Finding New Opportunities (When You’re Not Sure Where to Turn)
So, maybe you’ve tried starting up your own business and it was a flop. Or you’ve become jaded with your day job and your entire career path.
Maybe some hobby or side hustle that you were working on lost its allure, or you’ve fallen out with friends who you used to see all the time.
In life, there are many different things that can cause us to feel at a loss for where to turn next — and it is, in many cases, all too easy to end up feeling as though the doors of opportunity are closed to us.
But it’s a big world out there, and there are all sorts of innovations taking place in different industries — things that make questions such as how to get a Bitcoin loan relevant.
Ultimately, there are always new opportunities to be found. It’s just a matter of putting yourself in the right context, and on the right wavelength, to find them when you’re not sure where to turn next.
Here are some suggestions for finding new opportunities when you’re not sure where to turn.
Do something new, even if it doesn’t seem very lucrative up front
Perhaps the first and most important thing to do when you’re looking for new opportunities but aren’t sure where to turn, is to do something new — almost irrespective of what it is — even if it doesn’t seem very lucrative up front.
The issue with repeating the same actions over and over again is that they almost invariably return the same results, over and over again. This means that you’ll rarely come across new opportunities and possibilities this way, and are likely to find yourself feeling trapped — as though you’re running on a hamster wheel.
By breaking out of the familiar mould, you open yourself to new experiences and insights, and you begin uncovering areas of expertise — and parts of the world in general — that you haven’t yet explored.
And this is where new opportunities lie.
In a business context, doing something “new” might mean undergoing training in a particular domain you hadn’t previously considered, or it could mean starting up a side business at home.
Either way, it’s important to do something new. Preferably a lot of things.
Spend some time getting in touch with the goals you’d set for yourself if you knew you couldn’t fail
A great goal setting exercise that has been advocated by many motivational speakers and success coaches over the years, is to spend some time thinking of the goals you would set for yourself if you knew you couldn’t fail.
The next step is, in many cases, to then actually go after those goals.
A key part of the point of this exercise is that we all have a tendency to under-sell ourselves, and to limit our own possibilities and opportunities, due to our (very often limited) sense of what we can really achieve.
By setting yourself big goals, and getting in touch with your ideal preferences, you naturally begin to re-open your awareness to possibilities that you might have been outright discounting until this point in time.
Challenge, question and pick apart your limiting beliefs
As the previous point alludes to, limiting beliefs can massively limit the opportunities that you perceive and pursue on a daily basis.
Not only can limiting beliefs cause you to disregard or write off various opportunities outright, but they can also prevent you from doing the kinds of things in life that are likely to reveal new opportunities to you.
There are various cognitive exercises that have been developed in order to help individuals to challenge, question and pick apart their limiting beliefs — such as the “ABCD” method created by Martin Seligman and outlined in his book “Learned Optimism.”
Any time you’re looking to discover new opportunities — or just to improve your overall level of wellbeing — challenging your limiting beliefs is very important.
Develop “keystone habits” that get you out of the house and in contact with other people
A “keystone habit” is a habit that causes dramatic change in and of itself — and often has a “cascade effect” of promoting other beneficial habits, too.
Some of the most potentially beneficial keystone habits are those that regularly get you out of the house and in contact with other people, not only because social interaction is essential for wellbeing, but also because new opportunities are often best discovered through other people.
Join hobby groups, sign up for classes, go to public exhibitions, and just meet and talk to other people regularly.