You know that task you need to start, that person you should be contacting, that blog you need to finish? What about that opportunity you missed? Yes? I know them too. This isn’t a blog about how to stop procrastinating; there are already a ton of those, from getting your morning routine set up, to eating the frog (Brian Tracy) or the 5-second rule (Mel Robbins).
This is about missed opportunities, when you sit back and think, “oh! Why did I wait so long?” And now the moment has passed you by. We all do it, what I’m wondering is not why, but how we deal with it.
I realised that I had missed a wonderful opportunity when a women, whom I had so much respect and admiration for, passed away recently. She was going to be my mentor; only I had never actually got around to asking her. She would have been perfect too. She was strong and fierce. She was like my Mum and my friend, my boss and my peer all at the same time. After we left the UK and my business was getting more challenging to run without the close proximity of business connections, I decided I needed someone, who not just someone who knew me, but someone would challenge me enough. That was over 8 years ago, and I just never got around to asking her.
Since hearing the news, I began to think, “Why did I wait so long?” I don’t pretend to feel the same level of pain her family and close friends are feeling right now, she has left a huge hole in so many lives, but there is a great sadness that I feel for them, and all of us who knew her, and the emotion of regret, for me. She would have been a perfect mentor.
But I don’t like to live with regret, and to be honest; I think she would be bitterly disappointed if I let myself fall into that now. So what do I do? How do I move on without that feeling, what do I replace it with?
Gratitude maybe?
I’m in a great place right now, making new connections almost every week, being asked to join committees, be part of events, and have some fantastic support groups around me. My question to myself is; am I making the most of all these opportunities? Am I going to look back and think, “Why did I wait so long? Again.
I’m sure going to try hard not to, but it’s an ongoing work in practice. I will just have to imagine what my mentor (if I had got round to asking) would have said.
“Viki, what are you waiting for? Life’s short, get on with it.”
Written by Viki Johnston, a Brit, who recently moved to Southern California with her family, is a self-confessed learning junkie. Having flunked out of school at 16, she spent the next 30 (cough) years trying to figure out why learning stuff is so hard. She made it her mission to help others believe in their abilities and achieve more than they thought possible. Now through her coaching and business focused training she helps others to experience the “light bulb moment” and strive to greatness.
Her heroes are Sir Richard Branson and Brené Brown for their inspiration, and her Husband, whom without she would never have been able to live a life full of her own “light bulb moments”.