Opportunity is a positive word. Much like possibility or an idea. There is a feeling tied into the word of realizing a good outcome. Appearing a little bit like a lottery ticket whose numbers all match today’s drawing.
But opportunity is elusive. Easily missed at times in our busy lives. Making it difficult to recognize as it first appears as a random occurrence or connection. For it to exist, there needs to be more than a serendipitous event.
Opportunity requires a combination of preparation, effort, and foresight. The easy part is the foresight. For we quickly jump to describe a future that seems certain when most times it is not. For there are very, very few winning lottery tickets in life.
Preparation is needed because it is the only way that we can connect a random occurrence or connection to something in the future by connecting the dots. We never have all of the blueprint with preparation. It’s the random occurrence or connection that is the catalyst for possibility making the blueprint more complete. Preparation is the best way to leverage our past work into something new, better and possible when random occurences or connections occur.
Effort is where both the work is as well as the only place where we can confirm that a random occurrence or connection is truly an opportunity. Opportunity can only be seen well into the journey. For occurrences that do not lead anywhere are never opportunities.
Opportunities do exist for all of us. To find them requires preparation and effort consistently so that when random occurrences or connections occur we are able to leverage them into something meaningful and helpful in our lives.
Making lottery tickets a fools game once we realize there is so much within our power we can do to increase our odds of succeeding. It may take more than a week, a month, and sometimes years. Making our life a great journey writing our own stories along the way.