Opportunity Favors the Prepared Mind, part two
Entrepreneurship & Work
A lot of the time, the most powerful ideas come only IN and FOR a short moment. Opportunity and meaning are not about what you think other people want from you. True opportunity is ever-born and cannot be anticipated. The previous post was all about more clarity on WHAT exactly to tune. As a next step, lets' look into the second part, the right type of preparation.
"OPPORTUNITY FAVORS THE PREPARED MIND" hints that:
a) a thing called "mind" is to be tuned
b) it involves a process of preparation
The second-largest mistake is made when we don't discern between the mental preparation and awareness guided preparation. Mental preparation is summed up by collecting different data into memory: reading books, talking to friends, spying on competitors, surfing the internet, remembering best practices of your role models, etc. The right kind of preparation for new opportunities, creativity, and innovation involves learning to tolerate and even embrace the unknown. This means giving a break to the safety that memory usually offers. This means to let the answer/attitude that presents itself (from memory) to pass by without attachment or drama. For a moment, you become a blank paper. This is what Steve Jobs meant by "Stay hungry, stay foolish". It's not that the mental process is not necessary, just the preparation shouldn't by far consist only of that. The two principles (a and b) collide with your education and experience. Although the opportunity noticed is partly based on previous knowledge, the realization only becomes available when you have the courage to deliberately abandon this same knowledge for a while.
The practice: Start with mental silence or at the very least, leave the thinking process to the background. While being totally immersed in mapping the actual people, surroundings, circumstance, really listening, really seeing, withhold comment, going through memories or imagination. Repeat the process many times, becoming comfortable with being a "blank paper", merely an observer.
There is no creative thinking. There is either thinking or creativity, for the first means to operate on the basis of memory (the known) and the other takes place in the zone of the unknown.
I do hope that with the help of these practices when inspiration does strike and open a new door, you give yourself permission to change those careful plans. Businesses are often struggling. The environmental crisis is here. Healthcare, as it is, is unsustainable. With the emergence of AI, humanity faces yet another crisis - an identity crisis. To help achieve different outcomes than we have at the moment, the world desperately needs people willing to ask different questions and challenge the status quo. The world needs YOU.
Among other topics, I will explore this more in my upcoming workshop on awareness & intrapersonal skills here in Tallinn, November 10, 2016. Join me (amount of participants is very limited)! Just in case you miss the event – do not worry several of my mental fitness trainings will soon be available in the format of intrapersonal skills e-learning.
Prepare, and turn the odds into your favor!
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