When Is An Opportunity Really An Opportunity?

Yesterday I was working with a client and one of the topics she wanted to discuss was an opportunity that had been presented to her. She wanted my feedback on the email which was sent to her regarding this “opportunity”.

It made me think about how many times I’ve been presented with an “opportunity” and how stressful this can be. I’m sure we’ve all heard people say things regarding opportunities, such as “opportunity only knocks once at your door” ” this is the opportunity of a life time” ” if I pass up this opportunity, I’ll never have this chance again”. One question I have is why is it so stressful if it’s truly an opportunity?

In my client’s case, she had a feeling that something just wasn’t right about this but couldn’t put her finger on what it was. Sometimes you have to just trust that feeling because there is generally a basis for it, it’s simply that you can’t consciously pin-point what you saw or heard that is giving you the feeling.

The best way to decide if this really is an “opportunity” for you or if it’s just an “opportunity” for the person making the proposal, is to measure and critique it according to your vision and goals. You also have to use your values as criteria because that’s where our motivation comes from and that’s also how we evaluate our progress and accomplishments. If you just take it at face value without considering it within the context of your life or your business and what’s important to you and where you’re going, you’ll probably find yourself going in circles.

To help you determine if this is a good opportunity for you, there are 2 sets of questions to ask yourself:

1. Does this opportunity help me to meet my goals? Will this move me closer to or farther from what I want to achieve this year?

2. Are the people involved aligned with my values? Take a look at how they present themselves. Is this how you’d want to be represented? What kind of language do they use to capture your attention? Is it towards motivation or away from? By their actions, do they value what you value?

In my clients case, the answer to the first set of questions was no, this would move me farther away from my goals for the year. In answer to the second set of questions, it was clear that their values were also not aligned. By focusing on vision, goals and values, it only took a few minutes for my client to come to the conclusion that this really was not an opportunity for her.

The more clarity you have around who you are and where you’re going, the easier it is to determine if this really is an opportunity.

It’s not about whether it’s an opportunity for anyone else, it’s simply about whether or not it’s an opportunity for you.