DAY TWENTY SEVEN
Opportunity
People talk about “signs,” in the religious or spiritual sense all the time. They refer to those indicators that let them know what path they are supposed to be on, what decisions they should make, whom they should or should not talk to, etc. Science has reduced these “signs” to nothing more than fanciful superstition, and there is a stigma attached to those who strongly believe in signs (essentially, science and those who embrace science 100% would assess such beliefs as naïve, explainable by causality, chance, coincidence, etc., and that anyone who believes otherwise has simply not had enough science). I’m not making either side out to be a bad guy, I’m attempting to be charitable to both sides, however, I can say that I have a strong background in both science and spirituality, so I’d like to discuss this matter further. We’re really going to be discussing opportunity, but I feel it is a good idea to first look at how we come to see opportunities in our lives, and I want to do this by way of discussing “signs” in such a way as to give both the spiritual and scientific camps their fair explanation.
First, let me say that I am very spiritual, but not at all religious. To flush that out completely would take us tangentially into a very different topic, so we’ll leave it at that for now. As I mentioned before, I do have a very strong background in science as I was required to take numerous prerequisite courses in order to apply to medical and pharmacy school. Moreover, several of my philosophy courses discussed science and used science in our critical analysis; thus, I believe I am adequately suited to discuss this topic charitably and it is my hope that I can shed some light on the otherwise unexplainable, but very real presence of “signs” in our lives and how they manifest themselves into opportunities waiting to be seized.
Every so often, if we are “tuned in” and aware of our surroundings, we see people, things, moments, chances that seem to make more sense than all of the other people, things, moments, etc. By this I mean that there seems to be a greater reason that a particular person is in our lives than not. The same is true with things—sometimes we have a certain thing in our lives that carries much more meaning and purpose than the other things. I’m not insinuating the meaning that we project onto it—this is far greater than sentimental value—its purpose seems greater than utility and sentiment combined, it’s meant for something more, so it seems. Certain moments, if we acknowledge and focus on our intuition appropriately, resonate with us much differently that other moments. We get a feeling. Have you ever woken up, prepared to go to work but something didn’t feel right? You couldn’t explain it, but you also could not deny the feeling. Perhaps you went to work anyway, disregarding the feeling or not giving it proper attention and something bad happened, like you got a flat tire. Does this mean that the feeling you received before you left meant that you shouldn’t have left for work or should have left at a different time to avoid getting a flat tire? Well, logically, of course not. The steps of causality and the progression from A to B to C are far too complicated in such a case to ever make a solid logical assessment. But what about that feeling? What did it mean? Ever had a feeling stronger than that, something bad did happen, and you thought, if only for a moment, what if that was the feeling I had earlier? What if that was my intuition indicating that I should pay closer attention to the currents in my life? Surely you have. Now something bad doesn’t have to happen to make the feeling meaningful—in fact, sometimes really good things happen. But the issue is, what are these feelings, why do we get them, and how possibly in this vast world of science, can we ever make sense of them?
