Have you ever missed an opportunity you regretted? If you are honest, you can probably think of at least one thing in your life that you let go, whether it was accidental or intentional. Maybe you didn’t prepare for a job interview or maybe you didn’t take that job opportunity. Whether it is in our personal lives, careers, or personal development, we are defined by opportunities that we take, and the ones we miss.

What would your life have been if you had made a different decision? If you had been bolder? If you had taken a leap of faith? Truth be told, we can never know the answers to these questions. The only way to know is to grab the opportunities that life presents to us.

So how can we be ready for the opportunities we get, so that we don’t regret the chances we didn’t take?

3 Ways to be Ready for Opportunities

Be Proactive

As we get busy with our daily to-do lists, schedules, and routines, we can become complacent to life and the opportunities it presents. And that means we can often become blind to the amazing opportunities that can be staring at us in the face.

Perhaps you want to be financially independent and work for yourself. Be proactive. Find examples of entrepreneurs. Study their habits and success stories. Keep your eyes open for business opportunities. Talk about your dream, and maybe you’ll meet your next business partner. Create opportunities for yourself. Look up from your daily hustle; maybe there’s a problem that people struggle with that you can solve easily and begin charging for.

Be Flexible

Opportunities don’t present themselves in the way that suits you or is easy for you. Oftentimes, opportunities require you to step out of your comfort zone and make some sacrifices.

For example, you might have a weekly tradition to hang out with your friends, at the same time the leader of your industry is visiting your city. It can be easy to scratch in hanging out with your friends in your planner and decide you are busy. However, that means potentially missing out on an opportunity of a lifetime.

For many of us, we have some serious responsibilities at home, like taking care of our kids. And of course, that is important. So, when good opportunities present themselves, have a plan as to how you might be able to take advantage of that opportunity. Maybe it’s asking a friend or relative to babysit that night. Find a way to be proactive about opportunities. Just because it is difficult to reschedule your life, don’t let an opportunity out of your hand.

Adopt a Growth Mindset

Sometimes life presents us with amazing opportunities, but we have to be ready. We must broaden our horizon, expand our knowledge, and be open to new things. We have to have a growth mindset rather than a fixed mindset. If you want to grow in your career, learn more about your field. If you want to find a life partner, start learning about yourself, about healthy relationships, and communicating better. Be open to doing things differently, meeting new people, and having new experiences. And if an opportunity does not present itself to you immediately, keep persisting. Don’t give up. They will come to you in time.  

Opportunities that you take can change your life. And the ones that you don’t take, can radically shape your life. So, take initiative and be ready for opportunities. Be proactive, be ready and have a growth mindset. And when an opportunity comes knocking on your door, don’t hesitate.

What would happen if you went to an airport and waited for a ship? Nothing would happen, and you would be waiting at the airport forever. What would happen if you expected things to change but didn’t make an effort to bring about change? You would likely never see your desired changes take place.

The truth is change takes effort and will not take place unless you work to make it happen.

Change Takes Effort

Making meaningful changes in your life requires that you put in the effort to make those changes happen.

Every day, people wish that they would lose weight, get a better job, move into a nicer home, spend more time with their family, etc., but wishing for change is just that: a wish. So many of these wishes never become a reality because people aren’t willing to work to make them a reality.

Change takes effort. For example, if you want to get promoted at your company, you can’t just do the bare minimum work and hope to get noticed by your manager. You need to put in extra effort in your assigned work, go the extra mile to help with additional projects, and express your interest in getting a promotion.

What You Lose While Waiting for Change

When we wait for change to happen rather than making it happen, we waste one of our most precious resources. In today’s world, time is one of our most valuable assets. The amount of time we get to spend on Earth is limited, and we need to make the most out of the time that we have.

The time you spend waiting for change to happen could be spent making that change happen.

How to Make Change Happen

Change isn’t easy, but these five steps will help you stop waiting for change and start changing your life.

