Reach For Your Golden Opportunities
You really can make major improvements in your life. This YouTube video describes your personal Golden Opportunities and presents methods for reaching them. Reaching a goal opens new doors and creates new opportunities that you never saw before.
You’ll get just a few golden opportunities during your lifetime. By a golden opportunity, I mean an opportunity to go back to school, get a better job, save for my kids education, save to buy a new car, move to a better apartment, buy a house, etc. There are so many different types of opportunities out there and they are unique for each of us. We will discuss your specific opportunities in a few moments.
If you convert some of your golden opportunities into accomplishments, you might dramatically improve your life. Typically, these opportunities are the things that are just out of your reach. They are things you’d like to do, but you thought, I just don’t know if I can do it. Again, they are unique to you, and they occur at almost every stage of your life.
My Personal Golden Opportunities:
So, what am I talking about. To illustrate, let me show you some examples of my past golden opportunities that I turned into accomplishments. These completely changed my life!
One of my first golden opportunities was going to college. I graduated from college with a bachelor’s degree and moved to Delaware because I had a job offer from Dupont. I was so happy to be done with school. It required my total concentration and now I was thinking that I could work at an interesting job and then have time of my own after work.
It only took me three months to realize that I actually enjoyed learning. I decided that I could take two courses at night school at a neighboring college. I did this for six years and then I got a master’s degree.
So, now I was married and I was at a turning point. Should I keep going to school at night? It actually turned out to be quite time-consuming to work and go to school at night. Right about that time at Dupont, I started working on control systems, which was something I really hadn’t studied up to that point.
I wanted to learn about control systems, but rather than go back to night school again, I asked my management if I could just go back to school full-time for a year or two. They said OK.
This was a major golden opportunity for me. My wife and I left the state, and I went back to school, and I got an Engineer’s degree (a degree between the Masters and the PhD.) Before I left, my Dupont supervisor said “You would be crazy not to interview before you come back to Dupont. I’ll never forget that statement and I thank him to this very day.
I interviewed at school, and voila, I ended up with a job in aerospace working on satellites. It was a job I loved, so it was a better job, but it was in California. So, I moved from Delaware to California and then I bought a home because I had a job. I’d always wanted to build my own house, but now I had a house, so I built an addition that doubled the size of my house.
So now, I’m still watching for new opportunities for me. My main point here is that if I never went back to school after getting my master’s degree, none of this would have happened. I would not have the Engineer’s degree, the job in aerospace, the house, the house addition and on and on.
So, what if I decided to stop going to school and just keep working at Dupont? What would have happened if I didn’t go back to school. When I look back at Dupont, I see that the laboratory that I worked in and the job I had both disappeared. I’m not sure where I would have ended up. What I do know is that the path I chose to go back to school ended with a really good career in aerospace and a home in a state I love.
Here Is My Thought Process For Building My Home Addition:
I’d like to add on to my house. I’ve always wanted to build my own house. So, building an addition onto my house, by myself, is something I’d really like to do.
But I’d have to design the addition and submit formal drawings to the city. I’ve never designed an addition, and I’ve never submitted formal drawings.
The city will want to inspect every stage of the construction. I’m not a contractor. I’d have to learn how to build from books and the internet.
I’m sure it’ll cost much more than I expect. My wife is sick, my mother is 90 and I’m constantly traveling for work. I really don’t have time for this. It’s a nice pipe dream, but I don’t think I can do it.
I DID IT ANYWAY!
I kept working at it and I found my way through tons of problems and roadblocks and I’m so glad I did.
Here’s a picture of me pumping concrete into my foundations with the pumper.
The pumper is the guy that has the concrete truck and pumps the concrete. This picture was taken just after I had just coated my bushes with concrete. I was not expecting the big jump in the hose when the concrete first comes through the hose. I had no idea how to make foundations, but the library was a big help.
Here’s a picture of me, now on the second floor, putting up a wall with the help of a friend and the help of a little Home Depot crane that you can see just above my arm.
Here’s a picture of the addition almost completed with my beautiful wife standing in front of it.
I didn’t do the stucco myself because it dries so quickly. I didn’t do the windows because they’re so heavy, but I did just about everything else and that includes the plumbing, the wiring, fire sprinklers and of course the carpentry.
Now my wife and I spend most of our at home time living in the new addition. I really enjoyed learning a ton of new skills including foundations, carpentry, plumbing, electrical wiring and roofing. I just love to learn things.
It did take longer to build, cost more than I expected and took more effort, but it was so worth it.
So How About You? What Are Your Golden Opportunities?
I’ve been using examples from my life to illustrate points in this presentation, but this presentation is really about you, about improving your life. Are there some things that you may have thought about that are just out of your reach that you weren’t sure you could actually pull off? Are there some things that might improve your life significantly.
Could you, for example:
- Get more education. Go to night school a few courses at a time or go to school fulltime.
- Find a better apartment
- Save up for a nice vacation
- Get a promotion
- Move to a location that you like better
- Save up for a while and buy a home?