Let me tell you a few stories to further set the scene. I had been working 80 hours a week between two jobs, I was beyond burned out, I was tired, I was lost, I wasn’t making any extra money, so my efforts were essentially futile. I deliberated on my situation for many nights and finally decided that I wanted to reduce my efforts to one job. It wasn’t a brilliant decision, as two jobs weren’t working, so clearly one wouldn’t suffice, but I decided to do this to retain my sanity, to improve my health, and for the rest of the decision, I turned it over to faith—faith that life has always worked itself out in the past—so I trusted that it would do the same again. The problem with faith, the real issue, is doubt. Faith is a type of belief that requires trust, hope, dedication, and ultimately, the absence of fear. Fear is the most intense and powerful form of doubt. For when we fear, we do not believe. We question. We don’t trust. We hope, yes, but hope alone is idle wishing and you know what they say about your hands and spitting and wishing. So, to have true faith, we must relinquish our reason, that which we hold onto so dearly and value above all else, and dedicate our minds and hearts to trusting and believing in the absence of doubt. So, I’m at the gas station filling up my tank after my last day at my day job. Fear and doubt crept in and I spent a moment wondering how I was going to be able to fill my tank the next time round with significantly less money. The moment I recognized that my mind was entertaining this doubt, I squashed it, but it came back. I know the dangers of fear and doubt but they overcame me stronger than the belief that I had. So I asked for help. I asked the Universe (again, I’m spiritual, not religious) to show me the way, to illuminate my path. I asked for a sign. The pump clicked indicating that my tank was full and I snapped out of the thought I was lost in. When I looked up I saw a sign, literally. It was for employment. Now, that sign was there, whether I had asked for it or not, it was just a matter of whether or not I would have seen it. Perhaps all I really did was quiet my mind enough to pay attention to my surroundings and everything that occurred was of my own doing. Yes, that’s quite possible—and in this instance, highly probable. Nevertheless, it still resonated with me and moved me in a much more positive direction. So in this instance, my faith was strengthened because I received what I had asked for. Obviously, we do not have the ability to constantly be looking at all of our surroundings—this would require more time and energy than any of us have. But to be able to focus on those that are more important, I’ve always found it helpful to ask for help. I refrain from saying “show me a sign” often, because I know that using the language exactly like that doesn’t perfectly correspond to my spiritual views, nor does it correlate well with my overall worldview. Yet, it still works. And that baffles me every time. It seems that I may need to reevaluate my worldview.
I spent many days meditating on this event, on the causal connection of my life and how my life has intertwined with others, and I came to a realization. What if, what if there is something more to everything than what we can currently explain. Yeah, that was a very heavy thought for me because it goes against most of what I was taught. I was taught that through science and reason we can eventually make sense of everything. I don’t believe that to necessarily be false; however, I think we are giving our limited minds too much credit. And that’s where my faith enters. My faith is a sense of immense strength, wonder, amazement, and appreciation of beauty and creativity. It takes over where my mind finds limitation. It’s like a trade-off to me—I give the best I have, the most love I can offer, the brightest hope I can shine, etc. to everyone and everything, and I have the faith that it will all come back. Even for a hardcore scientist, even for the rigid nature of sound logic, this makes perfect causal sense. For at the end of every chain is really the beginning of another, on and on, and always, eventually, back to the source—thus, what goes around, comes around. Upon the conclusion of my meditation, I also gave consideration to “signs,” to fate, to destiny, to the whole bit. And after I made the decision to allow some credibility for each of these ideas, some pretty fantastic things began to happen.
First, my night job became my day job, I got a raise, got better hours, and that was working—for a while. Then it became clear that the job wasn’t a good fit for me, nor I for it, and I was let go. Losing a job is always followed by fear, doubt, uncertainty, and I experienced my fair share of each. But I decided to focus on my business and to have faith. My faith was predicated in not asking “how” it was all going to work out, but trusting that it would, as it always has. I didn’t adopt of form of “blind faith” in that I had no reason behind it, rather, I simply accepted that the situation was what it was, I knew what I could control, what I couldn’t, and I went from there. And the next week of focusing only on my business provided me with opportunities I never would have had otherwise. I valued these moments for how special they were and more came into my life.
