Stop Pursuing Opportunities
Do you believe that having more opportunities leads to more success?
Note: This article is based on the work of Darius Foroux, in which he tells us about the need to stop chasing opportunities.
You do, I am sure. We all want to feel important in this world and think that the best way to achieve that is to go after every opportunity that comes our way. I frequently hear people say, "This is my chance."
However, it is a bad idea. Chasing opportunities is a bad strategy; it is better and more practical to work on your skills and prepare for them. It is different from your way of thinking, but this changes everything. Abraham Lincoln, a former US president, said it best: "I will prepare, and one day my chance will come."
We're constantly searching for the next great opportunity, next great business concept, technology to adopt, vacation to plan, house to buy, person to fall in love with, or promotion to obtain.
What Are You Pursuing in Your Life?
Are you distracted and confused? Are you trying to make the most of everything? Are you attempting to take advantage of every opportunity that comes your way? If so, you are deceiving yourself because you want everything and lack the courage to say no, which leads you to say yes and put yourself in a challenging situation.
Setting Too Many Priorities Results in A Lack of Focus
I am speaking from experience here, and I have to be honest, as for the majority of my life, I have jumped from one opportunity to another, but that all changed about two years ago when I made the decision to concentrate only on developing my most crucial skills, my family business, and my blog.
It went well; I declined everything else, but in the last few months, I have been tempted by opportunities like consulting, coaching, speaking, writing more books, starting new businesses, and creating YouTube videos of things I have done or thought.
But everything I did was making me feel confused because I had so many competing priorities and a general lack of focus. It is time for me to reconsider my options. Everyone has opportunities, so it is never a matter of finding them; rather, the question is how many opportunities you turn down, and that is not always simple.
Therefore, I made the decision to concentrate only on four things that are all closely related, which are my career, blog, online courses, and podcasts, and I declined every other opportunity.
Not All Opportunities Come from Outside
The majority of your opportunities come from within, as every time you ask yourself, "Should I be going for this?" you create an opportunity, which takes considerable mental effort. Decide what aspects of your career you want to develop and advance in, and make your life easier by concentrating only on those things.
How Many Things Must I Concentrate On?
It depends on your position in life. At the beginning of a career, I suggest choosing one skill to start with to make things easier. Just choose one skill and concentrate solely on it. But I notice that successful people frequently combine a number of skills to give themselves a competitive advantage, so having just one skill in life will get you nowhere.
Additionally, you do not want to be someone who does a lot of different things while being average in most of them but not exceptional in others.
How Can I Tell If the Opportunity Is Right?
When you know that it takes effort to realize an opportunity, you can tell that it is the right one. American inventor Thomas Edison put it so beautifully: ”Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” Opportunity is ultimately just the potential to do something good. Opportunity by itself has no value. If you give ten people the same opportunity, you will get ten different outcomes.
Since more work comes with opportunities (which is not always a good thing), it is best to choose opportunities carefully if you don't want to work hard and for long hours. Therefore, I pose the following two questions to myself:
- What precisely do I excel at? You can choose opportunities that match your strengths by answering this question.
- What kind of work do I enjoy? I do not like to pursue opportunities just because I believe they will increase my income or because others are doing so, as these are meaningless reasons.
If you are honest in your responses, there are fewer career opportunities available to you, as no one masters hundreds of skills or enjoys doing everything in the world. Life is full of opportunities, and you only need to be aware of the ones that suit you. It is difficult to know which ones are right for you because you cannot control the opportunities you encounter, so you have to prepare by developing your skills and personality every day.
In Conclusion
Do not be afraid to act when opportunity knocks at your door; seize it with both hands and give it everything you have learned.