3 Ways to Prepare Yourself for Future Opportunities

Seneca once said that “luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” Outsiders might think that someone is lucky for being in the right place at the right time. But what they don’t know is the preparation behind it. The preparation is the key. Tons of opportunities may come your way, but if you are not prepared to capitalize on them, they will mean nothing.

That’s why I believe it’s essential that you prepare yourself for future opportunities. Don’t wait until an opportunity comes before you start preparing for it. That will be too late. Instead, you should prepare yourself early; the sooner the better. That way, when the opportunity comes, you are ready to take advantage of it. People will see you to be in the right place at the right time.

How should we prepare ourselves for future opportunities? Here are three ways:

1. Stay informed.

To anticipate future opportunities, you need to stay informed about what’s going on within the fields you are interested in. You can then keep an eye on things that are interesting and, if the time is right, invest your resources in them.

To give you an example, 3D printing is currently on the rise. I still don’t know what to do about it, but I keep an eye on it. I put it on a “watch list” so to speak. When an opportunity appears (for example, a business opportunity), I will be in the know.

My main way to stay informed is subscribing to interesting websites using an RSS reader. I allocate time daily to go through them.

2. Build your platform.

We live in a noisy world and it has become increasingly difficult to get people’s attention. For that reason, it’s essential that you have a platform, a place where you can connect with an audience who trusts you. That’s how you get the attention you need for your ideas or products.

You can’t build a platform overnight, though. In fact, it may take years to build a strong platform. So you must start building it long before you need it.

I mentioned some ways to build a platform in my article about lifestyle business.

3. Allocate time to learn.

When something catches your attention, allocate time to learn more about it, even if you don’t plan to do anything about it soon. If you allocate regular time for it, your skills will grow over time. By the time you decide to act, you will already have something to start with. You will be able to act fast.

For example, one thing I’m interested in is game development. I don’t plan on developing a game anytime soon, but I allocate time to learn about it. I follow the developments in the industry and familiarize myself with the tools. If an opportunity later comes, I will already have a foundation.

***

When it comes to preparing yourself for future opportunities, “build it before you need it” applies. Don’t wait until you need something before you start building it. Start early. Start now.

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21 Comments

  1. Definitely allocate time to learn! I’ve spent so many hours learning the different things that go into running a successful blog and I executed just about everything that I’ve absorbed then saw immediate results. I doubt I would have saw a single spark if I had tried “winging” it. Plus, you need to future-proof yourself by staying up-to-date. Things don’t come easy and they rarely come natural.

  2. Very good write up !

  3. I love taking out time to learn, and have tried out many ways to learn faster and focus more that have helped me.

    The biggest problem is finding good resources. I like to learn from people who have been there, done what I want to do, who are actually DOING what they are teaching.

    And working daily on building up my platform. 🙂

    • Finding such resources is not easy indeed. But thanks to the Internet, there are still plenty of them to find. I’m glad many of the experts are generous with their knowledge.

  4. I would say “lucky for being in the right place at the right time” often correlates with the amount of hard work that you put to encapsulate the opportunity. As they say “No Pain No Gain”!!

  5. For me learning exemplifies the key thing we need to develop – an enquiring mind. With that you’ll never assume the status quo will last forever and automatically will be better placed to meet the future.

  6. Hello Donald.

    Thank you for a good read.

    In addition to your brilliant article, I’d like to emphasize the aspect of being in a mental state that allow for future opportunities. When we allocate time to learn about new things, build our platforms and keep ourselves informed about future opportunities, our brain becomes an invaluable tool to track down opportunities because we devote attention to the facts. We are looking for future opportunities and we find future opportunities because we devote brain power to do so. Does it make sense?

    All the best,
    Anders Hasselstrøm

  7. I think part of being informed is looking for patterns and connections. It is often the intersections between different trends or behaviours where opportunities exist.

  8. Hey Donald, great points. I especially am drawn to building your platform. What I’ve learned is that it’s not as hard to do as it is critical that you are hyper-focused and intentional about. Platform requires personal and business standards that you keep in place at all times. It makes that third step all the easier. 😉

  9. Personal Development
    Personal Development

    I really love this post. This is a great guideline of inspiration as personal
    development for a men.
    For Daily Inspiration And Motivation For Everyday Life Challenges.

  10. Hello Donald Latumahina, I am very glad to see your profile you are from Sydney. You are writing and sharing motivational stuffs which is quite impressive. Your blogging style and the selection of words are very effective. the motivational path that you are sharing among the peoples is really appreciable.

    I am totally agree with your suggestion we will have to be ready for the future challenges, we should not wait for our turn. as opportunity will come grab it.

    Thanks a lot,
    Amit Dwivedi
    Web Analyst India

  11. Allowing time to learn and practising hard and sincerely can make a lot of difference. Recently I was learning to play Guitar and often find excuses that I cannot play it. But my trainer was patient and agreed me upon keep trying and now I am thankful to him that I have learned something new and will continue learning.

  12. What a simple and uplifting article this was!!

    I finally realized that I have come to a crossroads in my silly life… where so many of the aforementioned emotions are beginning to take over my life… in a harmful way… and I’ve finally gotten to the point of trying to recapture my life before it’s too late.

    And this post was the very first thing I came across after taking my very first step towards a new me… and hopefully a new way of living! It was pretty amazing that it included everything I’m currently going feeling.

    It’s reading words such as these that help wash away the thoughts of “being impossible” and living within the “i can’t” world… and making an ordinary person such as myself suddenly feel victorious… even before the battle to regain a happy life again has even begun!

    Just by reading this… in seconds… the loss… the pain… the anger and fears crashing down upon me have been pushed back a bit. Just enough to give me a tiny… but firm foot hold… enough to take the true first step towards becoming a new and improved tommy mondello! What an amazing feeling… such a weight lifted. As many times as I’ve had these same positive thoughts myself… I was still unaffected by them and unable to act on them. But by reading those very same thoughts and feelings through the eyes of another… it’s like seeing and feeling them for the very first time… it’s a pretty weird feeling to say the least…

    I know the hard work still lies before me… but now knowing how something so simple and small as these couple hundred words can ignite a flame in me so easily… I am truly ready to regain my vigor for a fun and fulfilling life. Baby steps…

    Thanx so much for your post… hopefully it will be but the first in many that I’ll come across on my new journey home…

    love always… your

  13. Emmanuel c. Onuoha
    Emmanuel c. Onuoha

    The worst thing that can happen to a man, is for opportunity to meet him unprepared.

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