Be Proactive When an Opportunity Presents Itself

Good ideas, no matter what part of our lives they drop into, are a treasure we should all accept. Sometimes we think of something and have no idea what motivated it. For many of us, these spontaneous ideas are the ones we should run with. I’m sure I’m not the only one who has had a good idea, pondered on it, weighed up the pros and cons, gone through periods of doubt then, once deciding to proceed find out it’s too late. The opportunity is over. It’s not good to be indecisive, many opportunities are lost that way. The only way to get ahead in the world is to be proactive. Proactive people create their own luck.

Let me illustrate with three small examples. I don’t buy many clothes, but recently I saw a dress that I loved in a sale. It was exactly what I’d been looking for, good quality, but a little more than I had planned on spending. I hesitated, then decided to continue looking to see if I could find anything similar at a cheaper price. After an hour, rather than go back to the shop, I realised it was getting late and I had to move on. When I finally got back to the shop a few days later, the dress had gone. Now, that wasn’t a big deal, but it made me realise, sometimes we should run with that spontaneous decision and not procrastinate.

Two weeks ago a friend of mine rang to tell me she had applied for a part-time job. When I heard about the job, I felt annoyed. It was a job I’d been waiting for and had missed seeing it advertised. I had worked extensively in that area of education before and my friend had not. I really wanted to apply for that job, but felt I should be loyal to my friend. When I learned she had received an interview for the job I was disappointed in myself. She didn’t get the job, but maybe, with my experience I would have had a good opportunity. I turned down the opportunity for the wrong reasons.

The third example appeared this morning. I’d been going to write an article about something for this site. I researched it thoroughly, even wrote the draft of the article. But, that day another idea popped into my head. I  put the original article aside, thinking I would submit it another time. Last night I decided today would be the day to return to the first article that I’d spent so much time researching. You’ve probably guessed it, the first article I saw this morning when logging on was on that exact subject. I have a personal policy not to submit something when I’m aware a similar article has recently been published. I had simply lost my opportunity by not acting on it immediately.

You can probably think of hundreds of better examples, either in your own life or in the lives of people you know. These two events weren’t of major importance in my life. But they did point out to me that procrastination is sometimes for the wrong reasons.

We need to learn to believe in ourselves and our abilities. We need to trust our gut instinct if we want to succeed in life. I don’t mean only employment opportunities, but any opportunity that arises that you believe will add to the quality of your life. Don’t allow yourself or others to talk you out of something. Run with the idea. If it doesn’t work, that’s okay. Nothing but a little time has been lost by trying.

Good things come to people who are proactive in their decision making. If you hesitate, there’s always someone else there waiting to make the most of that same opportunity.