Decide to Make a Change

First, you need to decide that you want to change your life. You will never commit to making changes in your life if you don’t desire change in the first place. Ask yourself this question honestly: “Am I ready to make a change in my life?” If the answer is yes, proceed to the next step.

Identify the Change You Want to Make

The second step is to identify the specific change that you want to make. If you have multiple changes you’d like to make, pick one to focus on. Trying to make too many changes at once can often lead you to feel overwhelmed, so while it might seem tempting, try to not work on multiple changes at a single time.

Break It Down into Steps

The third step is to break the change down into more manageable pieces. Making changes in your life can be quite a large undertaking and giving yourself a roadmap of smaller steps to complete will help you stay motivated throughout the process.

Be Prepared for Challenges

The road to change is not always a walk in the park. You are likely to encounter obstacles and challenges along the way. Mentally prepare yourself for difficulties you may face before embarking on your journey.

Give It All You’ve got

Finally, you need to give it all you’ve got in order to make sure the change you desire comes to fruition. Give it 110% effort and never quit.

When you look around at the conditions of your life as they are today, would you say that you are satisfied, or do you yearn for much more? Even if your life is comfortable and basically good, you may still harbor big dreams in your heart that you hope to fulfill one day.

The important question to consider is, do you believe that you deserve more? Whether it’s a bigger or nicer home, a better job, a loving relationship, or physical wellness, your beliefs about whether you deserve them or not acts as a gatekeeper, allowing or repelling the things you want to receive.

You may have been taught by well-meaning parents or guardians that it’s selfish or greedy to want more, and that you should just be happy with what you already have because there are many people who have much less than that. Being grateful for what you have is a wonderful thing, of course, but there is also nothing wrong with wanting a more comfortable and enjoyable life experience.

In fact, it’s actually good to want more because as you allow yourself to dream and imagine a much more expanded life experience for yourself and those around you, life begins flowing more opportunities and blessings your way. This not only benefits you, but everyone that you could potentially bless in return. Rather than living your life with a constricted survival mentality, you are able to be fully open to the miracles that life has to offer and start thriving.

There are two key steps to take in allowing yourself to receive more:

First, give yourself permission to want more of everything that you would like to have, and deliberately let go of any limiting beliefs that were imparted to you by others. Remind yourself often that just because certain other people may believe that it’s wrong to want more, you personally do not need to be bound by those rules. Instead, start asking yourself, “If I could truly have whatever I wanted, what would it be?” Allow yourself to dream and imagine the way your life could be if there were no limits.

Next, begin rethinking your perception of what it means to be deserving. Remind yourself daily that your worthiness is not dependent on anything you do or achieve, and it has nothing to do with your financial status, your social status, what you do for a living, or where in the world you live.

Your worthiness is based purely on your own beliefs about yourself. If you believe that it’s wrong to want more or receive more, or that you don’t deserve to have anything more than you do right now, your feelings of guilt and unworthiness will keep you stuck at your current level of abundance. On the other hand, if you can start convincing yourself that you are already good, already worthy and deserving of everything good you want, those good things will be drawn to you.

Say daily, “I am a good person. I deserve to be happy. I give myself permission to receive everything that contributes to my happiness.” It may take a little time, but eventually you will begin to really believe it.

Have you ever wanted to start a healthy habit? Start going to the gym, be more productive, eat healthier, read more, etc?

If you are here reading this, chances are you are into self-improvement. You want to become a better version of yourself so that you can create a better life for yourself.

Most of us have the same desire. We all want to be “better”. But, even after trying repeatedly, it feels like we don’t make the progress we were hoping to make. No matter how much we read about it, somehow, we can’t seem to improve our lives.

If you are frustrated with trying and failing and you feel like you are kept away from some secret potion that “successful people” have access to, I get it.

In fact, you’re right. There is an ingredient that separates us from “the successful” people. But it’s not very secret nor is it magical. It’s the simple concept of discipline.

