The #1 Secret to Always Having Opportunities at Work
How to See Opportunities Everywhere... Even in Pain, Fear, and Desire
Most people see pain and desire as things to avoid. Pain feels like a problem, and the things we desire feel too unrealistic to have. But what if these two emotions are actually signs that you’re at an opportunity, and you’ve been letting all your great opportunities pass you by?
The Solution
By learning to see pain and desire in yourself and in other people, you can start to see opportunities to add, subtract, multiply, or divide in ways that make your life better. So by the end of this post, you’ll know how to identify opportunities in everyday life and act on them too!
Step 1: Put Your Dollar in the Right Way
Life is like a vending machine, and opportunities in life are like being handed a dollar.
Inside that machine are your desires, your goals, and everything else you want in life. The catch? Just like a real vending machine, you HAVE to feed the dollar in the right way for it to be accepted.
Every situation you come across in life is like that dollar. One side of it represents problems, and the other side represents an opportunity. If you put it in the wrong way(only seeing problems) then the machine spits it back out no matter how many times you try. But if you line it up correctly(choosing to see the opportunity), the machine accepts it and you get what you want.
So if you’re ever not getting the results you want, it usually comes down to one of three things:
You haven’t gotten a dollar yet, meaning that you aren’t noticing the situations in your life that can be turned into opportunities.
You haven’t chosen what you want from the machine. So you haven’t decided on your desired result.
You haven’t put the dollar in the right way. This means you either haven’t taken action on the opportunity you found, or you’re still choosing to view it as a negative problem.
And just like with real money, if you wait around for someone else to hand you a dollar every time you want something, you’ll be broke pretty fast. Eventually you have to learn how to create and attract more for yourself.
The good news is that life will keep giving you “dollars” through different situations. But it’s always up to YOU to put them in the machine the right way.
Instruction: Ask yourself, am I putting this dollar in the right way, or am I treating it like a problem the machine won’t accept?
Step 2: Look for Pain and Desire
So how do you spot these potential opportunities, or “dollars” anyway? The answer starts with understanding the emotions of pain and desire.
Pain is always a sign of a problem or something negative like frustration, stress, or setbacks. While these things usually feel like the end of the world, they’re not. Really, they’re just signals that you’re close to an opportunity. In other words, the feeling of pain is a dollar.
And desire works almost the same way. You get this feeling when you want something because you think it will give you a positive feeling in the short term. Instead of feeling like the end of the world, desire makes your world feel lit up and brighter than before. So people tend to chase their desires(the bright lights in their lives), and this gives the ones who notice the desire an opportunity to provide whatever people are chasing. So desire is also a “dollar”.
Instruction: Ask yourself, when did I last notice myself or someone else feeling pain or desire?
Step 3: Understand the Four Types of Opportunities
So you’ve spotted yourself or someone else feeling pain or desire… now what? The next step is to flip your “dollar” over to the positive side by clearly seeing the opportunity this situation gets you.
Wherever there’s pain or desire, there will always be an opportunity to ADD, SUBTRACT, MULTIPLY, or DIVIDE. Here’s what I mean:
Add – Chances to add or acquire something in life that you find desirable or positive
Subtract – Chances to cut friction or something negative out of your life or someone else’s life
Multiply – Use your resources to put something into the world that will bring a return(skills, solutions, content, gifts, products and services).
Divide – Delegate, automate, or split the work so the pie grows overall.
Instruction: Ask yourself, is this an opportunity to add, subtract, multiply, or divide?
Step 4: Be Prepared
So now you’ve spotted your opportunity or “dollar”. But unfortunately, opportunities don’t matter if you’re not ready to take advantage of them or “put your dollar in the vending machine”. You have to be ready for them. That means:
Having some cash on hand
Knowing your skills and what you have to offer people
Being able to put together a script or gameplan
Practicing how to spot and step into opportunities with mental reps
Instruction: Ask yourself, what type of resource does this situation require? And am I prepared?
Step 5: Get Practice
It’s not enough to just see the opportunities. So the last step is that you have to practice walking through them. The more you practice, the more natural it becomes. So the next time you notice yourself either talking about something you want or a bad experience you had, ask yourself…
“Is this pain, or desire?”
“Is this an opportunity to add, subtract, multiply, or divide?”
“How do I take advantage of this opportunity?”
With enough reps, pain and desire stop being things to avoid and start being signals of opportunity.
Instruction: Ask yourself, am I practicing walking through open doors regularly?