Wednesday – Luck is up to us

When opportunity knocks, it better see something like this

Today my mundane activities included dropping off a cheque at the bank and meeting Dennis to hunt for his Oakeys, followed by drinks at breworkz with Meng Kit and his friends right before we headed for MUSE!

Blogging about my experience at a concert seems to me an utter waste of time. So I shall skip that.

So what are my thoughts for the day? Interestingly it's about seizing opportunities.

There is a phrase I picked up from a book describing luck. Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. When the two contributing factors are not in tandem then “luck” as we would have it doesn’t happen.

When opportunity knocks on your door, and you lack the preparation to receive it, then opportunity will simply walk away. Spend all day preparing but opportunity doesn’t appear at your door, all would have been in vain. Or as we often call it, Bad Luck.

But can we really ascribe our lives to the whims and chance of something so arbitrary like opportunity or “luck”? I will admit that there is an arbitrary element, but we are not powerless against it. We can off set this random element with some effort on our part. The keywords here are effort and our part, not slacking and our sourcing efforts to others like our parents or boyfriends or girlfriends.

We cannot control opportunity, but we can increase the chances of it occurring. How? By taking chances with the people, investing your time, effort and energy in others, by helping others, by meeting people, by trying new things, going out of your comfort zone. But if one simply stays at home and feel curse that one doesn’t any opportunity to succeed, then I am afraid it’s one’s own fault. Opportunity favors the bold; he who is timid will have to take a back seat as those who are more motivated and driven take centre stage where opportunity can see them. Which of the two do you want to be?

Prior to taking centre stage, those who are motivated and driven must also be prepared to seize the opportunities that come along. When I say preparation include have the correct skill set. Different opportunities require different skill sets to capitalize upon. So one must be clear what one wants to achieve, and hence pursue the means to an end.

The effort required of us Students of Life are two fold. Firstly, we must equip ourselves with the relevant skill sets that would aid us in the pursuit of our hopes and dreams. We must take responsibility of our own learning, our own destiny. Secondly we must expose ourselves to the world outside our comfort zone, our normal orbit. Else how can we change our chances if we keep doing things the same way? This is what it means to me to take charge of one’s destiny, take things into our own hands, answer for your mistakes and reap the glory of your triumphs.

We can never have enough shots at success, so don’t be fussy when it comes to opportunity. Don’t ever think to yourself that other such opportunity might come along, thinking like that is a clear sign of out sourcing your responsibility of your destiny.

We all start at different points of our lives, hence the roads laid before us are both different both in difficulty and duration. But the basic ideas are the same, expand your scope in order to garner better exposure to opportunities, know one’s dreams in order to acquire the relevant skills sets and aid in the preparation process.

Some have it harder then others, which only mean one thing, some will have a sweeter taste of success then others.

Vernon