Opportunities are never lost – someone will take the one you miss
I used to work for a company that offered lots of opportunities to climb the corporate ladder. To get my foot in the door, I accepted a position as a filing clerk – at that time, it was 10 years since I last worked in an office environment so my skills were a bit rusty and outdated. Instead of thinking… well this is it, I can relax now and file my little heart out for the next 20 years. Instead I viewed it as an “opportunity” to get to where I wanted to go. In less then four years I claimed my prized position.
Reaching my dream job didn’t come easy and at times I came close to giving up. Along the way I found myself hitting roadblocks in the form of having bosses that didn’t see my potential, pigeon-holing me because they only saw me as good as the position I was in. Also, I encountered resistance from long-term co-workers – possibly thinking I was moving ahead too fast or was taking away their opportunities for advancement.
The reason why I got to a high paying position in a fairly short time was because I kept my eyes and ears open for all opportunities and prepared myself along the way for when the time came to move to next level. I also took advantage of opportunities that others didn’t see – gladly accepting the projects that my co-workers thought was beneath them or “it wasn’t in their job description”. I knew that “gold nuggets” were hidden in these little gems of opportunities. A lot of the opportunities that presented themselves to me was because I took advantage of the educational opportunities that the company paid for – courses, training, workshops, which gave me the advantage and confidence to face whatever came my way.
Don’t let chances to improve pass you by
Take a snapshot of your job – your career? Do you like what you see? If not, then what are you doing about it? Are you letting opportunities pass you by?
It’s very common to see people stay in the same position for years, hoping and expecting that one day they will automatically get promoted because of their hard work and years of service but in the meantime do absolutely nothing to get themselves prepared for opportunities.
Prepare For The Unpreparable
If the opportunity of a lifetime were to knock on your door today, would you be prepared to take full advantage of it?
The best opportunities come to those who prepare themselves. Training, education, networking – begin preparing in the direction of where you want to go, so when an opportunity presents itself, all you have to do is step into the moment.
A lot of times opportunities arise out of the blue, and you can’t plan for them to happen but it helps to be prepared and be willing to step up to the plate when the time comes. If you want to reach your goals, opportunity will get you there – so when opportunity knocks…be ready and answer the door!
Opportunity will only knock once and you need to get to the door. So how do you get prepared? Practice! You must prepare your body, mind and skills as if every day there will come a knock at the door. Search your soul to discover what you really want. Then ask yourself, “Am I ready?”
The next time an opportunity knocks, keep in mind that once you say no, it’s gone forever and so are all the opportunities that could have come with it.
Posted by Anonymous on February 22, 2010 at 1:40 am
So true, very well worded ! Love this post.