When you become disciplined, you give yourself the power to be able to do all the things you plan to do. Growth always lies outside your comfort zone. That is why working towards your dreams is always difficult; it is new, uncharted territory. The only way to get out of your comfort zone and do something difficult is with discipline. When you have discipline, the goals you set suddenly become achievable. The dreams and wishes become reality.

How Do You Build Discipline?

Define Your Goal & Your Motivation

The first step to building discipline is to set a clear goal and intention. What do you want to be disciplined about? What is your goal? What are the daily steps you need to take?

Then you need to ask yourself what the motivation behind your goal is. Why is it important to you? What will it give you? Write this down and keep it somewhere handy, because this is what will motivate you to keep going when it gets difficult to be disciplined!

Identify & Remove Temptations

Now that you have your goal, think about what obstacles or temptations come your way?

For example, if you want to eat healthier, consider your pantry. Are there unhealthy snacks stashed away there that tempt you? Get rid of them!

Perhaps you struggle to find time in your daily schedule to cook a meal, so you end up ordering out. In that case, you might work around this obstacle of lack of time, and meal prep on the weekends.

Whatever your goal is, it is important to acknowledge and work around temptations and obstacles that might make it more challenging for you to be disciplined.

Discipline or Nothing

One extremely useful hack to being disciplined is to decide that you either stay disciplined or do nothing.

Set an intention to be disciplined and work on X (whether that is reading, meditating, or exercising, or whatever else your goal is) for the next ten minutes. If you get an urge to check your phone or do something else, remind yourself you either work on X or do nothing.

All of a sudden, it is a lot less tempting to not do X.

This helps you not only get to work and stay disciplined, but it also helps you notice your urges and be more intentional about how you deal with them.

Practice Being Disciplined

Discipline requires you to be slightly uncomfortable. It’s not fun or easy to be disciplined.

So, how can you get better at being disciplined? By practicing! Every time you do something slightly uncomfortable, you get better at being uncomfortable. This helps you be more disciplined.

So take a look at your seemingly unimportant decisions. It can be something as simple as getting up to drink a glass of water when you are comfortable on the couch. Do you procrastinate on that, or do you push yourself into the discomfort of getting up?

Every time you do something slightly uncomfortable you are training yourself to be more disciplined.

Remember, the difference between who you are and who you want to be is what you do. And self-discipline is one of the most important life skills to develop. Whether you want to build healthier habits, be more productive, achieve financial goals, improve your mental health, or create a more intentional life, choosing the path of self-discipline will help get you there.

Everyone worries from time to time. We worry about paying the bills, losing people we love, having arguments with friends, etc. However, worrying will never change the outcome. This means that pondering and ruminating over a particular situation will not have any influence over what happens in the end.

To explore the meaning of this quote further, we will define anxiety, analyze why people worry, and identify four ways you can deal with excess worry.

What Is Anxiety?

Anxiety is how your body naturally responds to perceived threats. Anxiety consists of three parts:

Emotional

The emotional component of anxiety refers to how you feel in response to a threat. The most common feelings associated with anxiety are fear and dread.

Physiological

The physiological component of anxiety is how you physically feel in response to a threat. Common bodily reactions to anxiety include feeling sick to your stomach, sweating, and increased heart rate.

Cognitive

The cognitive component of anxiety is the thoughts you have in response to a threat. These thoughts or worries can include “I’m not good enough,” or “I’ll never be able to do that.”

Why Do People Worry?

People worry for a variety of different reasons. Most people know that excessive worry is not good for them, but they also believe myths regarding the benefits of worry. 

Myth #1: Worry Is Good Because It Prepares You for Emotional Impact.

While research has shown that worrying before an event can reduce the chances of having an intense burst of emotion, not controlling your worry can lead to more severe negative outcomes. Consequences of excessive worry include relationship problems, inability to relax, decreased work or school performance, and damage to your physical health.

Myth #2: Worry Is an Effective Way to Solve Problems.

Many believe worrying before an event gives them more time to come up with better solutions. However, research has shown that those who worried more before an event came up with less effective solutions than those who only engaged with the event in the moment. In addition, the people who worried did not experience relief after solving the problem.

