As I have exited college and entered the “real world”, I have learned a few things. I have noticed differences in my schedule, creating routines, real work, what it’s like to have money, what it’s like to have bills, and much more.
One of the biggest things I have learned and still am learning is how many opportunities I have.
In college, I had tons of opportunities as well, and I took advantage of them. But they are in the past now; I can’t play college intramurals bowling anymore. I figured that once I was in the working world, those opportunities would vanish because my time would vanish.
It is both true and untrue that I have less time than in college. My actual 40 hours at work is definitely greater than how many hours I was in class each week (especially the weeks when I didn’t go to class). However, in school, I had buckets of homework, projects, and tests to study for. And if I wasn’t studying, then in the back of my mind I was worrying because no matter what I was doing I really should have been studying.
I was always working in school; either because I was studying or because I was not studying.
However, in the real world, I get to leave work at work. I get to go home and live whatever life I want! It is pure freedom. I have money to pay for subscriptions to different gyms, go to restaurants, or explore different places!
What I have soon realized is that I am actually overwhelmed by the number of opportunities I have!
I am involved with 3 different church activities (all of which will eventually include leadership opportunities), I train in the gym, I train in krav maga, I am learning to be a more proficient mountain biker, and I am starting to write. Along with writing, I also have many other hobbies I am trying to showcase; including cooking, coffee roasting, and woodworking!
With all that is going on, it is hard to pick what to pursue, what opportunities to take, and what to train harder in. I am currently building out a personal website to showcase a lot of my work, but I am in a pickle. Do I simply make it a site just for my writing and then make separate places for woodworking, coffee, and mountain biking? Or do I keep everything in one place?
How do I pursue these hobbies further? Should I leave them as such (just hobbies), or should I try to create a side-income with some of them? For instance, writing is already a side-income thanks to Medium! Just pennies right now, but still technically an income.
Unfortunately, the internet makes all of this confusion that much harder. I see different articles and pictures of people doing things that look amazing! I want to do a Trifecta Spartan race now! I am signed up for a silly marathon in April! All these things are things I want to do but still makes it hard to know what to prioritize.
If the confusion above confused you too, or you have some of the same thoughts, then I have a trick that might help. It’s not really a trick, but just a frame of mind.
We all see the world in different lenses, and those lenses distort the things we see. Sometimes for the better, but oftentimes for the worse.
I propose we look at opportunities differently. I often get stressed out about the different opportunities in front of me because I don’t want to choose incorrectly. I don’t want to commit to something that is a waste of time.
That’s a horrible lens to view opportunities in! Instead, I want to view them as simply opportunities! Learning experiences! Either I learn and experience something positive, or perhaps I fail and learn anyways.
I know it almost seems clique at this point to talk about learning from failure, but I think there is a reason it is repeated so many times throughout history. Humans simply don’t want to learn from failure. It is innate in our depraved state. We want to succeed; not fail.
When I view opportunities in the wrong lens, I oftentimes worry so much about choosing wrong that I don’t choose at all.
Choosing the wrong opportunity is not the tragedy; not choosing to take an opportunity at all, that is the tragedy.
Don’t let opportunities pass you by because you’re too afraid to lose something. Don’t just sit on the couch watching TV when you could be out there learning, growing, and becoming a better person! You never know what those opportunities could lead to. I’m sure Bill Gates didn’t know he would be where he is today; he just took the opportunity that confronted him and rode with it.
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Previously published on medium
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Photo credit: istockphoto