sometimes anyway).  They can see the stars, they can see the opportunities but the effort and commitment to make them happen just seems too much like drudgery!

O.K. so I am perhaps exaggerating and simplifying things just a bit.   However I am quite sure that most of you reading this will have encountered potential opportunities that you have not acted on. There can be many reasons why we choose not to act.  A few of my personal favorites are:

“I have too much on at the moment”

“It’s not quite the right fit”

“I don’t need to add to my stress level”

Or if I am being more honest

“I’m scared of success/failure”

“I don’t think I have be ability”

So what would things be like if we changed how we approach opportunities that come our way?   You see for many of us we will see the challenges and the objections.  However, what we can tend to do is fast forward the opportunity way down the road in our heads and the reality is that we do not actually have a crystal ball. We do not actually see the future.

So if we were to change our approach to opportunities to focus on the manageable baby steps required to get started, we in effect significantly simplify the decision making.   Take for example seeing a new job opportunity.  Rather than immediately seeing the commuting issues, the additional responsibilities, the needing to get to know a whole new set of people, how about focusing on actually putting an application in!  There is no decision to move until there is an actual new contract on the table.

So this week my challenge to you is to be aware of opportunities that may present themselves to you and then just focus on aking a first step to explore.  The big decisions can come later when you have more detail!

Warm Wishes

Mary