OCT 1, 2021
It’s 3:30 AM.
You are tossing around on your bed, trying to get a few more hours of sleep before a long and tiring workday.
You stare at the wall above you, thinking, “Am I really doing the job I love? Every day, I feel like I am walking into a hot mess of phones ringing everywhere and bundles of paper smashing my desk. It just doesn’t make my heart sing. Anyways, today’s going to be very hectic, so I should start slee—wait, what in the world was that?”
Someone is ringing your doorbell at 3:30 AM.
You jolt out of your bed and stand upright. You’re terrified, and your worst nightmares start flashing in front of you. Your hands start sweating profusely, and your heart is thumping loudly. A sharp, stinging pain flashes across your forehead as your mind struggles to process the heavy load of your thoughts and feelings.
You’re wondering, “Who’ll want to see me at this ungodly hour? Oh, maybe I am just hallucinating, and no one’s at the door.”
But before your head touches the pillow, the doorbell rings again. This time, it rings twice. It’s not a hallucination at all.
You’re petrified and numb.
“What if it is a robber or a serial killer? Is this how I am going to die? Should I call the police before I open the door?”
Your mind is racing through these questions at the speed of a jet, but your body is frozen under the thick ice of fear.
After a few minutes of being dead still, you muster up the courage to go check the front door. As you step down the stairs, the only sounds you hear are your heavy panting and your footsteps. Not a single leaf is rustling. Your bare feet tremble as they touch the cold hard floor.
You go to your kitchen first and pick up a sharp, long knife for safety. The doorbell rings again.
Finally, you’re at your front door now. In one hand, you’re gripping the knife, and with the other, you slowly pull open the screeching door.
In front of you is a tall, old man with a bright white beard reaching down to his knees. He’s wearing a full black cloak and has a wand-like stick in his hand.
He’s no robber or serial killer, but he surely is strange.
“Woah! I am not here to kill you, my child,” he whispered in a deep, crackling voice, “I am just a wizard working for God and have a message to deliver to you. So, will you please put the knife away?”
You feel embarrassed for overthinking the situation and slowly place the knife on the floor as you keep looking at this mysterious old man.
“What message do you have for me?” You ask bluntly.
“Oh! Right,” the old man whispered in the same quiet voice, “Don’t tell this to anyone, but God is giving you the opportunity to become the CEO of your company tomorrow. Do you want it or not? You must reply in the next one minute.”
If this really were to happen to you, what would you choose? If a wizard were to appear knocking on your door and giving you an excellent opportunity to succeed, would you take it? Do you have the power to become the CEO of your company, start a successful startup, succeed as a hit actor, or get the project of writing the biography of your favorite sportsperson? Are you prepared for that right now?
For most of us, the answer is no. We are not prepared to take on such big opportunities in life.
And then we curse God or the universe saying, “Why do I never get any opportunities? Why have you decided to make my bad luck also bad?”
If the universe could talk back to you in words, the only answer would be, “All opportunities are right in front of you. But you are the one who’s blind to them. Instead of blaming it on me, go get your eyes fixed.”
Let’s fix your eyes right now and make you an opportunity magnet.
Do Opportunities Play a Role in Success?
Yes. Opportunities play a vital role in any person’s success journey.
Look at any successful person in the world, and you’ll find out that the opportunities they acted on are what made them successful.
Let’s take the example of Bill Gates. He grew up in the 1960s, a time when computers were non-existent. But he went to a school that had computers, giving him the opportunity to tinker around with them and start coding.
Many people feel that this opportunity made him successful, but that’s only half true.
Hundreds of other kids in his school and neighborhood had access to the same opportunity, but he was the only one who took a deep interest in coding and mastered it over the years.
And because he mastered coding while he was in school, he was prepared for a breakthrough. That’s why he did not hesitate to drop out of Harvard and partner with Paul Allen to build Microsoft. He was ready for it.
Opportunities play a significant role in the success of any person. But they aren’t limited to them. They are available to every other person who is in similar circumstances. Those who become successful are the ones who take action on those opportunities because they are prepared.
How to Attract Opportunities in Life?
You don’t need to attract any opportunities in your life. They are right in front of you. You just have to open your eyes and start seeing them.
Therefore, in reality, this question means, “How to start seeing opportunities in life?”
And the answer is simple. You need to prepare yourself for those opportunities, and they’ll start knocking on your door.
Seneca, a Roman philosopher, said that “Luck is when preparation meets opportunity.” So, if you want to be “lucky” in life, you need to be prepared for those opportunities.
When Bill Gates would keep clicking on his keyboard as a teenager to practice coding, he never knew that one day he would create a company called Microsoft and become one of the wealthiest person on this planet.
But if someone else from Bill Gates’ class was given a chance to work on Microsoft, they may not have had the courage to grab that opportunity and become successful. Why? Because they may not have practiced a lot of coding to feel confident.
When Sachin Tendulkar started playing cricket in his childhood, he never knew if he could play for India. But he kept playing and faced many challenges head-on. And at the age of 16, he made his debut in International Cricket. But any other 16-year old kid from Mumbai who never dropped a sweat while playing cricket could never have taken on this opportunity.
For me, it was the same. When I started blogging more than two years ago, I never thought I would write a book or become a digital content creator and speaker. I just loved writing and inspiring people through words, so I kept doing that. But in all that time, I was practicing my writing muscle and preparing for big opportunities without even knowing it.
Then, almost 15 months after I started blogging, I finally had the opportunity to pen down my book, Explore The New YOU, and I did it with ease, calm, and confidence. In just 50 days, I went from thinking about writing a book to publishing it. It happened because I was prepared.
If I hadn’t done blogging for 15 months, I never would have had the confidence to write the book in just 15 days. The task would’ve seemed crazy, illogical, and even outrageous.
So the lesson here is: keep doing what you love and keep refining your craft. Go as deep as you can and experiment as much as you want to, and you’ll start seeing that opportunities are always knocking on your door.
How will that happen? Well, when you will be deeply immersed in doing what you love, you’ll only see, hear, and feel that. Your eyes will open up to all the opportunities sitting right in front of you, and one by one, you’ll pick them up and start building your ladder of success. This way, you’ll become the Bill Gates and Sachin Tendulkar of your field.
Conclusion
Congratulations! Your eyes are fixed now, and you can proudly reply to the universe, saying, “I can see opportunities, and I am prepared to act on them.”
And the next time the wizard knocks on your door at 3:30 AM, you’ll happily give him a big hug and grab the opportunity.
Be prepared. Keep doing what you love. And you’ll start seeing opportunities all around you.
Partnering in your success, happiness, and growth,
Prabhsimrat