Opportunities come and go.  More often than not, most of us only recognize the good ones as they quickly recede from us.  Sometimes leaving us with regrets.

But, why do we miss good opportunities, anyway?

Ego... It gets in the way, when we least expect it.  It closes us off from that little voice that is screaming that we should go for it.  Like, being in a position to offer an opportunity to a talented person can create great results for both parties, especially if he or she proves capable of furthering business opportunities for all concerned.  But when ego (read as snobbery) creates a blockage, we never get the chance to find out.  Ego can also get in the way of us taking the opportunity to make amends after a bad disagreement.  That’s a nasty one!

Fear... The mind killer!  Although caution is good, I would suggest that being overly cautious equals fear and fear can play a big part in causing us to delay too long.  We invent all kinds of excuses for not acting and miss out.  Fear of success, sounds like a silly concept, but it seems that it is definitely a fact of life. 

Being in Love... For instance, a friend of mine, a beautiful Italian girl, was offered the opportunity to become a photographic model when she was about 16.  But, she was too in love with her boyfriend at the time to even consider it.  Now, when she looks back, she can barely even remember his name. 

Youth... (See above.) While we are in our teens and early twenties we are convinced that we have all the time in the world and (sometimes mistakenly) assume that the same opportunities will present themselves again later.  If we’re lucky they might, but how likely is that?  Then later there are the regrets and the attempts to get back what we feel we have lost…

Is there a moment when we simply have to grow up and face facts?  Perhaps we are supposed to weigh up an opportunity when it appears. 

If we’re smart, we will play around with the idea and then only accept or reject it after proper deliberation.  Otherwise, we are bound to repeat the same error over and over again, for the rest of our lives.

It might just be worth considering the truth behind the phrase: One opportunity leads to another.

~ Annyash

Annyash760 Avatar
Digital Drawing
By Annyash760

Every now and again I get my wacom pad out just start working without a fixed idea in mind.

I had been thinking about changing my avatar at IamNation for a while and found myself drawing this character.

Anytime that I stumble upon a good idea, I like to share it, much to the annoyance of my friends!

~ Annyash

“Kind of Like Buffy”
Sketch in Pencil
By Annyash760

I like to keep the tv on, sometimes running movies on dvd, while I’m working on projects.  One habit I got into after taking a short art course, a few years ago, was to keep my sketch pad handy at all times—advice from the art teacher—and on evening breaks, I would attempt to sketch characters from the shows that were playing.

The ‘Buffy’ sketch is more of an attempt to quickly capture the ‘feel’ of the character, as she was moving around on the screen.  I can’t remember which episode its from.

“Kind of Like Buffy”
Reworked in Photoshop
By Annyash760

The meanderings of the mind can take one to some very strange places.  Clearly, this isn’t necessarily considered to be the most constructive way to spend a day, even a holiday. 

However, being aware that at least 98% of what I do is based on some form of creative endeavor, I suppose I can be forgiven the occasional pause during which a small portion of my consciousness might drift along side the turbulent clouds of human awareness, just long enough to reach out and pluck an idea from the great tree of conceptualization.