Always Move in the Direction of Opportunity
One of my cycling industry buddies recently told me about a huge change their family was contemplating, and what my thoughts were on it. To me it sounded like one incredible adventure, but would require them to move and make a pretty big change to their accustomed lifestyle. The best advice I could give was a quote that someone once told me, and has stuck in my mind ever since……”Always Move in the Direction of Opportunity“.
Making decisions are a part of every day, but the choice to follow a real opportunity only comes up every so often. At first the opportunity sounds great and we’re ready to say yes…..but then reality and our thought pattern kicks in and makes us think about all that’s involved. The truth is that along with opportunity comes fear of change.
So what do we do the next time an opportunity comes knocking on our door? I’m not a researcher or statistics guys, but I’m pretty sure that you’ll always be further ahead by moving in the direction of the opportunity. Oh, and that reminds me of another cool quote that was once told to me.
“Even if you fall flat on your face, when you get up you’ll be further ahead then when you started“
Keep an eye out for opportunity today, and I hope you chose to move in that direction.
Thank you for your article post.Really thank you! Keep writing.
Human nature I think to let the status quo be OK. good enough be good enough. I think most of us live that way, at least with the big things. What a cool way to live though if you took those chances and grabbed the opportunities. Of course there is balance, and if you are always moving to the next great thing you might not be around long enough to enjoy the great thing you have. Who knows?
But
I think the big thing is not to live in regret. If an opportunity passes, oh well, it passes, there will be others. But if you spend all your time moping and wondering about what might have been… ugh.
You made a very good point here, Eric….and one I should have mentioned. Not taking an opportunity and regretting it is worse than any of this. Thanks for adding to this post.
Good advice and quote. I hadn’t heard that last quote you mentioned before but I’ll be using that one from now on.
Seeing as I saw you on House Hunters last night it looks to me like you are moving directly in the direction of opportunity. Good advice, Darryl.
I believe opportunities are everywhere, it’s just we’ve conditioned ourselves not to notice them. Like when you put on a pair of yellow tinted sunglasses, at first, everything has an odd yellowish hue to it, then we don’t see the yellow anymore; we’re blind to the fact our vision is tinted. What I believe happens, the fear you mentioned prevents us from seeing the possibility of living into a world in which an opportunity is a reality. How many time have you said, “that’s not me” or “the timing’s not right”? These are statements of resignation, and totally disempowering. Our opportunities are limited by the possibilities we see for ourselves, our possibilites are limited by the yellow sunglasses we wear in life, “I am not good or smart enough”, “I’m too fat/ugly”, “What will other’s think”, “I’m afraid”…we put these on as children and they influence everything we do in life. Once you take these sunglasses off, you’ll see opportunities have to take a number to knock on your door.
I’ll leave you with my all-time favorite quote:
“Don’t wait to strike till the iron’s hot; but make it hot by striking” ~ William Butler Yeats