Missing Opportunities or Being Conservative?

Fate offers you opportunities for a while, and if you don’t take them, Fate says to itself, `Oh I see – this person doesn’t like opportunities,’ and stops giving them to you. – Douglas Coupland

I have two (among many) rules, one that goes along the lines “if it doesn’t feel right then don’t do it” and one about opportunities that Douglas Coupland phrased much more eloquently than I ever could. The first one is about trusting your gut instinct. Sometimes, and this is explained in much greater depth in “Blink” by Malcolm Gladwell, you just know things and you should heed the flash of insight despite not being able to explain the how or why. Why spend days agonising over a decision that you had an immediate feel for?

And that’s the problem, sometimes you don’t have that flash of insight and you have to sit down and work through the pros and cons of the situation. And go back and forth between the two choices. And stop sleeping. And still don’t know what the right choice is. And that’s where I’m at.

So why have I put this entry up? Other than because it allows me to use one of my favourite quotes? In part to explain my silence after the initial burst of activity this month and partly because writing things down often provides some insight or new angle that just stewing on the choice doesn’t suggest. And because the actual act of writing down your goals makes you more likely to reach them. Assuming you know what they are!

I’m a firm believer that you can accomplish anything you set your mind to, the only problem is making the decision that you want it, being prepared to pay the cost and striving for it. The problem is working out of you want it enough to reach for it.