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Problems and Opportunities - Everyday We Have a Choice

By
Education & Training with State Farm Insurance

I'm a night owl. Not the kind that stays up late into the wee hours, but the kind that sleeps for awhile then gets up in the wee hours. Sometimes it's like now. Sleep for a few hours, up about midnight or one then back to sleep for a few more hours. Other times it's sleep the night till 3 or 4. Then I'm usually up for the day.


It gives me time to think; to ponder; to gain some perspective while the rest of the world is quiet and sleeping.

Stephen Covey said, “Effective people are not problem-minded; they’re opportunity-minded. They feed opportunities and starve problems.”

Now there's a thought to ponder.

Everyday we have problems. Everyday we have opportunities. Sometimes we decide to let our problems overwhelm us and steal time from our opportunities. Yes, we DO have a choice.

We are in complete control of who we feed.
Every day.
The problems or the opportunities.

THE PROBLEMS: (beware that many opportunities are cleverly disguised as problems)
Take a minute and clarify the problem.
Decide what the very next step is towards its solution.
Decide when to execute that step.
Execute it immediately or put it in your planner.
Forget about it.

THE OPPORTUNITIES: (beware that many opportunities are cleverly disguised as problems)
Take a minute clarify the opportunity.
Decide what the very next step is to take the best advantage of the opportunity.
Decide when to execute that step.
Execute it immediately or put it in your planner.
Forget about it.

Life is really just a series of decisions. How to solve problems and how to seize opportunities.

Which will you go after today?
April Solomon
Keller Williams Professionals - Swannanoa, NC
Broker/Realtor/GRI

I found your blog to be very enlightening, your absolutely right about opportunities or problems.  I choose to have the optimistic side the more optimistic you are the more you tend to produce.  When your negative or downhearted you are less productive.  As the old saying goes when you think positive good things happen, when you think negative bad things happen or don't happen at all.

Sep 03, 2009 09:32 AM
Ricky Khamis
EPiQ Lending - Gilbert, AZ
NMLS 173141 | CADOC 173141 - 602-758-7425

No matter the situation, I look to the positive side of things, the alternative is just too bleak.

Sep 03, 2009 03:49 PM
Amy O'Laughlin
Broken Arrow, OK

I agree...and I like your outline of identifying what needs to be done, then either do it/wait to do it, and then forget about it (a.k.a move on).  So many people I know hang on to so many things that are beyond their control; it creates a lot of stress and seems to require so much energy just for them to keep dwelling on things.  Thought is good, but overkill thinking is bad! 

Sep 04, 2009 08:08 AM