One day, a good friend of mine told me something that left me speechless. In fact, he insisted that “it is perfect for you”. This is what he told me:
“Only God and I know how much it costs me to have the luck OTHERS say I have.”
Certainly, it’s a sentence that I have had to repeat to myself in more than one occasion while I closed my eyes and mouth before answering to the person I had in front of me and who assured that “it’s noticeable that you have time for everything and that you are so lucky for being able to do everything you do.”
This week the same happened to me. If I must be positive, I have to admit that friends, family and people who know how I am don’t usually dare to say those things to me.
Well, this week, that sentence and specially some good news from one friend of mine made me think about opportunities, effort, work, perseverance, success and the importance it has to be proactive and very active in this life.
In this regard, the other day I read a sentence by Tonatihu that said the following:
“Opportunities are not a product of casualty, they are nothing but a result of hard work.”
Here goes my first thought. Why do we affirm so many times that opportunities are just for some people (always the same ones -some people would add)? Have you ever thought that instead of looking for them you wait for them to arrive to you? Have you ever thought about the fact that some people take actions or are proactive and look for the “long-awaited” opportunity? I encourage you to think about the E.P., have you ever seen one of them waiting for the opportunity to arrive? I think that in their cases it happens the opposite, they are people who make an effort, work hard (really hard), are perseverant, look for the “opportunity”, move, insist, find it harder to lose hope and, primarily, take a risk, get out of their comfort zone and are aware of achieving a dream that although it is hard to achieve, it is worthy.
Let us move on to my second thought. What do you think happens when the opportunity “arrives”? Do you think it maintains itself? Where is the effort, the work, the endless days, the hours that pass “quicker” than they should or the days that are confused with nights? Does the opportunity arrive, or do we go after it?
Paulo Coelho said that
“Sometimes, we are so attached to our way of life that we turn down wonderful opportunities simply because we don’t know what to do with it.”
That’s why we should be alert, keep moving forward with the certainty that what we are doing is achieving our dreams and be aware that the path won’t be easy, but it will be harder than if we stay in our comfort zone doing nothing to achieve them. Personally, I think doing that diminishes value to the days.
This is how we arrive to my third thought. When we are perseverant is because we think what we are doing is worth it and that is why we are able to dedicate more hours to what we are passionate about. In fact, while some people think that what we do seems that it’s not hard, I admit that it is and, normally, really hard. I think it has to do with the compromise and implication. It’s true that we have to control them, because it can get out of hand. By the way, do you really do the things “you have to do” because you just “have to do them”? What is the sense of it? Don’t you think that it is better to feel as what you are doing has a meaning -you are doing it for you, to follow your dreams and even for other people-? Honestly, I think that we need to enjoy more while we work because we spend many hours on it. I feel that if we apply the following formula, we will reach that point:
dreams+passion+implication+
compromiso+effort
It is also related to our success. Let me finish this post with my good friend José Ballesteros de la Fuente’s sentence. One time he defined success as the progressive realization of a dream. I always have it with me, because it reminds me which are my dreams and it gives a meaning to my day to day, to what I do, to why I do it and to what I achieve with it.
And you, what moves you? You are one of those who are lucky, or do you make an effort? Do you have that entrepreneurial spirit that is neccessary day after day?
Enjoy these days.
Porque, y con esto acabo, es así como llegan los éxitos de cada uno, no de los que tengo al lado (que seguro que también nos alegramos de ellos). Dejadme, para ello, que acabe el post de hoy con otra frase de mi gran amigo José Ballesteros de la Fuente. En una ocasión definió el éxito como la realización progresiva de un sueño.
Translated by María Ubierna Quintanilla and supervised by Arantza Arruti.