How to Stop Worrying

If you experience excessive worry, there are several ways you can decrease your worrying.

Speak Your Fears Out Loud

The first method is to speak your fears or worries out loud. When you speak your fears out loud, it is easier for you to see that your worry is not doing anything to change the outcome of the situation. It can also help you recognize and eliminate irrational or unfounded beliefs.

Practice Mindfulness Meditation

Mindfulness meditation is a fantastic option for dealing with excessive worry. Meditation allows you to focus your attention on observing the present moment rather than thinking about what the future holds.

Practice Gratitude

Practicing gratitude, like meditation, helps you live more in the present. When you spend more time thinking about what is good in your life right now, you’ll have less mental space to fill with worry.

Let Go of What You Can’t Control

Most of our worry comes from thinking about things that are out of our control, but we can’t change what we can’t control. Rather than try to control something that is uncontrollable, try focusing on what you actually have the power to change. Working toward your goals can be a positive distraction from worry.

Remember, learning to control your worry and live in the present will ultimately lead to a more positive outcome in the end.

Painful experiences from the past can continue to haunt you when you don’t get to fully process your thoughts and feelings about them. Like many people, you might try to avoid your negative feelings for as long as possible, simply because they’re uncomfortable. You might find yourself keeping busy and creating distractions so you don’t have to feel the sadness, anger, and hurt. But until you face those feelings and internalize the lessons from the past, the hurt will linger, casting a shadow over your happiness.

You can probably recall experiences from your past that still make you wince when you think about them. You probably even try to avoid thinking about them just because they reawaken all of those old, painful feelings again. However, when it comes to emotional pain, the way out is through. Moving through the pain and being fully present with it rather than trying to resist it or run away from it allows you to come out on the other side feeling light and peaceful.

Only then are you able to grasp the wisdom that these experiences hold for you. Every challenge that you have faced during your lifetime gave you a special gift, insight, or lesson. These lessons can be simple or profoundly life changing. Perhaps you fully realized the importance of trusting your intuition, or you stopped taking each day for granted, or you learned something valuable about yourself through the experience.

Consciously recognizing these insights can help you to better process painful memories and see the blessings they contain, rather than focusing only on the hurt they cause you.

One good way to be more proactive in releasing the pain from your past is by keeping a feelings journal. Write about your past experiences that still cause you pain when you think about them today. Allow yourself to feel whatever feelings that come up as you revisit these memories, and then begin stating your intention to release them, one by one. Say, “I choose to let go of this sadness in my heart. It’s safe to release the pain from the past.” Then pause and imagine the feeling fading away.

You may find that some feelings will release immediately, while others might take a little more time. Be patient and gentle with yourself as you move through the process of validating, expressing, and releasing old hurts.

This same gentle approach can also help you navigate any current challenges you may be facing. Acknowledge and validate your feelings about the situation. Let it be okay to feel whatever you are feeling. Embrace the feelings by naming them. “I feel scared, and it’s okay to feel scared.” By accepting your feelings instead of trying to push them away, they will usually soften in intensity.

Finally, no matter how stressful or scary your current circumstances may be, even if it seems as if a dark cloud is hanging over your head, do your best to look for the silver lining. Ask yourself, “What are the hidden blessings in this situation? How is this experience helping me? What good might come from this challenge?”

By looking for the blessings, you shine a light of hope on your troubles and empower yourself with the belief that something good can come from the situation.

Humans are competitive creatures, and we are always striving to do better and be better. This is a wonderful thing most of the time because that competitive nature is the driving force behind ingenuity and innovation. Competition usually involves a measure of comparison, measuring ourselves and our capabilities against those of other people. In some cases, this can be a positive thing because it encourages us to push ourselves to excel.

However, comparison and competition can easily devolve into a destructive pattern as we try to push others down in order to pull ourselves up to the next level. We begin balancing our self-worth on a precarious fulcrum, feeling good about ourselves when we seem to have the upper hand, or feeling badly about ourselves when others seem to be superior in some way.