- Get a better job
- Start a business
How about some smaller goals to start out.
Think for a second! What do you want. What opportunities are just out of your reach that you might actually reach with some extra work? Could these be some golden opportunities for you.
Here's A Hypothetical Example For You:
Let’s say I want a better job. This could be you wanting a better job. I’m thinking that I’m working lots of hours below my potential and I’m not making enough money. I don’t think my work is even appreciated.
What new job would be interesting and challenging for me? Can I find someone who already has that job, and if so can I ask that person what it’s like and if they like the job?
Do I really want the job? YES, I think I do. Can that person give me some tips? What do I need to learn to get this new job. I’m willing to do homework, even if it takes a few years, but I’m hoping it only takes a few months.
Can I talk to a potential employer and ask them what I need to learn, and if I did, would they consider hiring me if I did all the work they recommend?
Well, I’m already working a full-time job with overtime. I have tons of current family obligations. I really don’t have time for all this extra work and learning. I wish I did, but it’s just a pipe dream.
BUT a few years of preparation and learning could dramatically improve my job, my self-esteem, my paycheck, my life.
Yes, I want to do it, but how? We’ll get to that in just a moment.
So Here's The Golden Opportunity Pattern:
You see an opportunity to improve your life. It would really make a difference, but there’s just too much going on already. You have a long list of more important things that have to be done now. The opportunity sounds good, but you just don’t have the time or money for it.
There are so many good valid reasons for not pursuing your golden opportunity.
BUT you decide it’s important enough to give it a shot anyway. You work it in between all your have-to-do’s.
Wow! It was a ton of work, but you did it and it was worth it.
Now you see all the new opportunities and additional benefits that are created for you.
So, What Does It Take To Reach A Goal?
Is it perseverance, grit, spunk, plunk, fortitude, tenacity? Perseverance sounds like you’re climbing a mountain. It sounds too hard. None of these really sound right.
So what is it? IT’S PERSISTENCE! Persistence is the key tool.
You’ll run into many obstacles and problems you never imagined while working on a goal. You’ll often have to temporarily stop and handle other life demands. Develop stick-to-it-tive-ness. Just KEEP COMING BACK to your goal, over and over.
No problem. Relax and realize ahead of time you’ll have unexpected problems, roadblocks, time delays, cost overruns, not big ones I hope, but all kinds of things. Just keep coming back. Persist, Persist!
Some of the other requirements to reach a goal are time. It will take more time than you expect.
It will probably cost more money than you expect, and it’ll certainly take more effort than you expect.
When setting goals, try to avoid deadlines or time limits. You want to persist, but you don’t want a deadline hanging over you. There are some deadlines that you can’t avoid, like exams on a certain day when you are going to school. Avoid deadlines if you can.
Avoid setting monetary limits. Sometimes it costs a little more than you expect, hopefully not too much more,
Is it really worth it? is it worth the extra money and effort? In most cases a resounding YES!
Reaching your goal almost always opens new doors, new opportunities that you couldn’t even see before, and there are often additional benefits that you never expected.
Can You Always Reach Your Goal?
eNo, you won’t. You won’t reach all of your goals. There are many factors and situations that will affect your success rate. One of the most positive factors is your commitment and persistence that you focus on a goal.
So, what if you tried to reach five goals and only reached two? Those two might be game changers for you, and my experience is, when I’ve tried to reach goals, I’ve done better than two out of five.
I think it’s worth it. It’s your call.
Have You Already Reach Some Of Your Goals?
How did you feel when you reached one of your significant goals, for example, when you graduated from school or you got a new job? Whatever it was, would your life be different now if you had not reached that goal? Most peple say yes.
Remember, reaching a goal often creates new opportunities.
Joseph Campbell, the philosopher, said “Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors where there were only walls.”
Picture what could happen when you actually reach your goal. You could see bigger doors opening that you didn’t even know were there before! You could see extra additional benefits of reaching your goal.
Remember My Previous Example Of My Going Back To School:
I went back to school and got an Engineer degree. That opened door number ONE for me.
Then I began to see door number TWO, getting a new job that led to an aerospace job.
Then door number two opened and I ended up moving from Delaware to California, to a place I really like. That was door THREE. Then I could see door FOUR. With the new job, I was able to buy a new house.
Finally, I was able to build an addition on my house. That was door FIVE.
So where would I have been I had never taken that first step? The first step is always the most important step. Remember to take that first step!
So, the ball is in your court!
Think about your golden opportunities that you could turn into accomplishments.
Pick one that enhances your life and makes you happy.
Give it a shot and then persist, persist, persist!
Stick to it until you get there. You’ll be amazed what you can accomplish with simple persistence
Share Your Thoughts and Experiences:
Please share some of your thoughts and experiences with goals in the comments below.
What worked for you and what didn’t? Do you have any tips for the rest of us?
Your comments could help someone else.
You Really Can Make Improvements To Your Life
Yes, you can do it. You really can make major improvements to your life with simple persistence!
Believe in yourself! Do it!
What worked for you and what didn’t? Do you have any tips for the rest of us?