The Best Shot And View

During a recent conversation with my son about a particular shot from his recent holiday that perfectly captured him walking towards the sea. I complimented him on the picture and asked if one of his friends took the picture. He said he pre-set the camera and took the shot himself because he was on a solo holiday.

My next question was why he wasn’t worried about someone running off with his phone while he was strolling away from it trying to get a good shot. He replied that the beach was a private one and very quiet; he explained that it wasn’t easy to get to and anyone who was unfit, unwilling to put in the effort for the climb or unbothered would never get to it and so most people stayed on the regular beaches that were easy to stroll to.

As a mother, after trying to imagine the ‘treacherous climb’ to the beach, I was struck by the lesson in what he said. He got his best shot, and the privacy he needed because he was willing to go where most people would not go and do what most people would not do.

That reminds me of another quote that I came across which says, ‘The best view comes after the hardest climb.’ – Unknown

Mountain climbers know more about this than anyone else; they know the view from the top is priceless and that’s why they keep pushing their bodies to get to the top of every mountain they go for.

It begs the question, ‘how far are you willing to go for what you want in life?, how hard are you willing to work for your best shot in life?’ How ambitious are you to build the career you want?

A quote from Oprah Winfrey says, ‘the big secret in life is that there is no big secret. Whatever your goal, you can get there if you’re willing to work.’

I have conversations with people who talk about how challenging things are but when I ask about the effort they are putting into doing extra research or developing a second income stream, I soon realise they have no plans to put in more effort. Too often they refer to the success of others whilst also losing sight of how much effort they put in.

During a recent conversation with a lady that I ran into as I was about to board a train, she commented that I was lucky; I corrected her and replied that I wasn’t lucky. I was blessed with opportunities that I didn’t shy away from and made the most of by giving it my best shot. I felt strongly that I needed to help her see the correlation between opportunity, effort and result.

She needed help with prioritising the right things and at the end of the conversation, she left with a clear plan of some changes that she could make in her parenting, career and life. As the saying goes, luck is what you have when preparations meets opportunities.

You make your own luck as you leverage the opportunities that you are presented with in life or when you grow and develop yourself in readiness for future promotions at work. You make your own luck when you prioritise your career in the right way.

You make your own luck when you choose to stay in touch with friends and family members so you can one day avoid loneliness. You make your own luck when you learn to be content with your own company, love and accept yourself (warts and all) so you can better deal with unavoidable challenges in life.

You make your own luck when you invest in your children and spend quality time with them to build healthy relationships and set them up for success in life. This means you create a future where you have a lot less anxiety about them.

The best shots and the best views come at a cost – which could be time, money, energy, early mornings, late nights, and sometimes down-times. The key is balancing them all so you invest in the right things. There will be late nights but they can be the kind that pay you back or take you away from your goals. Time will be spent by everyone of us on either the wrong or right things; the choice remains ours to make.

Will you make that treacherous climb to get to that unique beach that very few people get to enjoy, will you climb that mountain and see the view that only a few people get to see? The Ball is in your court.

Thanks for reading and sharing my post. Have an awesome week.