"Dig the well before you are thirsty."
~~Chinese proverb~~
My post called "When Opportunity Knocks..." (April 2008), has been one of my most popular posts. I'd like to expand that idea in this post with tips on what to do while you're waiting for an opportunity to turn up.
In the next post, I'll talk about what to do after the opportunity has arrived.
Photo (c) iStockphoto/Marek Uliasz
"Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase."
~~Martin Luther King, Jr.~~
So, let's take a look at what we can do to prepare for an opportunity, even when we don't know what it looks like or when it'll show up! First, we have to accept the facts that we don't know what or when or how.. We need to go with the flow; if we're too precise, we'll interfere with the process.
On the other hand, we don't want to run after every shiny object. We each need to ask ourselves this question:
Am I looking for an opportunity in areas that support
my over-arching goals?
If you're still fuzzy about this, try author Mike Dooley's idea:
"If you don't know what it is you want to do,
keep doing what you're doing, but do it better."
Some of you may pull away from Dooley's idea. you may think, "Why would I do that? This is the situation I want to get out of!"
Yes, I understand. But the Universe is looking for someone worthy of the opportunity and appreciative of what he or she already has.
Also it keeps you out and about where opportunities abound! I've never heard of anyone jumping up and shouting, "There it is! Now I know what my opportunity is!" while watching a television commercial about a new brand of disposable baby diapers.
Take this waiting time to keep your skills up to date, so you can easily leverage them at a moment's notice. Continue with your life-long learning in areas that interest you...a new craft, a new sport, or a new language, or another favorite.
Here's a great real-life example of how this works: Many years ago, before Apple, Steve Jobs took a calligraphy class just because he found it to be fascinating. Years later, he used that experience to make Apple the first company to offer a selection of various fonts on a home computer!
Remember to keep your soft skills active, also...people skills, intuition, and a great sense of humor, just to mention a few.
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| Photo (c) iStockphoto/Janne Ahvo |
Gather up all the patience you can muster. Waiting for your opportunity may take longer than you expect. We don't have the ability to see the opportunity as it's developing, so we must trust the flow of life.
How you interact with others is another important area to shape up in while you're waiting for the opportunity that has your name on it. Let others around you know that you're going to be upgrading many aspects of your life in preparation for an opportunity to make an even larger change.
You may want to consider doing some volunteer work in one or two areas of interest to you. While you're helping others, you're also meeting new people, and maintaining great people skills.
How you interact with others is another important area to shape up in while you're waiting for the opportunity that has your name on it. Let others around you know that you're going to be upgrading many aspects of your life in preparation for an opportunity to make an even larger change.
You may want to consider doing some volunteer work in one or two areas of interest to you. While you're helping others, you're also meeting new people, and maintaining great people skills.
Photo (c) iStockphoto/Brian Jackson
Networking has similar advantages. Let your fellow networkers know what your interests are, so they can spread the word for you, and you can be on the look-out for ways you can help them.
Photo (c) iStockphoto/Jacob Wackerhausen
Readers, please weigh in on this one! If you have suggestions, questions, or experiences, we'd all love to hear them. If you don't like to write on-line, you can email me privately here. I'll use your address only to respond to your comments. I do not share my readers' email addresses.
Remember, next time I'll be writing about what happens after your opportunity shows up. Your comments to this post will help me direct the next one more specifically to what you want to know!
Thanks,
Susan
The Great-Life Advocate (TM)
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Photo (c) iStockphoto/Denise Kappa
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*** All of Susan's creative4life posts are (c) Susan Cleaver. ***
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