creating opportunities?

There was an interesting discussion on twitter the other day about goals, which made me think. I don’t do goals very often as I am disappointed when they don’t work out. I hate even planning too far ahead in case things go wrong.

For example, I’m heading to Europe for a 4 week trip in October. I booked and paid for the ticket in November last year… I booked and paid for all the accommodation 3 weeks ago and last week I was retrenched from my job… Damn that! 7 weeks before leaving to go away and I now have no job. Do I cancel, or take a chance and still go? But what about coming back to Sydney at the beginning of November with no job and no money? Or do I bet on myself and hope that something will come up in the meantime and something will come up when I get back?

I really don’t want to cancel as I cancelled a ticket I had booked to go to Europe 2 years ago, due to uncertainty about work and finances… but this time I’ve paid for everything except spending money already, and I’ve got that put aside… My thoughts are at the moment just to go for it, and worry about the finances and the work situation when I get back…

I’ve always been an opportunist – jumping from one opportunity to the next when they come along… like my last job (the one I was just retrenched from), I had a good steady job that I was just settling into, and out of the blue, I was approached and offered this job… it was a great opportunity, to work with software in the construction industry – basically what I do best at – utilising all my construction knowledge and IT skills. It was a great job and a great opportunity, I loved that job for the most part. But knowing what I know now, (ie that I was going to be out of a job in 3 months) I definitely would not have taken it – opportunity cost, I suppose.

So now I’m waiting for the next opportunity to come up… will it be in Sydney or will I have to go farther afield? (eg I would love to go to Melbourne, or even OS).  Will it be working in Construction or in IT? (it’s hard having a split work personality – I could do either, but both together is best). Will it be contract work or a full time position? (and can I earn enough money to keep the mortgage payments up?).

But that lead me to thinking – why am I waiting for the next opportunity, how can I create the next opportunity? I suppose I just have to take my own advice that I gave on the recent Geek Girls Blogs podcast and put myself out there for the opportunities to find me.

At the moment I am still angry and upset about my current situtation, but I will pull out of it, and I will get a new job, I just don’t like this not knowing what’s next (except for my trip of course). So I need to put it out there to the universe that this is what I want. I want to get a few weeks contract work between now and when I go away, so I can feel useful and still pay the mortgage. I then want go away to Europe and have a fantastic time and meat wonderful people at the two conferences I’m going to. Then I want an excellent job starting around the 4th or 5th of November, with a company that will appreciate my hard work and loyalty, and pay me well enough to live and pay the mortgage. I hope that’s not too much to ask for.