In this episode, we discuss the importance of being ready for opportunities that will come your way.
Full Transcript
Hi Everyone, welcome to the You’re Daily Cup of Joe Podcast, with your host Joe Bautista. In this podcast, my goal is to give you quick lessons on how to grow yourself physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually so you can have better careers, better relationships, and better personal finances.
I’m also the author of the book “More You Know, More You Grow: How to Get Better Every Day”. In this book, I wrote down over 30 tips to help you grow in those four cornerstones. I’m also the founder of Grow With Joe, where I combine self-development coaching and financial planning for Latino Professionals.
In today’s episode, we’re are going to talk about the Winston Churchhill quote about being ready for opportunities. Here is what Churchhill said
“To each there comes in their lifetime a special moment when they are figuratively tapped on the shoulder and offered the chance to do a very special thing, unique to them and fitted to their talents. What a tragedy if that moment finds them unprepared or unqualified for that which could have been their finest hour.”
When I heard this quote I was in shock because I know how true this quote is and I’ve been living this quote for basically all of my adult life by constantly working on myself.
This is why I did night school while I was on active duty as Marine because when I hit the civilian world, I wanted to ready for whatever opportunities came my way.
It really is a tragedy if you get an opportunity and you’re not ready for it. Warren Buffett says that everyone starts out with a card with 10 opportunities and every time one passes by, a hole gets punched in the card. Now that hole gets punched if you were able to take advantage of the opportunities or not.
I can look back at my life and there were some opportunities that I was able to take advantage of like going into the Marines, moving to DC, going to conferences or events, that provided a huge leap in my personal development and made me stronger as a person to handle more challenging tasks in the future.
To handle these opportunities, I constantly work on myself for when the next opportunity happens by working on my physical self, mental self, emotional self, and spiritual self. I want to be ready for my finest hour.
Sometimes you will get an opportunity and you will fail at it. I remember I was trying to get into public speaking and I was offered to do a quick speech and I failed. I bombed in front of everyone. When this happens you can either fall apart from it or you can get stronger from it. What I did afterwords is analyzed what I could have done better and how I could be better prepared for the future.
Now I know that if I ever get that opportunity again, I will be prepared for it and how to dominate the next time I get that opportunity and I know I will get another opportunity. I’m still young at 33 and I have time to take my life to the next level but that is only going to come if I work on myself and train for that next opportunity.
We should never take it easy and be complacent where we are in life. We should challenge ourselves to see how much we could accomplish. I don’t think that means that you have to be a CEO of a company, but you should challenge yourself mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually to make sure you’re not living a lie.
Work on yourself mentally so that you can be a better problem solver and make better decisions for you and your family.
Work on yourself physically so that you can have the energy and strength to handle tough times that require a lot of energy and physical strength.
Work on yourself emotionally so that when bad things happen, it doesn’t knock you down and that you stay down. You’re able to get back up, dust yourself off and stun your opportunity with your grit and determination.
Work on yourself spiritually so that you down wander aimlessly in the world and end up in a place that you really don’t want to be in and get stuck.
If there is one thing that is constant in the world, it is changing and what comes with change is opportunities. While everyone else is panicking on what is going on, you’re able to stay calm and move through the noise to get your prize. Most people hate change because what comes with change is uncertainty and instability, but if you work on yourself, you’re able to handle those stresses and be fine. I know some people that just crumble under change or the slightest stress and those people are not strong individuals. I don’t know all the details on what they went through, but I know they need to change something.
There are times when I panic about stuff but what I try to do is go on for a walk or go exercise so that I can get the stress out of my body and I’m able to better think about the situation. I won’t be able to make a good decision if my mind is racing around the things that I can’t control and the world most likely won’t end if I take a little time to get away from the situation and reflect. Since I know I need to do this, then I know I’m ready for my finest hour.
Take a look at your life and ask yourself, if an opportunity came my way, would I be ready for it? And if there was a crisis, would I be able to turn that crisis into an opportunity? If the answer is no for either of those, then ask yourself what steps can you take today, tomorrow, or this week so you can.
That’s it for today’s episode, to summarize it, opportunities are going to come our way and it would be a tragedy if we just let those opportunities pass us by. Opportunities can also be found in a crisis. Like Rahm Emmanuel said, “You don’t want to waste a good crisis.” To handle both, you need to a strong individual physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually to handle what comes your way and you do that by spending time every day training yourself in those four cornerstones. I know I have opportunities for me in the future and me just to make sure I’m ready for them so I can then be ready for my finest hour like Winston Churchill wanted.
To get a free copy of my book “More You Know, More You Grow: How to get better every day” just go to my website growwithjoe.me/book and just pay for shipping and handling.
I have a quiz on my website that grades your inner circle, so if you want to find out if your inner circle is an A, B, C, D, or F, you can take that quiz at growwithjoe.me/quiz
I’m also trying to do a feedback Friday episode, so if you have a question that you would like to have my answer on the air, just e-mail me at [email protected]
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Thanks for joining me today and remember if you go with Joe, you can grow with Joe, cause Joe knows Dough.
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