PP 002: How to Create Opportunities & Attract Results
Your Breakthrough is Waiting to Happen
What if I told you that you were one move away from making a life-changing situation?
Opportunities come to those who are working towards something every day. That breakthrough moment is waiting to happen. Yet by not taking action and pursuing work that excites you, that moment may never come.
Over the past few years, I’ve climbed out of a hole and learned how to create opportunities from living by these 3 principles:
Being Proactive
Investing Effort
Persevering
There will be times where you feel you missed an opportunity, but where one door closes another opens—especially when you’re showing up each day.
Your creative career will continue to progress through these principles and I have no doubt they will make things happen in your life.
1. Being Proactive
You’d be surprised by how a small initiative can create opportunities.
This could be as simple as:
Leaving an encouraging comment on someone’s feed.
Messaging or emailing someone your words of gratitude.
Leaving a small note / drawing behind for someone to randomly pick up.
Sincerely complementing someone just to be nice.
These approaches have blessed me with unseen opportunities all because I was proactive and spread some positivity to others.
The best example I can think of is the initiative that allowed me to speak at Creative South 2016. It started the previous year at CS15 during the closing ceremony. As people walked on stage to give Mike Jones (the founder of Creative South) a hug, I took my turn to thank him for the amazing experience. I introduced myself and expressed my desire to give back and speak to his audience someday.
I didn’t think much would come of it right away, but next thing you know I got the phone call with the invitation to speak at CS16. I was completely floored and to this day it’s been my largest milestones along my creative path—not to mention I've built a friendship with a pretty amazing individual.
It only happened because I was proactive and spoke what was on my mind.
2. Investing Effort
Success, achievement and opportunity are directly tied to your effort.
Theodore Roosevelt stated:
“Nothing worth having was ever achieved without effort.”
Sadly, not many people tend to agree.
You and I live in a world where people feel entitled to instant gratification. They expect overnight success or for things to be handed to them.
I know you’ll agree that one of the best feelings is when you’ve earned something. All the effort and hard work you invested attracted the results you desire.
The times I can recall an opportunity landing in my lap was due to the fact that I invested my heart and soul into a given direction. Effort attracts results and being prepared for an opportunity attracts luck to be on your side.
3. Perseverance
In order to reach your goals and create opportunities, the struggle is necessary.
No one you admire got to where they are without overcoming obstacles and adversity.
There will be days where:
it’s not convenient to work towards your goals.
you’re not seeing results and quitting feels like the only option.
you feel like you’re missing out on things like parties, trips or events.
Believe me; I battle against FOMO every day (fear of missing out).
When you experience these hurdles, the only thing you can do is to be persistent and persevere.
When you’re future focused and have a long term plan you’re working towards, it makes short-term decisions a little easier.
The days I willed my way forward towards the long term plan, I tend to receive a sign—some kind of omen that signals I made the right decision to stay the course.
For example, there are days I feel like I’m wasting my time weekly blogging because I’m not getting any recent subscribers. This lack of recognition or validation makes me doubt my writing skills. Reluctantly, I still show up and publish it on time.
It seems to be in these days of doubt when I will, later on, get a spontaneous email (the sign / omen) with someone letting me know that a specific post was exactly what they needed to hear.
This sign reminds me it’s not about the metrics of likes, followers, shares and subscribers—its about inspiring others to do the work that inspires them (quoted from Simon Sinek's "Start With Why").
It’s moments like this that perseverance pays off and indicates that I’m heading in the right direction.
Create Opportunities for Yourself
If you’re taking your creativity seriously and want a thriving career, you can’t expect things to happen when you’re consuming hours of Netflix or video games.
It doesn’t work this way.
You have the ability to attract results and create opportunities through:
Being Proactive
Investing Effort
Perseverance
If you want something bad enough, prove it to yourself and get to work.
Opportunities come to those who are taking action.
Key Takeaways
Things will happen when you are proactive and speak what was is on your mind.
Success, achievement and opportunity are directly tied to your effort.
Effort attracts results and being prepared for an opportunity attracts luck to be on your side.
No one you admire got to where they are without overcoming obstacles and adversity.
When you’re future focused and have a long term plan you’re working towards, it makes short-term decisions a little easier.
It’s not about the metrics of likes, followers, shares and subscribers—it’s about inspiring others to do the work that inspires them.
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CREDITS
Music - Blookah
Executive Assistant - Paige Garland
Photo & Video Specialist - Colton Bachar
Social Media Coordinator - Hannah Schick
Animation Specialist - Greg D'Amico