When opportunity comes knockin’

Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.

Hi readers, Josh Hyman here with my first blog.

I want to pass across a message I’ve been seeing in my life over the last few weeks which I’ve finally decided to ACT upon… it’s a simple word called “opportunity”

In December 2012 I had a bike accident. I’ll tell that story in greater depth in a later post. But as a result of that accident I was unable to work.

Now this was more a blessing than a curse and I’ll tell you why in a moment. First I want to ask a question, give you something to think about as you read through this..

How do people act when opportunity comes around?

You see I was getting these little signs showing me what I’d been doing wrong and why I had to re-program my train of thought. I’m no “Inspirational Speaker” who can change the way someone feels in a moment, but I started to watch youtube videos of people who can. I was looking for that opportunity that I needed, looking for the opportunity to change, the opportunity to live a better lifestyle. The opportunity to give my family what they deserve.

Now I’d been brought up like almost everyone I know, we go to school to get a good education so we can get a good job so we can earn a semi-decent living so we can MAYBE buy a house and HOPE to send our kids to get a good education so they can get a good job…..and the vicious circle continues.

And then I dislocated my collar bone.

And I couldn’t go to work.

And my wife wasn’t working.

And we struggled.

And struggled.

Until one evening I was playing on the floor with my one-year old son. We were rolling around and I was having fun tickling him while he escaped. Then he saw his favourite toy..the CD player! The opportunity was there and he wanted it! He wanted to do whatever one-year old’s love doing to bits of technology that their parents DON’T want them to have. But he had a problem, here is a picture of my little living room..

Now as you can see the little CD player is strategically hidden behind the 3 cushions so that my son can’t see it or reach it. But he saw it…and he WANTED it!

So he crawled as fast as his ands and knees would let him and he started grabbing onto the cushions trying to pull himself up on the couch. I was lying next to him trying to hold him so that he WOULDN’T managed to get on the couch, but he still succeeded in pulling down one of the cushions. Now at this point I let him be as I realised that he can’t pull himself up on the couch. And after a few moments he also realised this and went off to play with another toy (it was actually a book – he LOVES chewing on them!)

But then when I was returning order and tidiness to the living room I noticed something interesting which made me stop and think. My son had managed to pull down one cushion and have it positioned perfectly on the floor in the corner of the two couches as you can see in the following picture. But not only that, it was positioned in a way that it could act as a stepping-stone, allowing him to climb up onto the couch and reach the CD player that he wanted. Here’s the picture…

Now this got me thinking…

If my son was able to see the picture as you and I can, chances are he wouldn’t have stopped trying to get to the CD player. He would have continued trying everything possible to reach that goal.

AND I SUDDENLY REALISED…

Everything we do puts another stepping-stone down so we can reach and acheive our dreams and goals. Yet almost as soon as it’s down for us, we assume that our goal is too far away, too hard to get to and we GIVE UP!

And then I realised that opportunity is knocking at my door.

Now you tell me, How do people act when opportunity comes around??

I’ll tell you… Normal people get a rush of joy, a sense of “I am going to do this”, a feeling of energy they’ve never felt before.

And then go have a shower. They fantasize about this amazing opportunity, picture themselves 5 or 10 years down the track after acting on this idea.

And then go to bed.

And wake up the next morning, make their quick coffee and go to work…

Dreaming about this opportunity, yet continuing with their routine lives that they were TOLD to do.  Thinking that one day things will be better.

Thinking that the same opportunity they once saw will somehow, MAGICALLY, take effect  in their lives.

And so here I am, with a dislocated collar bone and unemployed, venturing out into the online world of blogging with the intention of purely helping people realise their potential and that opportunities are being presented before us every single day.

I saw an Opportunity, and now I want you to see it too.

~~Josh Hyman~~