Today I have been on a learning course that reminded me how truly important it is to be aware of and then grab the opportunities presented quickly.
I remember learning about something called the 100 Monkey Theory. Which is basically saying that when enough sentient beings have the same idea it seems to become general knowledge.
Read about this further in this article.
Although the concept may not be to everyone’s taste I have experienced the reality of it many times myself. The first time was when I was working with a partner and we had a great idea about a product that would be hugely useful for people in the workplace. To be honest I remember the excitement clearly now, but not the specific idea – there have been so many!.
Don’t Wait for Later
The problem was that we didn’t have a clue what to do with our idea and were very busy with our current schedule. This meant we shelved it to focus on our priorities with the intention of coming back to it later.
I am sure you can see where I am going with this. Sure enough, the tool we had come up with was suddenly produced by someone else within the next 9 months. We couldn’t believe it!
Now there are lots of logical arguments as to why this happened, the most obvious being that if we were facing a challenge at work, it would make sense that others were too. Therefore, several different people would be looking for ways to overcome the challenge and maybe our idea was the most practically obvious.
The pragmatic minds reading this would see it in the context of today’s global web-based society. But I became aware of this idea/theory before the millennium, when communication did not flow across borders in the clouds.
Don’t be Passive
Taking the 100 Monkey Theory as a prompt I want to say there is a time when your actions will pay massive dividends, at their inception. After this their impact may lessen.
So, taking my own advice I’m writing this article today.
Within today’s group session (mentioned above) there were suggestions for each of us to think about actions we should take to move towards our personal goals. Not unusual in itself, but today, some of these were a little out of left field and did not fit neatly within my comfort zone or field of knowledge.
What automatically happened was my knee jerk reaction to dismiss the idea, or at the very least to give it lip service but not prioritise the need to explore it further.
Whilst I was paying attention to this interplay between my emotions – swaying between feeling excited about a great opportunity or allowing something to seemingly through a blanket over the idea I saw how we so often do this when thinking about Career Transition or Career Change.
World Class Procrastination
My thoughts tended to go in opposite directions.
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- Great idea: I can see how that will work; it would be something to provide support in my retirement; there are lots of ways to start including this in my business now; …
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- Yes but: I have enough to do without another distraction; I’m not a good enough planner; I don’t know enough about the process so it would entail a good amount of research; could be difficult to maintain my integrity if I don’t do it full on; …
When I focus on it feeling like a great idea, I feel energised and excited. Although I must admit that it does have a background of low-level anxiety. I am not the world’s greatest planner, and I do recognise that to bring this suggestion to fruition I will have to plan!
And here in lies the problem for me. If I allow that anxiety to take a grip I effectively stop myself from giving the idea focused consideration and therefore, it will go no further.
So, if I am to thwart my tendency to procrastinate, I must create a simple to do list.
This is not to say I will actually take this idea forward, but I must put enough energy into it to make an honest fact based decision rather than an out of hand dismissal.
Poem about following your heart
A friend of mine recently wrote a beautiful poem about the doors that we haven’t walked through …
… and I want to ask you to think about this for yourself.
What opportunities have you missed?
What ideas or suggestions have you received (either from your subconscious, intuition, from other people, or simply when they have been triggered from something external like a social media post) that you have then rejected?
For me, an early career change opportunity was the offer of following a passion to pursue Osteopathy and Naturopathy as a career. I had only just started work again following a long illness and, following a conversation, was offered this amazing chance. I remember I was astounded (this was an example of networking at its amazing best) but pretty much rejected it out of hand.
My reaction was definitely fear based. Quite frankly, I may have turned it down even if I had given it due consideration because of my health issues.
As I write this though, I have had a realisation!. Just thinking about that offer gives me a sense of fatigue (a weight on my shoulders at the thought of all the work involved). Wow, this is helpful because now I realise this is a huge trigger for me. If I feel weighed down like this – and it honestly feels like overwhelm – I am likely to reject something straight away if I don’t nip the reaction in the bud. Another self-coaching tool for me to consciously use!
When have you remembered to grab the opportunities?
When I think of some of the most important opportunities I have taken advantage of I can see how easy it might have been walk straight past. Each one required a conscious decision to follow up on the idea and then to take steps to implement.
One opportunity I did follow-up on was to qualify as a coach. I had just started counselling clients, but it was not floating my boat. In conversation, the concept of coaching came up (before coaching was as popular as it is now).
Although I had just devoted 3 years towards qualifying as a counsellor I was now considering throwing that away. I know I was tempted to just plough on, but this decision was aided by the feeling of competence and excitement. An idea of just pivoting my knowledge rather than making a hugely radical change.
Having decided to devote a little more focus on this I started to research, brought some magazines and by chance (completely out of character) filled in a questionnaire which ultimately resulted in me getting a fabulous and unexpected opportunity to gain my coaching qualification as very little cost – just some dedicated work.
Change your responses
When I am working with clients who are dissatisfied and want to think about changing their career or job, the most valuable time we spend together is considering the different opportunities or ideas available to them.
I have just had a real conscious nudge, as I recorded above. I now realise that every time my emotional response to an idea is like a weight on my shoulders, I should check my mindset. Instead of preparing to reject the suggestion I will now deliberately pause and then revisit it when I have reigned-in my overarching emotional response.
This is supremely useful because I can now see that it is the thought of the steps needed to initiate change that might seem exhausting, not that the idea per se is a bad one.
If you can manage to change your immediate response of rejection (or perhaps of not even really hearing an idea of the first place) to one of consideration, you will be in a far better position to notice and grab the opportunities that come your way.