Opportunities – real until they are not 5



Treat every opportunity as if it’s real.  Many won’t be but a few will be.  All it takes is a few.  Actually, all it takes is one – the right one – and you’re off.


The difficulty is knowing when to trudge on, ramp up, kick back, or let go.  Sometimes you have to let go because what looked like an opportunity was a dead end.  You let go of that specifc thing but not the dream or goal.


How to know when to let go? 
It’s analyzing the data and going with your gut.  It’s being persistent, tenacious and focused (with breaks now and then; release, relax, then…back at it).

Do you want your absolute dream or can you be satisfied with a version of your dream? 
Must it be the whole pie or will a slice of it or a sliver or the ingredients to make the pie suffice?  You will make the pie, won’t you?


What does opportunity look like? 
Can you recognize it if it’s not packaged the way you thought it would be?


When will opportunity come? 
Are you prepared to seize it even if you expected it to turn up months ago and it comes in a phone call on a Friday afternoon that you missed and have to wait a long, agonizing weekend to pursue?


Keep sowing the seeds that foster opportunities; you truly don’t know when or where they’ll sprout. 


Keep looking for openings – become the mouse who can slip through openings too tiny to believe; become water lapping against the shore slowly eroding the barrier; become the sun that lights every day.


Every day that you wake up is another opportunity.  Begin again.  Continue on.



“I got three messages,” an exhausted and happy Nyad told reporters. Her face was sunburned and swollen.


“One is we should never, ever give up. Two is you never are too old to chase your dreams. Three is it looks like a solitary sport, but it’s a team,” she said.



 




‘Never, ever give up:’ Diana Nyad completes historic Cuba-to-Florida swim  by Matt Sloane, Jason Hanna and Dana Ford, CNN


Diana Nyad’s website




About Candelaria Silva

Candelaria Silva-Collins is a marketing, community outreach and programming consultant; writer; and trainer/facilitator who lives in Boston, Massachusetts. She has designed and facilitated workshops on a wide variety of topics including communication, facilitation, job search skills, team building, and parenting issues. She currently coordinates the Community Membership Program of the Huntington Theatre Company. Her work as Director of ACT Roxbury was profiled in several publications, including The Creative Communities Builders Handbook. Candelaria’s children’s stories, short stories, essays and reviews have been published in local and national publications and she is an active blogger. Her publications include the booklets, Handling Rejection; Pushing through Shyness: Networking Tips when You’re Shy, Slow to Warm Up or Just don’t Feel you Belong; and Real Questions about Sex & Relationships for Teens: A Discussion Guide for Parents. She has served on the boards of Goddard College, Wheelock Family Theatre, Boston Foundation for Architecture, and Discover Roxbury. She is currently Chair, Designators of the Henderson Foundation.

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5 thoughts on “Opportunities – real until they are not

  • Peggy

    A very insightful, inspiring post Candelaria.
    I agree we are never too old to chase our dreams.
    Decision-making can be quite stressful for many people, so they put off deciding and the clutter piles up and life choices are postponed.
    I try to see decisions not as a final choice, but experiments.
    When I conduct experiments, there’s no failure – any result is learning and if there is no failure I don’t have to worry. My heart softens and I can smile and have fun with the experiment.
    Namaste
    Peggy ♥♥

  • Candelaria

    Thank you for your thoughtful comments.  We are never too old or too young to chase our dreams.  I like your practice of seeing “decision not as a final choice but experiemnts.”  How we view things is so powerful.  Take care.

  • Lisa

    Great post! I was very inspired by Diana Nyad as well. This was good timing for me. I thought there was an opportunity that was happening for me today, but it did not turn out to be. I tried and will have to keep moving on. You know I’m baking that pie! : )

  • Candelaria

    Glad the post was timely.  While I would never do what Ms. Nyad did, it was inspiring to hear that she just didn’t give up.  Keep baking your pie!

  • Amelia Williams

    I’ve always considered the road to success to be like Shawshank redemption — essentially, you are taking little parts of the ‘wall’ out onto the yard until you’re able to escape. I’m under the firm belief at senior match that there are opportunities everywhere, opportunities abound. I hope, too, that Nyad stays as an inspiration to us all.