Oops, Opportunity Just Passed You By

I got off the plane and saw this quote on a billboard at the airport:

“Opportunity doesn’t always arrive gift wrapped.”

How true this statement is. And true on so many levels.

So often we can feel like we are standing still, marching time, treading water just waiting for some ‘amazing’ opportunity to fall at our feet. We’re looking for that new role; we’re hoping to meet that special person; we’re crossing our fingers that our difficult class will finally go well… It makes me wonder how many times we’ve missed an opportunity because it didn’t look like the preconceived idea we had in our minds.

In education, we are constantly presented with new opportunities to grow, develop and mature as effective practitioners. We ALWAYS have opportunities to reflect on our practice, learn from our mistakes, glean wisdom from others, and try new things. Teachers who embrace these opportunities experience greater satisfaction and enjoyment along their teaching journey. They understand that opportunity doesn’t always arrive gift wrapped.

This week’s assignment:

Here’s 6 great questions you can ask yourself this week:

1) Do I expect new opportunities to come my way?
2) Am I able to recognize opportunity or do my preconceived ideas prevent me from seeing it?
3) How ‘open’ am I to opportunity looking a bit different to what I’m expecting?
4) What level of confidence do I have to embrace opportunity when it arrives?
5) How well have I embraced previous opportunities? Have I effectively followed through?
6) In what ways do I need to grow in order to more effectively recognize, accept and act upon new opportunities?

Enjoy the journey,

And more importantly,

Enjoy the moments.

🙂

Megan

P.S. Are you in the middle of writing student reports? A few weeks ago I shared 10 Quick Tips For Effective Student Report Writing. You can read more here.