Mr. Achievement - Stanley F. Bronstein - Personal Development BlogPersonal Development Blog of the Founder of the Achievement IQ Movement and Creator of the Laws of Positioning

Law #79

Position Yourself To Be Prepared

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, Jr.)

Be prepared. (The Boy Scout Motto)

Some Definitions

Better - Of superior quality or excellence. Of superior suitability, advisability, desirability, acceptableness, etc.; preferable. In a more appropriate or acceptable way or manner.

Prepared - Properly expectant, organized, or equipped; ready. To put in proper condition or readiness. To make ready beforehand for a specific purpose, as for an event or occasion,

Opportunity - An appropriate or favorable time or occasion. A situation or condition favorable for attainment of a goal. A good position, chance, or prospect, as for advancement or success.

Have - To possess; own; hold for use; contain. To hold, possess, or accept in some relation. To get, receive, or take.

Not - Used to express negation, denial, refusal, or prohibition.

Source: Dictionary.com

Being Prepared - What Is That About?

Being prepared is being ready for anything. Are you ready for anything?

I don’t know about you, but I always try to be ready for anything AND THEN SOME.

Readiness - The Third Component Of High Achievers

Anyone who’s read enough of my posts is probably familiar with the 4 necessary characteristics of high achievers (AIQers as I like to call them):

VISION - They see opportunities others do not see.

ATTRACTION - They attract opportunities others do not attract.

READINESS - They position themselves so that they are ready to act upon opportunities when they come their way.

ACTION - They act on opportunities that others let pass them by.

Law #79 - Position Yourself To Be Prepared is all about that third component.

High achievers do what it takes to make sure they are ready to act on opportunities when they come there way.

So I Ask You, Are You Ready?

Are you prepared? If the opportunity of a lifetime were to present itself to you, RIGHT NOW, would you be ready to handle it? Would you even be ready to at least make the attempt?

High achievers make sure that they’re ready. I saw a perfect example of that a few minutes ago when I was watching The Next Food Network Star on the Food Network. On the show, they started out with 10 contestants and they’re all working through crazy challenges, all in the hopes of being the finalist who is awarded their own cooking show. There were 5 finalists left and they walked them out onto the set of the Rachel Ray show and told them they had to cook with Rachel in front of her audience.

For all 5 of the finalists, this was the opportunity of a lifetime. Some handled it better than others, but they were ALL ready for the opportunity.

They were prepared !!!

They were NOT perfect. They made mistakes, but that’s not the issue here. Mistakes are normal. The way to overcome mistakes is to simply learn from them. The more experience these finalists get, the better they will get. In fact, you can just see it over the course of watching the show from week to week. They are all getting better.

Here’s What You Need To Do

You need to ask yourself. If the perfect opportunity presented itself to me today, would I be ready to handle it?

Notice, I did NOT say that you need to ask, would you be ready to handle it perfectly? That’s not the issue.

The only question is: would you be ready to handle it?

If you are, wonderful. If not, you need to focus on that third component. The component of readiness. The only way to do that is to do your homework first. You have to be ready. You have to be prepared.