Reflectorial: On opportunity
A brand new year has begun. Now you can finally start all of the things that you have wanted to and change the things that you don’t. Our advice to you, for this brand new year, isn’t to lose 20 pounds with a new diet or exercise plan, to earn big bucks with a well-crafted get-rich-quick scheme and it’s not even to find the love of your life on tinder date #59. Our advice to you for this year, keep your eyes open for opportunities. One of the worst kind of wastes is that of a missed opportunity.
One New Year’s Eve, Charlie Brown missed the opportunity of his little lifetime when the little Red-Haired Girl came to Peppermint Patty’s New Years’ Eve party. Charlie Brown had worked up the courage to ask her to come. Chuck didn’t think she would but she did. In the meantime, he missed the chance to dance with her at the stroke of midnight because he wondered outside to read the novel “War and Peace” for a book report and then fell asleep.
Everyone’s heart aches when they see to look on Charlie Brown’s face when he is told that the little Red-Haired Girl had just left. It’s the epitome of missed opportunity and is universally recognized as one of the worst feelings ever.
But that’s the key to a happy new year. Keep your heart and head open to new ideas, new experiences and new people. All of these things are new opportunities that can carry you to where it is that you are going (or maybe, they will take you to the place you were meant to be but didn’t know about). Sure, strive for health, wealth and love – those things are good ambitions. But don’t frame those things in a negative way. See them as positive opportunity instead of dreary must-dos.
A new year does mean a lot of new opportunities so just challenge yourself this year and don’t say no to some new things, don’t avoid others, don’t fall into routine. But most of all, don’t forget that opportunities are all around you. It’s almost worse when there is an opportunity around and instead of just saying no to it you actually don’t see it at all.
Your year awaits. Make it your own. You’ll look back at this time next year and see how far you have come. But don’t forget that each month is a new start, as is each week and even each day.
— The Reflector Staff
