When opportunity knocks, do you answer?  The tap at the door isn’t always loud, but it pays to listen for it.  Just ask my family Chihuahua, Kramer, who has a knack for hearing it before it even happens!

The ‘busyness’ of the business day can drown out everything else around you, but that doesn’t need to be the case. In fact, the sheer volume of tasks to accomplish can and will consume all of the oxygen in the room, unless you occasionally step out for some fresh air.

It doesn’t require a literal trip ‘outside’ to clear your head, although breaks like that are healthy and invigorating.  Creating some space within your day to reflect and process what’s going on in your world will pay dividends in multiple ways.  When you seek out quiet time, only then you can hear the faint tapping of opportunity.  Opportunity can be fleeting; unless you listen for its arrival, it may move on before the light tapping turns into a loud knock that you cannot ignore.

Once opportunity is recognized, the decision whether or not to let it in looms next. What if I answer the knock?  What will I have to do then?  Will it be positive for me, or might it be a threat in disguise?  Many will choose to ignore the knocking, if for no other reason than it represents just one more potential concern or decision to make.

Opportunity is in essence a trade-off among various options. If you choose to do this, then there’s less time for that (or perhaps none).  It helps to qualify an opportunity by considering whether it advances you toward your personal and professional goals, or if it simply represents a lateral move or trade off.  In fact, to be truly “opportune” means it should fit the definition of “a situation or condition favorable for attainment of a goal.”

Fear of change shouldn’t be the thing that holds you back from answering, when opportunity knocks.  Neither should analysis paralysis, because you’ll never have all the information you might want before making a decision.  There are usually “macro” factors, outside of your control, and “micro” factors that are within your ability to manage; identify those and carefully weigh them in a balance.  Before you can do that, however, you first need to listen for the knock in the first place.  Can you hear it?

Tempus Maximize!