2012: Prepared to Succeed

Today is that magical day that begins the new year when I am already deeply entrenched in contemplating my hopes, dreams, and intentions for 2012.  What will I change?  What will I keep?  What will I toss?  What needs tweaking? What are my big, bold, audacious goals: personally, professionally, financially, physically, spiritually?  Am I on target with my 5-year plan?  This pensive thought takes place as I reduce clutter and organize various spaces -- a process that usually begins December 26th for me. I begin to clean out and organize drawers, closets, files, my car, cabinets, bookshelves -- all in what used to be a more conscious effort to get a jump on preparing to meet the opportunities that are bound to surface on a moments notice, quite possibly, at the very dawn of the new year. Like Henry Hartman, Zig Ziglar, and several others have stated, "success is when preparation meets opportunity." Then there's the 13th century proverb that one of my mentors lives by, (be prepared to) "strike when the iron is hot." These ideas certainly clarify my role in creating my own success. I am to simply be prepared to act decisively when my opportunity arises.

Now, I've been practicing this method for a few decades, and I'm here to attest to the validity of this notion that  the name of the success game is preparedness. Here's why. We control neither the nature of opportunity nor its' timing. Opportunity presents. We are either prepared to grab it or not. It typically does not linger long enough for us to become prepared after it presents. When it does, I call that crazy lucky! More often it's sort of like when a butterfly lands, and I not only have my camera, but the right lens is attached and settings are good enough to grab the shot before it flies away. That's happened once in my life.

"Prepared to Succeed" at Hawk's Cay on Duck Key, Florida

Getting this photo probably wasn't on my list of things to accomplish back in 2002 when I took it, and my annual projections usually do not include things of this sort, however; all of the elements required to achieve this photo apply to the more significant goals that I do set. To capture this butterfly, I had to "be" in the moment, acutely aware of my surroundings. "Being" is a huge factor in recognizing fleeting opportunity. Sometimes we wander through the day inattentive to the present. We overlook opportunity because we are not in the moment at hand. We are, all too many times, dwelling in the past --revisiting resentment, pain, or the joy of past successes. While back there we are missing the opportunity that settles within our reach in the present. To succeed I was prepared. I knew how to use my camera and showed up with it. I had to be in the present, but if I had stopped there I wouldn't have the photo. I had to take some action-- do something. Position the camera, focus, and shoot. And by this combination what I have is a photo, or success.