When Opportunity Knocks
Do you miss opportunities because you put off acting on them until later? Is your initial response one of procrastination? Mine is. I diligently need to use self-talk to get beyond it. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.
Case in point: we are vacationing in a catamaran and anchored in a beautiful bay off the coast of Ithaca, a Greek island. The island is covered by a variety of lush green trees. The rocks that lead down to the water look like sandy-colored slate. We have seen goats and donkeys so far and that excites the child in me.
We arrived in the midst of a crashing thunderstorm and were relieved to find shelter so we could finally stop riding, or should I say being bounced around by, the increasingly large waves. Because the summer season is over, we are the only boat in the bay.
My biggest disappointment was not to be able to go swimming in the 76 degree water, not with lightning all around. You can imagine how happy I was when the weather cleared for a few hours. I happily donned my swimsuit and snorkel and dove into the clear, warm water.
I almost didn’t. My thought process went something like this, “Oh, I can go swimming tomorrow. I’m feeling too lazy to go in now. If I go in, then I’ll have to wash my hair and then I’ll have to dry it and blah, blah, blah.”
The Law of Attraction dictates that you get more of what you focus on. When you focus on all the reasons not to do something, your mind will always supply more.
Tomorrow came and the lightning was MUCH closer than the storm from the day before. I was so happy I’d gone swimming when I had the chance.
I think this sort of dilemma is why “Just do it!” the Nike slogan has caught on. In one sentence they have captured that feeling of being on the edge of the diving board, hesitating for a moment and then surrendering to the moment and jumping. It feels SO GREAT to “just do it!”
I might have missed the exquisite feeling of the warm water on my skin, the beautiful schools of fish I encountered and the donkeys mentioned previously that came down off the hill to try and figure out what this strange, splashing creature was in their bay.
Of course, if I hadn’t done it, I also wouldn’t know what I had missed. How many wonderful things in life have we unknowingly missed because we let our minds talk us out of, “Just do it?”
One of my favorite quotes is from the stage play/movie Auntie Mame: Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death! Maybe in the next version Mame can save her breath by simply wearing a t-shirt with the Nike logo emblazoned across the back.
What will you do today?
