There’s a familiar saying that goes “opportunity knocks.” Sometimes he lightly taps at the door, barely loud enough to be heard, and sometimes he pounds so hard that it seems as though he’s going to break right through it. Other times he simply opens the door for you, but now and then he comes like the axe-wielding Jack Nicholson in The Shining.
The strange thing about opportunity is that he often comes in disguise. What can seemingly appear to be a hopeless, tragic situation might just be the thing that changes the course of our lives and puts us on an otherwise unconsidered path. So many of us spend too much time locked up in our little rooms with blinds drawn that we forget the fact there could so much more just beyond that door. We get comfortable and we get stuck. And then something happens.
You lose your job. A relationship ends. Something comes along and turns everything on its head. The situation can seem hopeless and grim. But if viewed in the right way, it can also be an impetus for change. It’s the opportunity to embrace opportunity. Sure, these unexpected changes can be difficult and are often times painful—uncertainty and fear of what lies ahead can be exhausting. To all appearances, the hallway that connects our tiny, stifling, familiar room to the room in which we can stretch out and comfortably grow can seem dark and lengthy. But once we’ve arrived at the end and are able to look back upon where it was from which we came, we recognize and appreciate just how small our room actually was.
Winston Churchill once said, “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”
So take heart. If you receive an unexpected knock, open the door with confidence and hopefulness, aware of the opportunity that lies ahead. The walk toward it may seem dark, and the ground could get bumpy at times, but embrace your circumstances as an opportunity to purposefully pursue a room with a view.
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