Recognizing opportunity

In the article on making your own luck that I referred to in yesterday's post, one of the five luck-making elements mentioned was "recognizing opportunities." It's much the same with bringing passion into one's career. A key component is recognizing the opportunity to do it.

"Duh," you may be thinking. But you'd be surprised at how often we don't.

Often, we're so heads down, focused on the task at hand, that we never see the opportunities that continually fly past us. Or we're so stuck in a rut that we forget to take our eyes off the path we're on to see what else might be out there.

And strange as it may seem, we often wouldn't even know what opportunity looked like if it came up and goosed us.

Why are we so blind to opportunity? One reason is the same reason so many people end up going down career paths that seem devoid of meaning and passion - they don't have a good, deep awareness of what's important to them at a core level. They may have a vague notion, but they can't put a finger on it specifically. Which in turn makes it difficult if not impossible to draw on that insight to help them recognize opportunity.

In my work, I help clients create what I call their Passion Core (sm), that internal compass that will point them in the right direction. In a nutshell, the Passion Core is the answer to the question, what makes you tick? What are the things that are going to make your career feel rich, fulfilling and fun?

Once people are aware of that, their eyes start opening to the opportunities around them, because now they have a frame of reference. Suddenly, they see how some particular project offers more of the elements that are key to keeping them energized and engaged, or how doing things a little differently would make everything a lot more fun.

As you move forward in your career, keep scanning the horizon for opportunities to incorporate more of what lights your fire. Look at ideas and opportunities and ask yourself, does this have the potential to increase the joy in my work? How could I make this a part of what I do?

You just might be surprised how much opportunity is actually out there when you start to look.

Curt Rosengren
Passion Catalyst ^SM

Comments

[Never teh Bride]

As always, I love reading through your archives. You have often motivated me to move forward even when I desparately wanted to hold myself back.