Photo by Nils on Unsplash BECOMING SUPERHUMAN Everything Is an Opportunity: Turning Problems Into Opportunities There’s no such thing as what we call “luck” Lorenz Duremdes, Polymath Nov 29 · 3 min read Turn your problems into opportunities I truly believe one of the greatest skills and wisdom we can learn, is to not let anything go to waste: the present, your life, and especially opportunities. Let’s take a quote from the famous Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius also known as the Philosopher King: While it’s true that someone can impede our actions, they can’t impede our intentions and our attitudes, which have the power of being conditional and adaptable. For the mind adapts and converts any obstacle to its action into a means of achieving it. That which is an impediment to action is turned to advance action. The obstacle on the path becomes the way.” — Marcus Aurelius He clearly makes a distinction between the actions we perform and our intentions, and how we have the latter within our control. Maybe this quote makes that concept more clear: You are only responsible for the effort, not the outcome. — Bryant McGill In the book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, there’s this concept called the “inside-out mindset”: First focus on that what’s the most within your control, before focusing on what’s least within your control. “For every problem that you haven’t turned into an opportunity, I am one step ahead of you.” Luck: creating opportunities “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” ―Seneca the Younger We can prepare ourselves by turning and seeing problems as opportunities. This, in turn, increases the chance for us to chase, meet, and grab “luck”. “I’ve found that what most people call luck is often little more than raw talent combined with the ability to make the most of opportunities.” — Timothy Zahn In fact, not preparing oneself not only causes you to miss opportunities, it can even turn the other way around: “Bad luck is when lack of preparation meets reality.” — Eliyahu Goldratt Our lives are much more within our control than we tend to believe. My own story about creating “luck”: autism and social anxiety I happen to have both autism and social anxiety. Since a young age, I saw them as problems, things that have to be solved and removed, or at least, as much lessened as possible. However, since I have read books like Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, I began to see these labels as opportunities instead. Opportunities for what? Opportunities to help other people with autism and/or (social) anxiety. I don’t need to completely reinvent my life or do years of research what autism and anxiety mean, I already pretty much am an expert on these areas. That doesn’t mean I don’t want to know even more about them (and myself). Practicing the art of creating opportunities What are some things that you currently perceive as problems? Can you turn them into opportunities? How? And how would your future look like after turning them into opportunities? Are there things that you already see as opportunities? Can you imagine how other people, if they were you, might see them as problems instead? What causes you to see them as opportunities instead? Remember, everything is an opportunity. Subscribe for more content like this: Subscribe See this to see why I write: https://lorenzduremdes.wordpress.com/2019/10/08/introd… mailchi.mp Some rights reserved Self Improvement Personal Development Life Lessons Personal Growth Self Discover Medium Make Medium yours Become a member Welcome to a place where words matter. Follow all the topics you care about, and Get unlimited access to the best stories On Medium, smart voices and original we’ll deliver the best stories for you to on Medium — and support writers while ideas take center stage - with no ads in your homepage and inbox. Explore you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade sight. Watch About Help Legal
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