OPPORTUNITY DOES NOT ALWAYS KNOCK
Thursday, November 25, 2021
Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes. – Oscar Wilde
Experience is a good school. But the fees are high. – Heinrich Heine
I’m doing this for the experience. – everyone has said this
Experience has value, but it comes at a cost that involves bumps and bruises while travelling the full breadth of emotions from self-doubt to self-aggrandizing euphoria.
Doing things where ‘achievement of the objective’ is the story – is a great experience, but in my history, I’ve found it not always the best experience. The better experiences have been when we bomb, fall-flat, wash out or completely blow it. Those experiences are painful but teach their lessons well.
Practice does not make perfect – instead, practice makes permanent – which is a good lesson if we are working on our golf swing, but not so practical if all our shots keep landing in hazards or straying out of bounds.
Few things prepare us better than preparation, and experience teaches us harsh lessons when we aren’t ready. Preparation in all the things we do, to be primed for any task or situation, but the best readiness is bringing our experience with us – because we never know when we’ll need it, but it’s like those things we keep in the trunk of the car. We can ignore them most of the time, but when we have some trouble on a country road, it’s good to have taken them along.
If we have high expectations for how things will turn out – we’ve done the preparation – we still run the high risk of muttering under our breath, “this is not what I signed up for” as we reconcile the reality with our plans. The more experience we have, the better we can plan, which helps prevent pitfalls.
We need to be careful about having our diligent head down when we ought to have our head up and be looking around – so we don’t miss all those opportunities flying by …
Opportunity rarely knocks to announce its arrival.
Opportunity is always there – the trick is to be prepared to apply experience to notice it but, at the same time, not ignore all options that don’t look perfect or ideal at first blush. The best opportunities are often the ones nobody else sees because they see situations through a different experience lens.
Reader feedback:
What a perfect way to start the day! Thank you, Mark, for seeing the things that many of us miss in our race for the brass ring. Living in the burbs certainly has its moments. Continue to seize them, SM, Calgary, AB
Coyotes often wander into my backyard. They are beautiful, but could probably eat my dog, Benny, for breakfast. Hopefully, I'll always be there to save my pup now that I'm Invincible (as you'll see on my latest blog post: https://jmaydaze.com/2021/11/24/invincible/ ). Thanks for all your wonderful insights, Mark. I enjoy your column every day, JM, Seattle, WA
And, to Alberta residents only: THIRD ACTion Film Festival is doing a 50/50 raffle again – buy a ticket, be a winner + make the pot richer, for a great cause – draw date is Dec. 22nd.