How to Be Prepared for an Opportunity

More times than I can remember I’ve been presented with an opportunity that I wasn’t prepared to explore. Some say an opportunity is when luck meets preparation, so it’s important to be ready to take advantage of opportunities when they present themselves. Some people wonder how to be prepared for an opportunity but aren’t always sure where to start.

Ways to be prepared for an opportunity are to:

• Know what you want
• Know what’s necessary to get it
• Learn something new
• Network with other people
• Practice so you’re ready
• Have samples of your work
• Be fearless

The steps you take to prepare for an opportunity can vary depending on the type of opportunity you seek, however, preparation is a key component no matter the opportunity. When you’re prepared for an opportunity before it presents itself, you won’t be left with a feeling of regret when you’ve missed out on a good opportunity because you weren’t ready.

Know what you want

Knowing what you want is a crucial step in preparing for an opportunity. If you don’t know what you want, you might invest time and energy into opportunities that don’t lead you any closer to accomplishing your desired goals.

Be clear and intentional about what you want. Take the time to be specific about your desires. What you visualize is what you’ll manifest. If you’re not clear about what you want, you will get exactly what you asked for.

When you’re identifying what you want, don’t silence yourself with thoughts of dreaming too big or avoiding things others think are too complex. If you know what you want, you’re able to formulate a plan to obtain the want. Be clear and own what you want!

Know what’s necessary to get it

Once you’ve identified what you want, you’ve got to identify what’s necessary to get it. The desire alone isn’t enough to make your dreams a reality. All of the work we don’t do and choose to do, determine our level of success when it comes to opportunities.

If you’re clear about what’s necessary to get to what you want, you’re able to assess a new opportunity and decide if it’s worth your time. If the opportunity doesn’t lead you closer to your want, it’s not something to be explored.

Also knowing what you want can help avoid investing time into opportunities that won’t fulfill you. My grandmother always used to say, ‘The best way to show someone what they don’t want, is to give them what they want.’ Know what you want and work really hard for it.

Learn something new

Being prepared for an opportunity may require you to learn new skills and tools. New skills or tools can help keep you going when it might get difficult while exploring an opportunity.

You can learn new skills and tools these days from a variety of places online and in other formats. There are tons of options available to you if you really want to learn the things that you need to learn in order to be ready for an opportunity when it presents itself.

Take classes online. Some classes may include a small charge and others you may be able to find for free. Read books, watch instructional videos, attend webinars, and seminars to learn as much information as you can.

The great thing about living in today’s society is almost any and everything you want to learn is available to you at your fingertips. Take advantage of the opportunities and options on the internet so that you can be ready for opportunities.

Network with people

Being ready for an opportunity also includes who you know. It’s important to be connected with people that already have experience and exposure to the things or opportunities that you’re trying to take advantage of.

Meeting new people can expose you to even more opportunities than you had envisioned. You never know who someone else knows that might be able to help you when exploring your opportunity, but only if you’re ready.

A connection with other people allows you to learn skills and tools you may not be able to learn in a classroom or online but only in real life situations. This is when who you know becomes crucial to be prepared for the next opportunity.

Practice the skills and tools you learn

Learning is great but if you don’t know how to apply the things that you’ve learned, you still won’t be ready to take advantage or prepare to take advantage of an opportunity. Don’t just read about the things that you need to know but also practice them so you know what to do.

Sometimes you’re able to get this practice on your own and other times you may have to call friends and family to help you by roleplaying so you can test out the things that you’ve learned. You could also volunteer to use the skills you’ve learned in order to make sure that you’re prepared when an opportunity presents itself.

Have samples of your work

People love to hear when we brag about our skills and abilities, but the true test is proving you can do the things that you said you could do. It’s important to have samples of your work or examples putting the tools or information that you have in practice.

You have to have proof you can do what you claim. This may come in the form of a portfolio or something as simple as having people with a good reputation vouch for you and your skills. How you present what you’ve done and how others speak about your abilities goes a long way toward you being able to be prepared for an opportunity.

Be Fearless

Fear is one of those things that can paralyze someone and stop you from moving forward towards what you really want out of your life. One of the first ways to be prepared for an opportunity is to be fearless and be ready for whatever comes with that opportunity.

This means you have to be willing to put in the work and also be exposed to moments where you may not be ready and have the skills but you have the determination and passion necessary to push forward and not give up until you accomplish your goal. If you can put fear aside it will allow you to focus on all the other things you need to in order to be ready and prepared for the opportunity.

Being prepared for an opportunity before it presents itself makes a huge difference regarding if you will be able to take advantage of an opportunity when it’s presented to you. Living a life of regret trying to figure out how to get over missed opportunities only takes more time away from the things that lead you closer to the life you want to create for yourself.

Do the work. All of the hard work that you will put in to create the life that you really want to have will be worth it. The regret that you will attempt to hang onto in the future if you don’t make an effort to be prepared for opportunities will be time wasted you will never get back.

You deserve to give yourself a fighting chance to have the life that you’ve always wanted. So let’s get started on being prepared for an opportunity because you don’t want to miss out because you’re worth it.