Free Advice

I have been studying and pondering a lot lately about opportunities and successes.  Here are some little pieces of advice that I have come up with and will share with you, my faithful readers.  This is free, and could possibly save you hundreds of dollars in therapy.  But as a disclaimer: I am not a necessarily wise person myself, I just listen to what God prompts me to say and do (most of the time).  This is not inteded to diagnose or treat any condition that you may or may not have.

Now, onto the morsels of truth I have found:

1.  Opportunities are there, as is the chance for success.

2.  Keep your heart and mind open, because sometimes the opportunities are outside what you are focusing on.

3.  Just because something may look like a great opportunity, doesn't mean that it's the opportunity for you.  Sit on it a bit and something else might pop up that's obviously a better choice, and something might not.  But don't rush into the first decent thing that comes along.

4.  Sometimes you won't succeed.  No matter how much heart, time, and thought went into your venture, it wasn't meant to be.  God is the conductor and he knows that failures are a part of our growth.  As a botanist, I know that it is scientific fact that if a plant is not growing, it is dying.  It is technically "alive" but heading towards it's death.  This happens with our spirits too.  Successes and failures are part of the growth process, and unfortunately for us, failures are often a better tool for growth than success.  

5.  Sometimes when it seems that there's no way to make it work out, you just need to step back, take a deep breath and take a break for a while.  Then come back, look at it all again with fresh eyes.  Or bring in someone else to look at it.  Find someone who has similar goals to your own, though.  That's a whole other truth-set.

6.  Keep in mind that it is a small part of this larger thing called life.  One opportunity, success, or failure is just a small piece that makes up this puzzle of life and does not have to define or summarize the whole thing, unless you let it.  

Where did I get these amazing truths that are going to save you hours and thousands of dollars in therapy (again, read the disclaimer)?  I have found that God speaks most clearly to me in the simplest things in life.