If you too struggle with comparing yourself to others and find yourself lacking much of the time, or if you can only feel good about yourself when you seem to be superior to others in some way, you may find it helpful to turn your competitive focus inward instead.

Think back across your life to the person you were five years ago, ten years ago, or more. How much stronger, wiser, more skilled, and more successful have you become since then? Now think ahead to the next five or ten years, and consider how much more successful you would like to become, compared to where you are now. Consider what would need to change in order for you to reach the level of success you desire, and make that your goal.

Do you need to be more focused, dedicated, disciplined, or courageous? Do you need to develop better communication skills? Do you need to believe in yourself more? Every day, assess your current skills and abilities, and strive to build on them and to do better and be better in all of your endeavors.

This also goes beyond your performance in sports, business, or academics. True success is not dependent on mere monetary gain or status, and it’s not limited to your activities. Success is much more about the person you are and the way you show up in the world. It’s about being the best you can be, while also helping others to be the best they can be. It’s about developing your character and integrity and using your success and affluence to improve the world around you.

If you will make it your sole mission to keep getting better than you were yesterday, in all things, you should find that you start caring less about competing against others. You may even find yourself cheering them on and feeling glad about their success, just because you are no longer seeing their success as a signal that your own is lacking.

Remember, the only person you should ever compete with is who you were yesterday. And as the old saying goes, what goes around, comes around. When you strive to do good things, more goodness will be drawn back to you, creating a win-win for everyone involved.

It doesn’t feel good to be criticized or belittled by others, and it’s easy sometimes to take their harsh words to heart. You may think to yourself, “Maybe they’re right. Maybe I’m doing everything wrong. Maybe I’m not talented enough, strong enough, or good enough.” You may even believe them so completely that you will give up on an important goal or sink into a state of despair and hopelessness.

Criticism can either be constructive or destructive. It can help you to improve your skills and talents, or it can dissolve what little confidence you had. The difference will depend on how strongly you already believe in yourself. If your confidence and self-esteem are low, you will be much more likely to believe someone when they criticize, insult, or complain about you.

On the other hand, if you already have a solid belief in yourself and your capabilities, you can view criticism objectively. You can ask yourself, “Are they right? Is there any truth in what they are saying?”

Rather than taking the negative comments at face value, you will be able to extract any useful bits of information and discard the rest. You will also be able to see clearly that sometimes people criticize because they are trying to be helpful, but other times they use their words in an attempt to control, or they simply have a habit of complaining about everyone and everything around them.

Consider right now how strongly you believe in yourself. Are you generally confident in your own capabilities? Do you feel a sense of healthy love and respect for yourself? When someone judges you harshly, are you able to see that it often reveals much more about them than it does about you?

Your answers to these questions will let you know if your self-esteem and confidence could use a boost. Building up your confidence and learning how to love and respect yourself in a healthy way can be done fairly quickly and easily.

The first step is to praise and encourage yourself for everything you have achieved so far. Think about your past experiences, and recall any challenges that you overcame, or goals you achieved. Recognize that you could not have done that if you didn’t have the inner strength, tenacity, and skill to push through those challenges. Keep building up your confidence by saying frequently, “I am strong. I believe in myself. I can handle any challenge that comes my way. I can achieve anything if I want it badly enough.”

The second important step is to practice loving and respecting yourself each and every day. Say often, “I completely love and accept myself exactly as I am, and I am getting better and better every day.” Acknowledge that you are not perfect, and that you do not need to be perfect in order to be lovable. Remind yourself that you can love and accept yourself right now, while also striving to improve your skills and knowledge in all areas of your life.

Within a short period of time, you should notice that you no longer feel deflated by other people’s opinions. You will be able to consider and use constructive criticism to improve where necessary, but you will no longer be basing your self-worth on the validation of other people. Instead, you will have developed a solid inner core of self-love, strength, and confidence that cannot be shaken by outer influences.