by Lori Deschene

“If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.” -Milton Berle

The people who are the most successful in life are the ones who create their own opportunities. Since I’m a work-from-home freelance writer who prefers beadworking to networking, I have to be ultra creative.

I’ve identified 7 simple ways to find opportunities in everyday situations. Here’s what I got:

1. Wear Your Resume While Running Errands

Last year I read an article about a woman named Kelly Kinney who printed her resume on a T-shirt. What a brilliant idea! I always notice words on shirts; I’ve even been known to ask strangers to hold still so I can get a better look (far less awkward when the wearer is a man.)

The Design Town offers a nice line of resume shirts, opportunistically priced at $90 each. If your money tree hasn’t sprouted leaves yet, like mine, you may prefer going through resumeshirts.com. 

2. Build Relationships in Starbucks

A lot of people use waiting-in-line time to play with their cell phones and stare intently at their shoes. You could make it a whole lot more productive by noticing the people around you. If they also frequent that shop, they’re likely your neighbors.

Pay attention to them—whether they seem agitated or happy, what they’re reading—and start a conversation. Nothing about your work or theirs; just open yourself up to a new person. When there’s no time left hand over your business card and say, “So nice to meet you. If I can help you in any way let me know.”

The more you introduce yourself to people, the more possibilities you’ll have for relationships. The more relationships you build, the more potential you’ll have for sharing ideas and possibilities with each other.

3. Promote Yourself with Every Email You Send

You never know which one of your contacts may benefit from your skills—skills they may not realize you have. Maximize your email signature by including a statement of purpose (underneath your website and Twitter links that is.)

Tina Su, of the popular blog Think Simple Now, included information about subscribing in her email signature—which is partly responsible for building an audience of 16,000+ readers.

4. Get Ideas While Shopping

The best way to create an opportunity for yourself is to meet a need people have (either through a product you create or a service you provide.) Listen to other shoppers when you’re out. What are they looking for? What do they ask employees to find for them?

Consumers can help inspire ideas that you can capitalize on in a number of ways; it can be as simple as posting a service offered Craigslist ad or as complex as starting a new business.

5. Help Someone at the Unemployment Office

I know—most people get their checks either in the mail or through direct deposit. Let’s stretch this one to include any place where unemployed people gather, like temp offices, for example.

Initiate conversations with some of the other people, and ask what they did before they got laid off. Focus entirely on their job search, not your own. Ask them to email you their resume so you can forward it to friends who may need someone with matching skills.

By the law of reciprocity, these people will naturally feel inclined to support your job search, as well. Two heads are better than one, and so on.

6. Make Your Money Multiply Itself

I wasn’t sure about this one, but according to the US Bureau of Engraving and Printing, it’s not illegal to write on dollar bills—it’s only illegal to defile them in a way that makes them unfit for circulation. (The website wheresgeorge.com gives this same explanation for the popular money tracking service.)

You could write, “I can make you more of these” and then your website address. This would be most effective if your URL implies what you do—ie: MarketingExpert.com. I’m going to try this one myself; I’ll let you know how it works!

7. Drive Your Way to Gainful Employment

Make a custom bumper sticker with a funny slogan and your website. If you want a simple way to catch people’s eye, write “Cash Reward for Getting Me a Job, MikeTheSalesman.com.” Or whatever your site is.

Michael Checkoway of Atlanta, Georgia took this approach. He offered all kinds of rewards, including cash and vacations, to anyone who could help him find event management work. He even set up a website specifically for this purpose. He’s since found the job of his dreams (and updated the site).

Now is the perfect time to get creative to seize the life you want. What ideas do you have to add?

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“Treat your friends like you do your best pictures; place them in the best light.” -Unknown

Trusting people is one of the most difficult things to do. Sometimes we suspect others because we’re measuring them against past relationships. Other times it’s because we’re projecting our own weaknesses onto them (as previously discussed in this post).

While you can’t ever be certain someone won’t abuse your trust, the only way to have a strong friendship is to take that risk and believe the best in someone.

