It is better to be prepared for an opportunity and not have one than to have an opportunity and not be prepared.” – Whitney M Young

Obtaining success is often a perfect marriage of timing, opportunity and preparedness. I believe that an opportunity will only present itself once and should it return it won’t ever be in the same form in which it was originally presented. For that reason, it is imperative that one plan their work, and work their plan. If not, one will quickly discover that the old adage is true: if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Life is about seizing and maximizing opportunities and it is difficult to accomplish this if we are not prepared to receive those opportunities. There’s a certain walk of confidence that one carries when they have prepared, they are ready to seize the moment.

Whitney M Young’s quote illustrates the importance of operating in a spirit of expectation. When one operates in a spirit of expectation you are compelled to make preparations for that which you are expecting. When a mother is expecting a child, she does not just sit at home and wait for the child’s due date. From the moment she finds out she is pregnant, she begins taking vitamins, visiting the doctor, and taking extra special care of herself in general. She begins to purchase items for the baby and prepares the room so she is ready to receive and nurture her new bundle of joy. Similarly, with life we are pregnant with vision, we must begin to prepare our lives for opportunity . In the words of Forrest Gump, “Life is like a box of chocolate, you never know what you’re going to get”. But the least one can do is expect to get a “box of chocolate”, though you may not know when and where, expect that opportunities will come your way.