Monday Message 8.13.18 Opportunity

Opportunity: noun
1.  A favorable or advantageous circumstance or combination of circumstances.
2.  A favorable or suitable occasion or time.
3.  A chance for progress or advancement.

Life offers up opportunities all the time.  Unfortunately, some are hard to recognize – and thus take advantage of – because they don’t look quite like we wanted or expected them to.  Opportunities don’t always come wrapped in a perfect, pretty package.  Sometimes the packages are ugly – lumpy and misshapen, wrapped in plain paper tied up with string.

“Here you go,” Life says, offering you this unappealing bundle.  “you choose.”

You could say “no thanks, not this time”.  After all, there are problems.  Obstacles.  Challenges.  Difficulties.  It looks hard and it might not even work out.  It’s unfamiliar or uncomfortable or even scary to think about.  It’s a perfectly acceptable decision, to take a pass on the opportunity Life is offering.  Nobody would fault you.  They’d all nod and agree that you made a wise choice.  A safe choice.  The world keeps turning and everything goes the way it always has.

Or you can make the decision to open the package.  It’s risky because there are problems.  Obstacles. Challenges.  Difficulties.  It’s outside your comfort zone.  It seems hard because the outcome is unknown – this is uncharted territory after all.  The way might be painful; heartbreaking even.  Choosing to lean into the opportunity is also an acceptable choice.  The world will keep turning, but everything may not continue exactly as it always has.

To take a risk or to stick with the status quo – that is the question.  “What if I do…what will happen next?” you ask Life, hoping to get some help with your decision.  Ah, that’s the catch, Life responds.  You’ll only know if you take the opportunity.

What would you do?

∞

“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”
Thomas A. Edison

“I was seldom able to see an opportunity until it had ceased to be one.”
Mark Twain

“When one door closes another opens.  But often we look so long at the closed door that we fail to see the one that has opened for us.”  Helen Keller

“Victory comes from finding opportunities in problems.”
Sun Tzu

“I think when you have these trials that life gives you, it is an opportunity to find out who you are.  Not just who you are when everything’s great, but who you are when everything is taken away from you and you have nothing.”
Ellen DeGeneres

“You never know which experiences of life are going to be of value.  You’ve got to leave yourself open to the hidden opportunities.”
Robin Roberts

“Don’t sit down and wait for opportunities to come…get up and make them!”
Madam C.J. Walker