MISSED OPPORTUNITY

                     

   MIssed Opportunity by Kenneth Harper Finton ©2014

“We often miss opportunity because it's dressed in overalls and looks like work.” 
— Thomas A. Edison

Does opportunity only knock once? Leon Spinks said it was so. He said that “opportunity knocks only once. You never know if you’ll get another opportunity.” Leon knows about knocking. He was the boxer that defeated Mohammad Ali in February of 1978 in a fifteen round decision fight. 

Nonetheless, opportunity presents itself often. Opportunity is a set of circumstances that makes it possible to do something.  Hopefully, this action is a creative act, but it could just as easily be destructive.

Opportunities are time sensitive. We have all missed many opportunities. Sometimes they slide by unrecognized. Sometimes we are not ready for them. Sometimes we choose to ignore them. 

Whatever your secret desires, there are always ways to make them ripen. 

“Make it so,” was the mantra of Captain Picard in Star Trek: the New Generation. Making it so is the secret to getting the task done.

We have opportunities today that people did not have in the past. We can develop relationships with brilliant and creative people all over the world through our new information technology. Highly creative people tend not only to recognize opportunity, but have placed themselves in a position to make something of it.

Almost every problem has a solution. It is creativity that solves these problems. We are all creative. Creativity is the hallmark of humanity.

The mind is constantly occupied and thoughts appear constantly, seemingly from nowhere. Since these ideas and observations are easily lost, it is wise to archive then in some fashion. Carry a notebook and write them down. Have a digital camera to document the out-of-the ordinary and use the video on your cell phone to make audio/visual notes that you can sort and transcribe at a later time.

It is that same mind that prevents is from taking advantage of opportunities. Exceptional creativity comes from an open mind that is not afraid of the unorthodox. Prejudice, uninformed religious beliefs and dogmas, political pressures and peer uniformity are all enemies of the open mind.

We need to be ready for opportunity. Rita Coolidge said, “Too often opportunity knocks, but by the time you push back the chain, push back the bolt, unhook the two locks and shut off the burglar alarm, it is too late.”

Being thankful for our limited talents and grateful in accepting our weaknesses helps us to clear out minds and look at things from different perspectives. Both resentment and complacency run amuck in today’s society. Dwelling on these things can put us in an unproductive mind set that can stymy our ability to recognize opportunity.