Put Yourself in Opportunity’s Way

Can you cause things to occur?  Can you make luck happen? 

It can feel like the odds are stacked up against you in the current economic climate and job market. In our work at Now What?® Coaching, we’ve found that once you tap into what you really want to do (despite logic or how improbable it is) the roadblocks melt away one by one as you persevere to beat the odds.  We find you CAN create your own luck.

What does it take?  Perseverance, blocking out naysayers, following your intuition against the odds and taking risks. BIG risks.

I saw the movie, SECRETARIAT, last night.  Even though I knew the outcome of the horse’s history, I still found myself completely intrigued and committed to championing the main (human) character, Penny Tweedy.  Penny was a housewife who had not been involved with her family’s horse farm for many years. When her mother died and her father was no longer able to take care of things, she stepped in.  It was her intuition, research, and tenacity that sired the success of her racehorse, Secretariat.

All the odds were stacked against Penny.  She had little experience, she was a woman at a time where ridiculing her publicly was still an acceptable tactic for her male opponents, her own husband and brother were her biggest naysayers, she did not have the money to do what she wanted to do and she was operating on her 20-year memory of her MBA studies (not mentioned in the movie), her gut and her spiritual connection to her horse.

She and her horse accomplished the impossible according to conventional wisdom.  To Penny, it was always possible and it is that conviction that is required to beat the odds. Odds, which in Secretariat’s case, were never repeated, by the way. (no horse has ever beat those times)

Putting yourself in opportunity’s way, in the most basic terms, means getting yourself out there.  Talking to people, operating like you are already successful (despite your fear and feelings of being an impostor), taking chances by asking for what you want and stretching beyond your comfort zone.

What happens when you do that is that you are putting a stake in the ground.  You are telegraphing to the ‘ethers’ and to the people in your life that you are serious and that your intention is to set the course to this particular thing happening.  When you cut off all other options, you operate differently.  You can’t afford to let fear stop you.  Life will tell you quickly if you’re wrong, but in my experience, by the time you get to this point, you are on to something that is very right for you.  Obstacles are still likely, but they increase determination instead of the opposite.

Do it.  Put yourself in opportunity’s way. Push through and watch the tides turn in your direction.  It’s not forcing results at any cost, but rather re-educating the universe, yourself and those around you as to what you are willing to have in your life. OPPortunity is UP to YOU.

Based on Chapter 10 of “Now What? 90 Days to a New Life Direction”, “Put Yourself in Opportunity’s Way”.  More on this topic in Laura’s upcoming “The Prosperity Plan” (January 2011)