By John Mullins

You've heard it all before, "strike while the iron’s hot." Or maybe, "make hay while the sun shines."

These are all meant to be encouraging words of wisdom that spark us into action, but let's be honest, they've become tired old clichés that we hardly feel a tinge of excitement for.

The thing is, when life seems to get tough, and we experience scarcity, or a lack of things, we tend to retreat into our shells, and focus more on protecting what we do have, even though this may be very little.

It may be a cautious, but yet quite conservative approach. Chances are, if you follow this method you will survive a recession, or you will make it through the tough times, but how much would you have really grown, or learned about yourself?

How many more opportunities would you have noticed? I think it's exactly in the times of lacking that we need to be sharper, agile, more courageous.

That's the way we break through into new levels of performance and opportunity. Without things being tough, we are not stretched to try anything different.

We carry on sometimes just trying to maintain what we have. And often we do this with a fear that we may lose everything if we don't play it safe.

But let me tell you. Playing it safe is not going to cut it for those who have lost jobs, or who have sat on the sidelines for too long waiting for a job to miraculously appear.

There's a time to be prudent and a time to be a little daring. For example, be safe with your savings, or your financial future. Do not bet everything on a risky venture.

But when it comes to seizing opportunity, the same level of conservative behaviour could just result in you missing the boat completely.

Now here's the funny thing. The more you look, the more the opportunities come around. The more you are willing to be a bit daring and audacious, bigger challenges and rewards present themselves.

It's a completely true universal phenomenon. Luck I was told recently is a myth. Some say luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.

I say, luck is when you get off your ass and make things happen for yourself. And I want to make this absolutely clear.

This is exactly where I am at now as well. I find that if I sit back and lament the fact that things have been tough for all of us, I will simply go into over analysis, and things become very theoretical.

We can all pretend to sound clever about what has caused our problems, but how clever are we really in getting back onto our feet?

This my friends comes from shaking off the other myth that we have been victims of something. Forget that.

It just drives more fear into your heart, and stops you from looking around and finding new opportunities.

There's opportunity in everything. Seriously! In everything I tell you. The whole world needs a makeover, so every minute of every day you could be looking right into the eyes of the biggest opportunity you've ever seen.

But are you looking? And I'm not talking about sheepish glances here. I'm talking CSI look under every stone kind of looking.

You have to put all pride aside, and approach your life fresh and with eyes that are determined to find your greatest calling. For me, it goes something like this.

When I experience a quiet time, or when business seems to be going very slowly, I have to get out there in the field. I have to meet as many people as possible and simply talk to them. I listen carefully to what's going on with them and their situations.

Then I go back and think, what possibly could I help them with? That gets me going again. For a job seeker, waiting for the newspapers to advertise a vacancy is really just too reactive. You rather want to be relentless in your networking.

Don't worry about being a nuisance. Put all pride in your pocket and speak to everyone. Find out what's going on everywhere, and soon you will know exactly where the jobs are.

But you have to be determined, and keep looking. Opportunities only really come to those that look. And luck my friends will smile at you, when you make it happen for yourself.


How to find opportunities:

Speak to everyone. Seriously, speak to everyone about what’s happening in their worlds. You may just find the job you want when you look in a place you had not thought of.

Be relentless in your search. Waiting for luck is futile. Make it happen for yourself.

Look at life with fresh eyes. What does the world need? What can you do to contribute to that new world you want to see?

Believe in yourself always. No one will take you seriously if you don’t believe in yourself first.

JOHN MULLINS

Visit John’s websites for more, www.daredreamdone.com, or www.johnmullins.co.za
Or contact him on his email address, john@johnmullins.co.za