Life is a whirlwind of opportunities. We enter into these "events" oftentimes not exactly knowing how we got to that point, or where it will lead us. As we look back to the original circumstances which led us to a specific place in our lives whether that is a relationship, marriage, college, a career or a friendship we can only be thankful for those unknown opportunities. A society that has become so fast-paced, even email appears slow to some of us, we no longer are able to value the virtue of patience and long, hard-working struggles. We are only take an idea, develop it, plan and expect it to become a success over-night, but in reality this is farther from the truth and I myself have unfortunately also become drawn into this backwards way of thinking at times. While brainstorming the other day about a few of our business ventures, I began to think about my floral design company and how only after 5 years have I been able to venture out to more clientele, my company's name is finally making a brand for itself and I feel I have hit a point of success. The funny thing about this company is that I never dreamed it would "take-off" overnight, I always had a realistic view that it was hard to break into any industry when you have no connections or backing, but I did it and have enjoyed the hard-work.
It is interesting however, that I am unable to take this philosophy or way of thinking into my other business ventures or aspects of life. I strive for personal success, but at times I don't feel it is moving fast enough. It is then that I must take a step back and re-examine myself and my motives. Am I becoming like the rest of society, or the rest of my generation, not wanting to wait? Truly, I am an impatient person which pretty much everyone can see from my choleric, A-Type personality, but that is no excuse for my constant drive to never let myself rest or to never accept the current position I am in. This past year has definitely been eye-opening for me as I have learned several of these lessons and work everyday to foster a bit more patience in my soul! As hard as that may be, I also don't expect this virtue to appear overnight or at an unrealistic rapid pace. This is just like everything else, it takes hard-work and time to develop, but believe me, it took me a long time to discover this within myself. The most important thing is that I have had to learn to be easier on myself. When I am too hard on myself and don't believe I am living up to my expectations or the expectations of those around me, I then become unsatisfied. This truly a fault of my own.
So, the lesson to be learned is to live life with a hard-working purpose, but to start with the
ground floor opportunities. Because even though we never know their worth or the outcome of such circumstances, they are more beneficial in our lives than all the goals we set for ourselves but never accomplish. Or we become frustrated because they are not accomplished in the way we imagined. The funny thing is that when these goals are cultivated, in the way of divine providence, rather than to our own plan, it is actually more successful than we could have ever imagined. On the contrary, when we push something too hard and it is not the right timing, the sky falls, we feel like failures and we are forced to wait a bit longer for another
ground floor opportunity.
Here are a few of the
ground floor opportunities in our lives whether individual or as business partners:
