Finding Opportunity

Is talk of the "crazy economy" getting you down? Are you ready to move on? Any time adversity opportunity rears its ugly head, it's human nature to "duck and cover" and wait out the storm. It’s been 5 years since the economy so drastically changed. Haven’t we all done enough waiting? It’s time to take charge and take action.

There are some bright spots on the horizon of the business world: The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that in 2011, the number of new business establishments increased by 29,316. They also report many areas of positive growth are expected in the next 7 years. In 2020, The BLS anticipates the following industries will experience at least a 2.9% annual job growth: community and vocational services; professional, scientific, and technical services; commercial and industrial machinery and equipment rental; and construction. And we will only go up from there! Various arms of the healthcare industry are expected to grow by 3.2% most likely driven by the longevity of our aging population. Home health care alone is projected to jump 6.1% annually. Technology and computer design and wood manufacturing both weigh in at 3.9% growth. And here’s the best news of all: management, scientific, and technical consulting are expected to grow at an annual rate of 4.7%. Everyone loves a consultant these days! The increasingly complex global economy has created the demand; exceptionally qualified and skilled professionals provide the supply.

This is direct proof that there is opportunity inside diversity. It’s up to skilled professionals to ask the right questions to uncover those hidden opportunities. Help yourself and those around you look for opportunity within adversity with these 4 powerful questions:

      1. Have new needs presented themselves to you in these adverse times? Are there underlying customer needs to be aware of since things have changed?

      2. What resources are being displaced because of the changes? These could be people, materials, products or services, intellectual property, or technology.

      3. Can you see a way to use resources from your answers to question 2 to fulfill a need you identified in question 1?

      4. Can you apply your success with questions 1, 2, and 3 in additional markets such as new customers or new products?    

Evaluating your answers to these 4 questions can help you and your community climb above the storm and see opportunity instead of only adversity.

Procrastination - Turning a Blind Eye to Opportunities

Procrastination, like all of your behaviors carries consequences. Whether your behavior is conscious or unconscious, you will eventually have to deal with the effects.

Procrastination is something that we all have to confront and deal with from time to time. It’s only natural to procrastinate at times, but the way you deal with your procrastination patterns will determine what effects procrastination has on your life.

One of the most obvious effects of procrastination is the failure to reap the rewards that would come from taking action. When you procrastinate you simply fail to take action on the very things you know will bring you the rewards that you desire. Although you know what you want and even what you need to do to get it, you still have to take action and it’s usually at this point where procrastination sets in.

Double Whammy: The Effects of Procrastination

Because the results you desire are often something bigger and better than what you currently have, you must step outside your comfort zone to get it. You might have to take actions that you are not comfortable with to which your unconscious mind reacts by "protecting" you against that which is uncomfortable. Although the short-term effects of procrastination might seem to be "positive" the long-term effects are almost always negative.

Failing to reap the rewards of taking action can have many effects. Taking action on your ideas and desires is one of your most empowering gifts. It is the process by which you can make the intangible tangible. Through your actions and your behavior you create or un-create your life. It’s not only the direct results of your actions that create your outcomes, but often the very fact that you are actually consciously affecting the conditions of your life. It is not just your actions, but rather your failure to take action that will have a greater effect on the rewards you reap from life. From this point of view the effects of procrastination are not just a direct loss of rewards, but an indirect one as well. Every action is a cause set in motion that affects and builds on past and future events to the point where we can never really determine the actual effect of one specific action. More than anything else, action opens you up to opportunity.

Opportunity is rarely the result of you waiting for it. When you put yourself in line with what you want most through your conscious action you expose yourself to opportunity. It’s never a case of whether you have opportunities but rather are you noticing the opportunities? But even more importantly, are you using the opportunities or are you procrastinating? One thing is for certain: when procrastination becomes a habit, you won’t even notice all of the opportunities on your doorstep. You will live your life in distraction, constantly looking for short term "pleasures" to avoid the real challenges that will cause you to reap the real results. You will always "turn a blind eye" to the real opportunities. Those who succeed are rarely the people with the most splendid opportunities. They are the people who saw an opportunity where no one else saw it, and then they took action to realize it.

Out of all the negative effects of procrastination and indecision, the failure to spot and act on an opportunity is probably the saddest. So many people with so much talent fail to live up to their true potential because of procrastination. The rewards you reap from life will be either a direct or an indirect result of your actions or your inactions. Not only will procrastination prevent you from reaping the rewards, but your inaction will prevent you from even being exposed to opportunity. Opportunity is knocking, but you have to take action and at least open the door. Don’t let the effects of procrastination stand between what you are and what you can become. As the famous entrepreneur and businessman Victor Kiam once said, "Procrastination is opportunity’s assassin."