When Opportunities Knock

William “Bud” Hart, of Haverhill, shares “Success Principles”—ideas for living a greater, better and more accomplished life, and building habits that stick. He also coaches clients to incorporate strategies for boosting their mental and physical performance during everyday living.

William “Bud” Hart, of Haverhill, shares “Success Principles”—ideas for living a greater, better and more accomplished life, and building habits that stick. He also coaches clients to incorporate strategies for boosting their mental and physical performance during everyday living.

Sometimes we know our purpose and we look for opportunities that we believe will provide a pathway to create what we want. Other times we simply rely upon our intuition and take advantage of opportunities that avail themselves to us. Where these occasions will ultimately lead us is uncertain (and hopefully developing). In either case words of Abraham Lincoln are something to keep in mind, “I will prepare and some day my chance will come.”

I believe opportunities present themselves to all of us on a daily basis. How we prepare and what we do with them is up to us. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines opportunity as, a favorable juncture of circumstances, as well as a good chance for advancement or progress. Looking back at my life I would add that opportunities often arrive unexpectedly, in different shapes and sizes, with uncertain outcomes and sometimes they initially seem bad. They also generally require some commitment of resources and involve some risk. But most importantly they always come to us because we create them for ourselves.

Sitting here thinking about opportunities I can tell you it was intuition not purpose, well over a year ago, that led me to train and become certified as a coach professional by the International Coach Federation. I have learned a great deal about coaching since, through study, as well as coaching others and being coached by some very good coaches. The biggest thing I have come to realize so far is one of the best ways to get people to understand the value of coaching is not to talk about what I think coaching does, but rather to talk about my story and write and tell stories of transformation and success that coaching can deliver.

I started to see this at breakfast one morning, early on in training, when my wife asked, “So who will you coach?” I answered, but I could tell she didn’t get coaching. She could not image why I would spend money and time preparing for a line of work that few people (aside from me) seem to understand or want. Although I get excited about everything I learn that adds to my own continuing personal growth I had to agree, there are few (if any) people who actually want coaching. And this makes the idea of having a coaching business a challenging proposition.

In my opinion most athletes, musicians, singers, business professionals and others that have coaches do not want coaching. They don’t want systems, processes, techniques or accountability. What they do want is to make the most of their God given talents and gifts. They want to stay on target and focused in pursuit of goals they want and need to achieve. They want to stay motivated, positive and able to see and reach their enormous possibility and potential in every action and interaction, in every moment. They want to be their best. In essence they want what we all want, to win. And I believe success stories convey this so well.

The reason the best and greatest performers in sports, business, music and other professions work with coaches is simple. Having someone qualified, with knowledge and a vested interest in mutual (client and coach) success makes it easier to stay focused and continue to prepare every day to achieve the hoped for and expected purpose; even when the finish line we hope for is not yet clearly defined and in sight (as with my coaching future).

For Abraham Lincoln great opportunities did come; in his own words through his willingness to prepare and his belief that possibilities present themselves on a daily basis. Opportunities are knocking for all of us. If we want great results, like Lincoln we need to be prepared, ready and willing to open the door when they do.

William “Bud” Hart is a certified “Mindset” Coach, Accountability Partner and Business Consultant. Visit Hart Group, www.hartgroupma.com for more on coaching.