Take a close look at these two photos. I took them only two weeks apart from the same spot.
Just two weeks was the difference between a beautiful view and dried out weeds.
These flowers bloom only once a year. Depending on the weather, they only stick around maybe two or three weeks before fading away.
This year, my wife and I wanted to take some pictures with kids using these flowers as a background. The problem was we were very busy this particular weekend. The kids hadn’t been exactly on their best behavior and one of us was sick.
Do It Anyway
But, we trudged out there with the kids anyway…
After bribing, pleading and begging the kids to smile at the same time and actually look at the camera and stop making faces, we got our portrait shots.
Just days later, here in California, we had an unusual heat wave. It was in the mid 90’s in March. That’s crazy hot for late winter.
The flowers only lasted a week this year. Had we waited for a better time, the opportunity to get those photos while the kids were still this young would have been lost.
Here’s the point…
The opportunities life gives us are fleeting. We seize them, or they are lost. Perhaps other opportunities come about, perhaps not.
So ask yourself, what opportunities are within your grasp — right now — that you are putting off?
Is there a business opportunity you should be pursuing …a lead or relationship you should be reaching out to …is there a person you should be asking on a date …or asking to marry you? …is there an opportunity for better work or a better place to live?
Here’s the truth…
It won’t be there forever.
It will dry and shrivel and wilt and fade away. Sooner than you may think.
Let it slip away and you will be left only with the memory of what could have been.
I’ve got some of those memories. They don’t feel good.
Think back on your life. Think about the times you had a beautiful field of opportunity in front of you. One that was yours for the taking. Then, because of busyness or procrastination or obstacles of some sort, or distraction, or the belief the opportunity would still be there later — it slipped from your hands — forever.
Don’t let that happen again.
I Dare You
I dare you, as someone who has let a few fleeting moments slip away in my own life, to grab the opportunity before you.
It won’t be there forever.
