By Daniel Theyagu
Life sometimes throws at us unexpected challenges that we find it difficult to foresee and take steps to prevent or avoid it all together. Nevertheless these unexpected turn of events offers us new opportunities that we would never have realized unless we face these challenges objectively and stoically.
Albert Einstein once said: “In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity”. This rather simplistic observation has an iota of truth in that it is only when we are faced with difficult situations and conditions that we make a concerted effort to come up with some form of winning strategies to overcome these. There are many people who believe that opportunity might someday knock on their door and when it happens they prepare themselves to open it. However some of these people have to wait a very long time for this to happen and for others they wait fruitlessly. .
The truth of the matter is that opportunity is something that you have to seek and possibly capture it to put it to your use. Opportunity is not something that is tangible and is ‘out there’ such that you need to find it. What you need to do is to learn how to carve out your own opportunities out of the station in life that you are in. You may say that this would be impossible especially when you are in a disadvantaged position in life. But then even if you have whatever you think that you need the question you have to ask yourself is whether you will be capable of getting what you seek.
The whole fabric of human existence is based on a simple concept of correction. That is to say when something does not go the way you want then you must start taking steps to correct it. Thus if opportunity does not knock on your door, then perhaps you might just have to knock on opportunity’s door. Question: Is this possible? The answer is an emphatic YES!
The first and foremost thing you have to do is accept the fact that there are times in your life that you have to make your own luck. Henry Ford once said: “One who fears failure limits his activities”. I know that life is uncertain. But then again if you think it through there is also uncertainty in every other aspect of life as well. This is indeed the great mystery of life. So rather then worry about what’s going to happen to you when you are struck by an uncertain chain of events, become optimistic and create a sense of enthusiasm and energy to face the uncertainties and seek out new opportunities. Take the cue from Henry Hoskins who said: Enthusiasm finds the opportunities, and energy makes the most of them.”
To create opportunities in your life start by:
1. Re-inventing Yourself
When you buy a new computer it performs extremely well. However, after a few months it slows down as the hard drive gets fragmented. This happens when information is saved and deleted and saved again. In order to speed up the system to its original level of efficiency it is necessary to ‘defragment’ the hard drive. This process removes the bad sectors in the hard drive and improves its efficiency. Likewise your brain is your hard drive. When was the last time you did a ‘defragmentation’ of your brain? What you need to do to ‘defragment’ your brain is to learn to re-invent yourself.
You can do this by taking stock of what you’ve done well in your life and those areas that you have not been too successful. In those areas that you think you’ve failed, try to come up with new ways of thinking to see how you would have handled the situation if it occurs again. There is a thing called the ‘self fulfilling prophesy’ which means that you become what you believe in. Since there is a tendency for us to get trapped in a certain way of doing things it will be good if once in awhile we ‘defragment’ our thought processes to let new ideas flow in. To do this you have to take stock of what you’ve been doing and see where you could improve your station in life. See whether you are capable of doing different things and once in a while try something different.
2. Upgrade constantly
We upgrade our computer system, our cellular phone, our wardrobe regularly. What about ourselves? And I mean both the physical and the mental. Upgrade doesn’t necessarily mean throwing out old skills that you’ve acquired and replacing them with new ones. Look at your abilities and see how else you can exploit them. If you are an expert in a specialized skill, see what else you could do to improve this. Ask yourself whether you could put your skills to other uses. Be vigilant to the changes that are occurring around you and see whether there is a need to upgrade your skills if you are to stay relevant. There may have been many occasions when you are given ample opportunities in your organization to upgrade your skills. Do this with a passion. Even if you do not see immediate returns continuously upgrade because you’ll never know when you may need them.
3. Disrupt Habitual Patterns of Thoughts
We all have a tendency to develop a pattern of thought. This usually occurs when we are tasked to do the same thing over and over again. Once we find a method to do this thing, we form a habit. Although there is nothing wrong with this process, there is also a danger when we entrap ourselves into a habitual thought process. What you need to do is once in awhile disrupt your patterns of thoughts. You can do this by looking at other ways of doing the thing that you do regularly. If you are already good at doing a certain task, volunteer to do something else from time to time. When you do this regularly you will find that you might find new opportunities that you never thought possible.
4. Expand Your Knowledge Base
Management Guru Peter Drucker said: “Knowledge has to be improved, challenged and increased consistently or it vanishes.” When you want to create opportunities in your life you need to improve your knowledge base. By doing this constantly you will expand your mental parameters. This will allow you to see things from different perspectives and possibly come up with new ideas in different areas of your life.
Develop the habit of reading widely in a variety of subjects. If you cannot find the time to read there are other ways you can improve your knowledge base. There are audio recordings in different genres that you can buy and listen to when you are driving or using public transport. The internet is an extremely good source of reference. Make it a habit to use the different search engines and learn a new thing everyday. This way you will slowly develop expand your knowledge base. As your knowledge base increases you will start seeing subtle connections in what you’ve gathered to create opportunities. The secret to creating opportunities is no to thing big always. Sometimes it is the little things that might give us the edge that we need to make it big. Take the cue from Hugh Allen who said: “Jumping at several small opportunities may get us there more quickly than waiting for one big one to come along”. Think about this and as a coup de grace remember: “If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door” Milton Berle.
Daniel Theyagu is a humorous keynote seminar speaker and principal training consultant of Lateral Solutions Consultancy. He conducts training for many other organizations including Nanyang Technological University – Centre for Continuing Education and MDIS. To engage his services visit his webpage: www.thinklaterally.com or email: daniel.lateralsolutions@gmail.com
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