Opportunities (How to Recognize Them Right Now)
When an opportunity to advance in life in some way presents itself, what do you do? Will you grab it earnestly and work at it until you achieve success? Or will you allow it to slip past you, neglected and unrealized?
The harsh truth is that most people miss out on opportunities all the time, then live to regret not doing what they should have done in their lives. Why do we do this and what should we be doing instead?
That's what I want to look at in this corner of the website which is after all about entrepreneurship and basically, getting on in life through our own initiative and determination. So let's get to it.
How to Spot a Great Opportunity
The first thing many people simply are not aware of is how to know when an opportunity presents itself to them. People become so wrapped up in their day to day lives they simply don't see the many potentially life-changing opportunities that are all around them.
That gives us the first step in recognizing when we're being presented with a "lucky break" that needs our full attention. We need to learn to somehow tune out all that noise and external chaos that surrounds us and quieten our minds to be able to know when something good for us is facing us or is on its way.
That goes off to the realm of the non-conformist citizen, or what the authorities like to label as a nutcase, subversive or outcast. But you need to get past what the authorities say or try to get you to believe, because they do not have your best interests at heart, only their own.
Meditate
This technique is best known as meditation, although you can call it what you want. Deep relaxation, or simply "down time" as long as you do it where there are no external interruptions or other stuff going on.
That means no TV or radio turned on, no phone that can make sudden irritating noises (you know the ones I mean). And likewise no tablets or laptops nearby that can similarly decide of their own accord that they need your attention for something or other.
You need to be able to take 10 minutes or more totally immersed in your own silence and that include no mental activity going on, like internal conversations with yourself, replaying an earlier experience or allowing your worries to be played over and over like a broken record.
Prior to beginning, decide if there is a question you need an answer to or a situation that needs a solution for, ask or ponder over it for a minute or so, then stop thinking about it altogether. Now let your mind go blank and just wait.
Maybe nothing will come to you on your first or first few attempts at doing this, But with practice and a little experience, you may be pleasantly surprised at what you internal mental faculties can bring to you.
Follow Your Hunches
The answer or solution you're seeking may appear as a kind of hunch or seemingly irrelevant plan of action, but this is exactly what you want. A hunch can be a powerful call to action that by following it will lead to your answer or solution.
You can use this same technique for knowing what an opportunity appears like the second it manifests. Like a hunch, follow it up and just see where it takes you because usually, it will be someplace good.
Failure to follow your hunches can result in missed opportunities and solutions to problems that what you've been taught as straight, rational thinking often completely misses the mark. Society does not want you to recognize and seize every good opportunity: remember that!
Society Wants You to Work
Think on this: If everyone were to seize every good prospect that presented itself to them and use it to springboard themselves to a higher life-level, financially, healthily and contentedly, we'd all be members of the "idle rich." Everybody would be doing no real work, just sunning themselves on their private yachts or jetting round the world in their private jets. That would not do!
For organized, civilized society to operate the way we know it, the working class masses need to be kept working and doing the jobs that need to be done, while the few idle rich give the orders and get back to soaking up the sun. Of course, that's the way it is and the reason so many people are dissatisfied with their lives!
Worse still is this mentality is what keeps the vast majority of the world population living in poverty. The rant could go on, but this article is not about what's wrong with society. It's about how you and I can wrench ourselves free from the mundane and hopeless lifestyle that so many have adopted and start to really live!
Manifesting Financial Freedom
In our self-created civilized society, the whole shebang runs on money. "Without money, there would be chaos," is a mantra I'm sure you've been told enough times to actually believe it. Nothing could be further from the truth, when you really think about it. But the civilized world is not ready to be upended in such a rude and undignified fashion just yet.
For now, it is best to just go with this particular flow and not worry about trying to bring about world restructuring just yet. Money is a necessary "evil" so accept it as part of what you need to succeed and follow that road to where it leads.
Backing up a little to our not-so-attractive ordered society, you probably noticed that a lot of people live their lives in debt. You may well have some financial debt yourself.
For example a credit card that isn't paid off, a car loan or a mortgage for your home.
Wait just a minute there. Of course I have a credit card and some other debts that I just pay monthly. Just like everyone else. So what's the problem?
Just like everyone else.
Think about it. You might just begin to see where there is a problem even if you never saw if before.
The Debt Trap
The whole of society is trapped in a debt cycle that it will never get out of. It's there for a very good reason, too.
What happens when you are in debt?
Well, you need to keep meeting the monthly payments, for starters. If you miss one or more, you could find yourself in hot water. Your car could get repossessed. You home could get taken away from you if you don't pay your mortgage for a few months in a row.
What needs to happen for you to be able to keep meeting those monthly payments?
You need to keep in a job that pays you more each month than your accumulated debt repayments add up to, right? If you lose that job and can't get another one fast, you're in deep trouble, aren't you?
Follow that train of thought. In order to maintain debt, you need to maintain a job. You are forced to keep working even if you hate your job because you must meet those payments.
Does that sound a little like a form of control to you?
It does to me. The control part is you are forced to work at a job whether you hate it or love it. If you love it, there's no real problem of course. We should go to work to do what we love doing, right?
But if you hate your job, that's a whole different story. You are being controlled and you can't break out of it because you need to pay off your debts.
Take another scenario. Say you have zero debt.
No Debt No Trap
That's right. No credit card balance. No mortgage. No car loan.
You go to work to do a job you love even though it mat not pay as much as one you'd hate. But that's OK because you only need enough income for food, clothes and entertainment and your job pays you way more than you need for just those things.
Some would look at your life and say that you're blessed. Others would look on enviously at your perfect life and complain "why can't I have a life like that?"
That's what can happen when you have no debt. What's more is you cannot be so easily controlled by anyone, because you are not forced to materialize a certain amount of money each month to pay for debts that you don't have!
Find the way to free yourself from debt and you free your life in so many ways. Look for the opportunities that will steer you in that direction because they are the ones that will have the maximum impact on your life.
Related Articles
There is more to read and learn on this subject, as it is actually pretty vast and can make a huge difference to your life. For that reason, I've extended the ideas and concepts of this article into separate pages to make it all easier to digest and assimilate into your understanding. The titles are below: