How do I recognize an opportunity?
“Recognizing opportunity is so difficult for most people because it goes around disguised in overalls, looking like hard work!” - Thomas Edison
Have you ever wondered what an opportunity looks like? How would you know one when it presents itself? Do you feel like you’re doomed to only see them in hindsight? For example, “I wish I had bought that stock when it was low...I’d be sitting on a ton of cash right now!” How would you like to be able to recognize those opportunities when they come up? Of course you would! Nobody in their right mind would say no to an opportunity like that, but this also betrays a bias we have when it comes to how we think about opportunities.
It has become common to think of opportunity as something that you gain by dint of birth, but that’s not what opportunity is at all. Opportunity often comes disguised as a trial and in the form of hard work. From the external observer’s perspective, the person who makes good use of their opportunities seems to constantly rise, where others might fail.
From the internal (aka the “doer’s”) perspective, opportunity rarely looks like something you’d want to seize. It often looks more like a lot of work that you’re unlikely to benefit from financially. Sometimes, it’s called “volunteering.” Sometimes it’s called “crap jobs.”
As a young sailor in the US Navy, I was given a great piece of advice by my warrant officer, as he overheard me complaining about having to strip and wax a floor for the third time in as many weeks. He pulled me aside and said “Shipmate, there are no shit jobs. There are only opportunities for advancement.” That advice has stuck with me for 25 years, and it has never steered me wrong.
On a daily basis, there are more opportunities presented to you than you can possibly ever recognize or use to your advantage. The first task you must set for yourself is to determine what sorts of opportunities you want to be able to recognize. You must then orient your mind and spirit toward these opportunities on a daily basis. For me, that orientation takes the form of prayer. I add components to my prayers that signal my gratitude for the opportunities I have already received, and then I ask for specific kinds of opportunities and the ability to recognize them when they come.
By vocalizing these statements, I am aligning my brain to pay attention to the things I want to do. You could also do this with a journal or affirmations, but however you choose to do it, make sure that part of it includes saying the words out loud so that your ears can hear your mouth make the request. This is important, because it’s how your brain aligns itself to the things you want from life.
While opportunities are not always easy to spot, they become much easier to recognize when you stop thinking of them as things that only provide you with a personal benefit, and start realizing that any benefit they might bestow could be limited to the internal satisfaction of having done a good job, or of having done the right thing. You can sometimes recognize them by how much you don’t want to do them. If you look at something and think “if I do that, then I won’t be able to hang out with my friends tonight. I will be stuck doing that for the rest of the evening instead,” it could be an indication that you’re facing a great opportunity. After all, what benefit have you ever really had from hanging out with friends that couldn’t be easily replicated at a later time? If you missed a night, would you really miss it?
The important questions you need to answer about your potential opportunity are:
What happens if it doesn’t get done?
If you don’t do it, who will?
It’s also important to recognize that the kinds of opportunities “available” to you right now are probably more toward the “beginner” end of the ladder, than they are toward the “rich, powerful person” end of the ladder. It may be helpful to think about this like a video game. At first, the tasks you receive will be “kill 10 rats,” and only after you have proven yourself will you get more complicated tasks.
Once again, there is a principle at work here. This is best explained by the parable of the talents in the Bible. A master gave each of his three servants different amounts of talents (a unit of money during Biblical times), and then left to let the servants figure out what to do with their talents. Two of his servants doubled their talents. To these two servants, he gave the same reply “because you have done a good job with a few things, I will make you master over many things.” For these two servants, new opportunities were unlocked because they chose to use their initial opportunity as a starting point. There is no indication that they received any personal benefit from the doubling of the money they made for their master, but we can assume that the opportunity they received was more valuable than the money because of the knowledge they gained directly about how to manage money.
Bottom line: Opportunity is all around us each and every day. Your inability to recognize it is very likely simply a matter of attuning your perception to see them as they appear. By attuning your mind to the existence of the kind of opportunities you want, you will greatly improve your ability to receive them and take advantage of them.
Challenge: Reflect on the kinds of opportunities you would like to receive. Do you want to go into a new career field? Do you want to learn a new skill or travel to a new country? Do you want to improve a relationship or form a new one? Once you have determined the kind of opportunity you want, begin to attune yourself to it by vocalizing it on a daily basis. When a new opportunity is presented, even if it seems unrelated, choose to accept it. Continue to accept these small, unrelated opportunities until you get your first breakthrough.
Be strong and of good courage, and good things will come your way.