34 may 2010

Motivation

Are you going to answer?Kevin Abdulrahman explains how to spot opportunities and make the best out of them.

Opportunity knocked. And I got excited.

I wanted Opportunity to knock on my friends doors as well. At the end of the day, it is always nice to have your friends enjoy the benefits of what you could potentially see. So I showed Opportunity my friends’ doors, and indeed, it knocked.

But to my initial surprise, my friends didn’t get excited.

Many of them acted like they didn’t hear the knock, whilst others blatantly

ignored it. Some would remark it was too good to be true, that it was difficult, it was too hard to predict. Others said, it was risky, and that they certainly didn’t have the budget to be able to capitalise on it just yet. Still a few were audacious enough to rattle off all the problems they would encounter, and that it would be crazy for them to make bold moves in such tough times. Even the very few who used to talk brave talks shied away having been beaten down by the hardships of time.

In short, they failed to listen to, and at the very least, open the door when opportunity knocked on their door.

This got me thinking long and hard some years ago, about this recurring incident amongst those (across a multitude of industries on a personal and organisational setting) who complain about their results being below what they want it to be.

Through my travels, talks and book signings, I hear people often complaining about the lack of oppor-

35may 2010

“Fear resides in everybody, but for the majority of people, it overrides any sense of courage

they might have had in the past”

tunities. And these people (like some of my friends) are quick to add that, if there were opportunities, then it would not be an opportunity for them- triggering an avalanche of reasons if I ever asked the question, ‘why not?’

Now opportunity can be anything, from investing in yourself or your business for leadership growth, choosing the right people on your sales team, starting up your own business, investing in shares, making tough calls of spinning in a new unpredicatable tangent, or building the infrastructure for a Take off Growth in prosperous times. Call it what ever you like, I am referring to the plenty of opportunities that knock on all our doors, REGULARLY.

So who is the culprit that limits most people from being able to achieve their true greatness? The Culprit is none other than Fear.

Most people’s underlying thoughts are driven by fear (subconscious at the best of times). They are unable to carry out and make the most of an opportunity because they base their entire thoughts, decisions and actions (more so lack of) from a place of Being Fearful.

Fear resides in everybody, but for the majority of people, it overrides any sense of courage they might have had in the past. This is partly due to what you would hear many use the terms ‘life hardships’ or ‘experience’.

They play their game in life from a place of experience, using their past mistakes or failures as reasons why future opportunities are not for them. They go about on the basis of fearful assumptions that things are impossible, too hard, too risky, too complicated, too this, too that.

When you are fearful, every challenge you can think of whilst considering an opportunity will seem like a big deal. When you are fearful, you are slow on your feet. When you are fearful, you lack confidence. When you are fearful, you procrastinate. When you are fearful, you are focussed on what you have to lose and base all your thoughts around possible losses. When you are fearful, you are not thinking with your Game hat on. When you are fearful, you have lost the game, before it has even begun.

Being fearful is not a place where successful people make decisions and act from. Sure even those who are brave, experience fear. But they don’t let it be their centre point. They do not operate

from a place of fear. They experience fear, knowing that they may be under pressure (or on alert) but deal with it head on. They know that every winner is rewarded only if they choose to open the door and look into the other side.

And how do they do that, I hear you ask?

What separates successful people from the rest? Do they get more oppor-

tunities than other people? Sure, they do, because they are on the path that they have chosen with complete clarity. But the start of all this comes from successful people having understood the importance, of their number one weapon- their Mind.

Where ever you are on your spectrum of success, the ability to spot and capit-alise on opportunities will come down

36 may 2010

to the quality of your mind, which will be reflective as to whether you see the opportunity or not.

I know people who would not see an opportunity if they tripped over it twice, and got slapped with it on the face. They only consider the downside of anything presented, and aim to only pick holes through it. There is a difference when you are doing it for your due diligence in order to ascertain if an opportunity is good for you or not. But you know what I mean about the pessimistic approach many give to

opportunity when it comes knocking.Was the financial crisis a setback or

an opportunity? Has the events through out this year created setbacks or oppor-tunities for you? What ever you choose to answer will be right for you. Because it is in your mind, that the decision is made to view any event or set of events for what they are.

Speak to any successful person and they will tell you that their success has come from making the most of the same opportunities that was available to the open public. Unlike the majority who

decided not to answer the knock on the door, successful people walked up and open the door. And that required them to have guts. It required them to have A Winning Mind and to be Fearless.

There is no two ways about this. Clear as daylight. Timeless as gravity.What will you do the next time

opportunity knocks? Will you choose to ignore it? Hear it and do nothing? or better yet, do something about it?

Am I saying jump at anything that knocks on your door? Not at all. But what I am saying is, open the door and consider what is being presented with A Winning Mind. A Mind that sees things for what it is and from a Fearless stance.

When most people see things as Impossible, I see and teach my clients to learn and develop a different way of thinking -A way of thinking developed by those who are successful. I help people see the opportunity in the commonly used word impossible.

Ask anyone who has attended a workshop of mine, what two words I helped them see in the word Impos-sible? They scream out “IM Possible”.

How will you choose to look at the events in the world from now on? Knock, Knock.

Have a Winning Month!

(Kevin Abdulrahman is the International Author of a series of winning books, an Inspirational Keynote Speaker and an In Demand Mind Nutrition Expert. Kevin’s articles are regularly published in magazines, reports, newsletters and newspapers, constantly being used as resources all over the world. Kevin helps winning organizations, universities, sports teams and individuals create breakthrough results. You can get Kevin Abdulrahman’s books and request for him to speak/train your group by going onhttp://www.KevInspire.com)