7. Seize Opportunities

Opportunities always arise for everyone, but are you taking advantage of them? In order to be successful, you must be aware of the potential opportunities bring. Once you are fully aware you must run with that opportunity and never look back. Some of these opportunities you come across can change your life, but this can often drive fear. Many of us don’t crave change, so we tend to fear it. But stepping outside of your comfort zone can call for exponential growth.

Now how have I seized a recent opportunity in my life? In May, I heard through the vines that someone in the Financial firm I do IT for was a motivational speaker. I met with him one day because I had to audit his computer. I had asked him if he had any tips for me to help me with public speaking. We talked for about an hour, I wrote down about 2 pages of notes and we exchanged contact info. He texted me later that evening inviting to a studio where he records his podcast, Life’s Tough, You can be tougher. In this podcast, Host Dustin Plantholt and guests share their real and vulnerable life stories of overcoming unique challenges and struggles to inspire and motivate each other towards personal fortitude, healing, growth and empowerment. You can check out his website here (https://www.lifestough.com/)

Podcasting was all very new to me, I continued to watch him record over the next several weeks and took notes. I asked him if I could be apart of his team, he immediately said yes! I told him that I would help build Life’s Tough in anyway that I could. I originally started out as an intern but things quickly picked up when an idea came across Dustin’s brilliant mind. He wanted to make Life’s Tough a platform for people to create their own Life’s Tough podcast. I love everything that it stood for, plus I always wanted to be apart of a team that has the same goals and aspirations I do.

I know that physical, mental, and emotional health issues are topics that aren’t widely discussed about. So I came up with the idea of starting my own podcast, “Life’s Tough, Athletes are Tougher”. I wanted my podcast to be a platform for athletes to share their trials and tribulations through sports. I currently know or have played against 8 people in the NFL and 3 people in the NBA. I thought this would be a great opportunity for people to learn more about some of the struggles us athletes go through.

I’m hoping to start my podcast during the New Year and to be honest I don’t think that I’ve ever had this much fear. But recently, I’ve started to embrace fear. When I’m faced with fear, I know that it makes me uncomfortable. And whenever I am uncomfortable, growth happens. So I challenge you, next time you see an opportunity that makes you uncomfortable, go with it and see where it takes you. The possibilities are endless.