Danger and Opportunity
May 15th, 2020 // 10:51 am @ Scott Manning
One of the things I learned very early on in life (mostly through my martial arts teachings and training of students), is that we all go through very similar experiences but just process them quite differently.
Death, divorce, tragedy, triumph, challenges, loss, gain, disappointment, success, accidents, achievements, love, hate, etc.
If they didn’t happen to you directly you know someone they did. In the game of life, most of us all play by similar rules and circumstances, the variables are us.
We all wake up to the same day and same set of hours. Yet everyone’s experience is so different. The way we respond to them, engage them, use them, see them, and think about them are what create the outcome we have and make up our life as we know it.
Perhaps the Coronavirus has served as one unfortunate reminder of this – it’s served as an equalizer – to see just how people respond.
Some sulk and suffer in its presence. Some find (maybe better said turn it into) blessings and benefits.
To be blunt, everyone goes through the thought of “crisis” and triaging the situation. The fear of worse case scenarios leads to understanding the implications. Most wait it out, find new routines, make what changes they need to in order to adapt, and then move beyond the experience into the future (some by force to finally do something again and others are the ones leading the way).
My point is: when you have a constant like this pandemic that everyone has to deal with in some way, shape, or form – the real difference is how long someone chooses to say in each phase of “coping” with it.
Just like anything in life. Some people have loss in life and they stay stuck in the past of what life once was; while others use it to gain wisdom and go forward to create something in honor of the past but for the benefit of the future.
The difference is you and how you choose to utilize and live through a situation. The difference is NOT ‘the situation.’ You are in the middle of cause and effect.
That’s why, last week, I explained the wise words from my Grandmaster…
Danger
and
Opportunity
And some, if you can believe this, are still stuck in Danger Mode. Depending on who you are, you might have taken days to figure out how you were going to adjust and respond or weeks or months or you may be waiting for it all to play out.
If you stay stuck in trying to avoid all danger, you are living at the mercy of the “cause.”
On the other hand, if you turn your focus to opportunity and you look at how you can protect but also prosper in every bad situation, then you will dictate the “effects.”
When you move towards one, you move away from the other…
When you move away from loss you move towards gain.
When you move away from tragedy you move towards triumph.
When you move away from danger you move towards opportunity.
A real secret to life, in terms of the “experience” in anyone person’s existence that speeds up all levels of achievement, fulfillment, and prosperity, is…
Instead of trying to avoid what you don’t want, choose to move towards what you do want as quickly as possible.
It is the slightest difference in words but so incredibly profound in it’s implication and result.
How can you make progress faster in order to realize your goals and objectives with less concern for loss?
You can focus on the Danger, or
You can focus on the Opportunity
Your choice.
By choosing to move towards one as fast and as confidently as possible, by default you are choosing to move away from the other with equal conviction.
The order, the behavior, and most of all the results are dramatically different while the change in focus and philosophy are all so subtle.
The same exact principle applies to entrepreneurship and wealth. We’ll go there next week.
Right now, there is still time to avoid letting danger get you, but it’s not what you think, it’s the opposite. You don’t dodge danger by focusing on it, you evade it by running towards opportunity.
Now, let’s charge ahead – without looking back!
Category : Blog