Everyone has some beauty, and everyone deserves to have it seen–most of all, the people you love. Which friends might you need to place in a better light today?

by Sam Russell

“What is not started today is never finished tomorrow.” ~Goethe

As a cynic, I’m unsurprisingly cynical about such a statement.

I’m a serial procrastinator—avoiding things is what I do, and I’m left wondering if good old Goethe was hiding the fact that he was potentially stumped with writer’s block, immersed in a bunch of chores he didn’t want to do and occasionally depressed.

He had a point, admittedly: if you don’t get up and do it, it’ll never get done. We avoid things for a lot of reasons; some things are huge and can be quite scary. Other things are relatively insignificant and often leave us wondering why we ran from them to begin with.

It’s easier said than done, though, isn’t it? If I got up and started today (finishing by tomorrow if all goes to plan), I would have written this over a week ago. There were things in the way that stopped me from harnessing my get-up-and-go. Like depression. Self-doubt. Su-doku.

I’ve started using Goethe’s maxim to clear away the small, annoying stuff that I’ll never be free of if I don’t start clearing them today. Which means that I’ll never get round to doing the stuff I really want to do:

1. Start embracing three positive things from your day.

This article—A Scientific Perspective on Happiness; Rules in Your Head—will tell you all you need to know. I’ve been using it for about two weeks and have already seen the difference it’s made in my attitude: I feel happier and proud that I can now bake vegan cookies successfully. No more masses of gooey dough in my oven.

Knowing that you achieved three things in your day that made you feel good and knowing why you achieved them helps evict the Doubt Monster—meaning that it won’t be in your way so often.

2.  Don’t force it.

I’m guilty of believing that you have to be authoritarian with yourself in order to achieve; but all it does is make you feel worse if you don’t reach the often unrealistic goals you set yourself. Don’t be so harsh on yourself; it can take time before you’re ready to do those things.

3.  Purge the frustration tank.

You know what I mean, right? You sit down to revise your budget and every single digit is sitting on the page laughing, throwing paper planes and blowing raspberries at you. You forget to pencil in your train fare; fail to see you didn’t carry the one about thirty sums back; and you’ve just realised your insurance company has been leeching more money from you than you’re comfortable with.

So you quit with the budget and stomp off to make a cup of tea, unable to face the torment again.

Take a scrap of paper and write down all of the things that are bugging you—it doesn’t matter how trivial. Ticking clocks drive me insane. Write them all down. Don’t miss anything. Once you’ve completed the list, tear it up and throw it in the bin.

I burn mine. Or, you could sit down and tell your pet everything that irritates you; cats are always the best listeners. With your frustrations vented, you’ll feel better prepared for tackling that budget with a clearer head.

4.  Commit random acts of creativity.

You don’t have to be a world class artist, writer or musician to create. I commit myself to an hour a day to creating something, whether it’s clearer notes from my saxophone, fresh brownies, a charcoal sketch or a few paragraphs of a story.

Putting aside that space allows me to express myself without anyone else’s vested interests. Think about it: When do you get to express yourself instead of other people? Their views, feelings, needs – we spend a lot of time expressing and fulfilling those, so isn’t it about time we did the same for ourselves?

Procrastinating isn’t a bad thing. Avoiding the bigger issue to clear away the debris of a noisy, unhappy mind is a positive and healthy thing to do. That will make it a lot easier to start with the bigger things tomorrow.

Have something to share with our 63,000  followers? Read our submission guidelines and send your guest post to email @ tinybuddha.com.

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“A bend in the road is not the end of the road…unless you fail to make the turn.” -Unknown

All too often people believe they’ve hit a dead end when really they just need to reroute.

Usually it has nothing to do with obstacles. It’s all a matter of will. How willing you are to admit you didn’t do it perfectly the first time. How willing you are to step back, take a breath, and take the time to making a new plan. How willing you are to start again, without losing your passion or tenacity.

It’s not over ’til it’s over, and that day isn’t today. Are you willing to take the turns as they come?