Wednesday 11 July 2012

You Must Be Open to Opportunities

I love life and I love helping people. It's what drives me. I've always been a curious person. Yes, I know, I'm curious! But I don't mean in that way! I mean I'm curious, I'm interested in things and always open to new opportunities.

I'm a big believer that life offers us all sorts of new opportunities each and every day. But it breaks my heart when I hear people say things like,
"Those sorts of things never happen to me."
"Such is life."
"This is my lot in life."
"I'm never lucky like you are!"
"It's easy for you, people like you."
"I don't dream big dreams, I just end up disappointed all the time"

And so on and so on. You've no doubt heard similar sorts of things from some of the people you know and perhaps yourself too from time to time!

There are way too many people in life who accept mediocrity. What I mean by that is those people who do the 9 to 5 routine, don't enjoy their jobs, but don't bother looking to change. They come home from work and slump in front the TV and let the evening viewing wash over them, only to get up the next day and repeat the same process. The hard work of making a living has consumed them and zapped any passion they once had, leaving them to just exist. Any sign of a dream or goal has long since vanished.

The Corridor of Life
But I truly believe that anyone can achieve anything they want but they have to be open to it, to truly believe they can do it and to be on the look out for the opportunities which will help them.

I use the analogy of The Corridor of Life. We all walk along the corridor of life but for many people, in fact the majority or people, the doors along their corridor are all closed so they just trudge along the hallway never expecting anything exciting or interesting to happen.

I'm the exact opposite. Yes, I too walk along the same hallway, but I don't trudge. I walk confidently along it and from time to time I'll pass a door. Now often my doors are closed too, but I'm curious. I wonder what's behind a closed door and so I walk up to it and see if it's unlocked. If it is I'll turn the handle and peek in. You never know where the chance you need might come from.

Often a door will be locked and that's fine; I just leave those. If it was meant to be opened by me, it would be unlocked.

There's a well known saying in Scotland; “If it’s fir ye, it’ll no pass ye by.” It's basically means don't worry about things, because if whatever you're worrying about is meant to be then it will work out.  If not, then it’s not meant to be, so move on. My grandfather, Arthur Lee, always told me not to waste time worrying about the things in life which you can't control! I love that.

Many times the doors I approach will be wide open with really bright lights shining out onto the corridor. I'm always excited to enter these doors!

Now I'm only using this as a metaphor, but the corridor of life is similar to what happens in life. We have opportunities presented to us on a daily, weekly and monthly basis but most of the time we don't see them!

I gave a talk at a business event in Bristol about 3 weeks ago. It was about how to set goals properly. 2 of the people who attended the event spoke to me afterwards. They both said they loved my enthusiasm and they wish they could have me cheering them on each day. As I drove back to my office, their comments got me thinking. I thought it would be great if I could help motivate people everyday but I didn't want it to mean I would actually have to be there with them or on the end of a telephone.

I realised their comments were another one of the corridor of life's doors of opportunity opening for me.

Monday Motivation

So I gave it some thought and within a week I had set up my new product - www.mondaymotivation.co.uk I am recording a brand new, motivational audio message every week which is posted on my website on a Monday morning. It can be listened to online or it can be downloaded and listened to anytime. It's free for the first month and in less than a week of going live I've already had 8 people sign up!

Now I've no idea where this will take me but it feels right. It feels great and I'm truly excited about it. I'm helping people get and stay motivated which is what drives me. I love helping people and that's what Monday Motivation will do.

So start thinking about what you'd like to achieve in your life and start believing that you really can achieve whatever you want. You too are walking down your own corridor of life, so start to get curious and look for those doors along your corridor. And start opening them and seeing where they might lead you. You'll be amazed!

Please do add your comments about the different opportunities you've grabbed and let us all know what happened.