Second, I started to become aware of the thread that was beginning to emerge in my life, in my choices, in the events as they were occurring. No, I couldn’t see into the future and see all of the possibilities ahead of me, and even if I could, that would take the fun and mystery out of living life. But I was very keenly aware of moments that were clear opportunities, signs that were obviously presented to me, and people that would have simply been mere passersby had I not focused my intention of faith, love, and gratitude. Then, something I still cannot grasp occurred. One night, when I was at my weekly business seminar, I saw a woman through a window. She was working in another ballroom in the same hotel. Something about the fact that I saw her through a window immediately made my mind kick into overdrive. I thought to myself, a window of opportunity, a window of time, a glimpse into a future of possibilities. For whatever reason, the imagery of the window made me pause, and quite literally pause, as my colleagues took notice. Then, and this is where I’m lost concerning reason, I felt a nudge. A literal push on my left shoulder. No one was behind me. It literally caused my shoulder to move forward as if someone had pushed me from behind. And I thought, if I do not talk to this woman, I know I will regret not doing so. A colleague approached me and said, “what are you looking at?” I didn’t make eye contact, I simply slipped by and said, “I have to talk to this woman.” Now in the time I was paused looking at this woman and having these thoughts, she too noticed me, for an instant, and moved on. I made my way into the room in which she was working and countless thoughts crossed my mind—she’s out of my league. She’d never talk to me. What am I going to say? Am I really doing this? And those were all doubt. I recognized this but was committed to my task. For the first time in my life what I had imagined in my head actually came to fruition, the words I had intended to say came out of my mouth, and the situation went exactly as planned. Typically, I’d have a great idea in my head but then I’d fumble and it would be awkward and I’d be redeemed by the fact that I’m genuine and charismatic enough that it would be allowed. But in this instance, it was exactly what I wanted it to be. I walked into her room, where everyone was working, walked right up to her and handed her my business card. I said, “that’s my number. Now you have no excuse not to call me tonight for drinks.” And I turned and left. The rest—well, that’s a different story. The point is that I clearly saw this as an opportunity. I saw a sign. I felt a push. It was clear that something far greater than what I can explain by way of reason had occurred. I spoke to her out of the faith that my mind, my heart, and what I had interpreted as said signs were not misleading, were not of my own creation, and were greater than myself.
So, that was me seizing an opportunity that was presented to me. It was presented to me because I allowed it to be. I was in a place where that made sense. But, if my mind had been focusing exclusively on my seminar, or if I had been 2 minutes late or early, or if she hadn’t passed by at that exact moment, none of this would have happened. The timing was right, but it required a nudge to really make me realize what was at stake. How many times has something like that happened in your life? Do you give moments like this any credibility, any meaning? If you had asked me five years ago, I would have attempted to explain all of this away by reason alone. Five years ago, I would not have even seen this opportunity. But now, in light of just the few stories I’ve shared with you, I’m “in tune” with the world around me, aware of possibilities, open to opportunity, and I’ve accepted that no matter what, I will get back what I give. So I give the best I have when I’m best able to give it—and it’s always love.
With our background set, let’s think about opportunity. Are all opportunities in our lives wholly visible? Are they all good? If we have 3 paths ahead of us and we choose one, does this decision alone solely determine our fates or were the 3 paths potentially intertwined and they all led to the same destination but simply had 3 different entrances? Whenever we realize an opportunity is being presented to us, should we always act on it or accept it? If not, why?
These are questions I regularly consider and ask myself. I realize that we make our ways through life, sometimes with little effort, sometimes with immense effort, but either way, we make it through. I’ve also realized that if we align ourselves with what we want from life, and if we give pure love, offer gratitude every step of the way, and truly believe and have faith that everything works, regardless of our other efforts, that life is a beautiful and rewarding gift. All we are required to do is to act. So, the life you have is the combination of the choices you’ve made and the choices that were made on your behalf. Now that you are able to decide for yourself, decide what you want, align yourself with that, and prepare to act as opportunities arise. You will get what you want, for what you already have is what you’ve predominately been thinking about. If you would say that your life isn’t good—I will guarantee you that your thoughts are predominately themselves either not good or constructed in forms of negation (i.e., don’t want).
Before you can see and seize the opportunities in your own life, you must first master knowing what it is you want and focus your intent on love, gratitude, and belief. When you do this, you will begin to see opportunities that offer you greater love and happiness in return. Then all you have to do is act on said opportunities. The rest is the magic of life.
Today’s task: think back to opportunities in your life. How many have you let pass by? How many have you missed because you succumbed to fear or doubt? How many more can you afford to let slip through your grasp? Start with this. THIS is your opportunity.
Love.
