"O" is for ...

If you’re like me, you spent many years making New Year’s resolutions throughout your life. The list of everything I was going to do differently when the stroke of midnight on a new year began; diet, exercise, work habits. You name it – I vowed It.

Many nonprofit executives work their hardest, longest hours just before the end of the year, working with donors to help them accomplish their philanthropic goals. It can be exhausting, ending the first quarter of a fiscal year with direct mail deadlines, meetings with major gift donors and board members, writing holiday note cards, on top of attending numerous year-end events.

All to start over again in January, with a renewed sense of purpose and dedication to the mission. It’s a lot. The thing is, “renewed” means it was there before.

But “new” means something that never existed previously or is discovered for the first time. One way to experience something you never experienced before is to seize opportunities. Opportunity is one of my favorite words. For me it conjures a vision of a silver platter with “new” written all over it.

Miriam Webster dictionary defines it as such:

op·por·tu·ni·ty
/ˌäpərˈt(y)o͞onədē/
noun
a set of circumstances that makes it possible to do something.

"we may see increased opportunities for export"
a chance for employment or promotion
"career opportunities in our New York headquarters"

Yes, I’m driving at the obvious – no matter what your 2019 resolutions were, remember– “renew” is what you need to do when you haven’t finished your book from the library by the due date, or when you recommit to your marriage vows, but ‘new” has never been seen or done before and it is exactly that which provides the set of circumstances that makes something possible....opportunity.

Take risks, follow your heart, make a difference and resolve to do something new and seize opportunities when presented. You don’t have to wait for a new year...opportunity is always there – you just have to look and be open to the possibilities.

"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty." – Winston Churchill

Happy 2020…