It strikes me that the difference between people who have a lot of success and people who have much less success is this, when you see an opportunity, raise your hand.
Transcript
It strikes me that the difference between people who have a lot of success and people who have much less success is this: When you see an opportunity, raise your hand.
As I started to think about that, I realized there are several factors involved with that one.
Of course, there has to be an opportunity. As my friend Bruce Carter says, “opportunities matter.” I agree.
The second part is when there is an opportunity; you’ve got to see it. It strikes me that we don’t always see opportunities when they’re there. That has much to do with our reticular activating system. It’s the part in your brain that is essentially like a filter. There are all these signals that are impinging on our brain all the time, and we can’t take them all in. There’s a filter.
How Is This Filter Formed?
This filter is formed by our environment, by what we expect to see. Suppose we don’t expect to see an opportunity. In that case, unfortunately, we may not even see the opportunities that are actually there.
Do You Raise Your Hand When You See Opportunity?
The third point is when you see the opportunity, do you take advantage of it? Let’s say you see the opportunity. Great! Next, you have to decide actually to take advantage of it.
For example, in Toastmasters, there’s suddenly an opportunity to speak.
- Do you say to yourself, “Well, I haven’t had enough time to prepare? No, I can’t do that.”
- Or do you say, “gosh, dang it? I’m going to do it.”
I invite you to raise your hand. I often push myself to accept opportunities, even when they are challenging to me. In truth, I probably prefer opportunities that are at least somewhat challenging.
Sometimes, we might also miss easy opportunities. I sometimes have to stop what I’m doing, stop overthinking things, and notice opportunities that are relatively simple to take advantage of.
When There Is No Opportunity, Create One
Then lastly, when there is no obvious opportunity, there’s always the chance that you can create the opportunity. It’s a matter of, once again, the mindset. The mindset controls a lot of things.
- Do you see opportunities?
- Do you raise your hand?
- If you don’t see an opportunity, do you create one?
I’m Curious
Do you jump on an opportunity? Do you raise your hand? If you don’t see an opportunity, do you look harder or start creating your own? Let me know.
Dr. Stephie
P.S.: I appreciate you commenting and sharing this with others. Thank you!
