Driving, recently, I noticed someone waiting to join the stream of traffic from a side road and slowed down to let them in. They were not paying attention and failed to notice my invitation. I had no option but to speed up again and the moment passed.

I’ve noticed this before and have sometimes mused about the attitude of the person in the car. It strikes me as a simple metaphor for the importance of developing a positive and expectant attitude towards opportunities. If we think no-one is going to let us out then we will miss the person who slows down for us.

I think this is a particularly useful approach to take when things are forecast to become doom and gloom laden. There will always be opportunities and it’s going to be the person who keeps their eyes and ears open who will succeed when things get tough:

People who notice the opportunity, who are alert to shifts in the social, physical and economic environment and position themselves wisely.

Who remain calm when things start changing rapidly around them.

Who can also keep things in perspective – maybe a lifetime, an age or, yes, let’s really go for it, eternity.

I always find that last thought removes a layer of anxiety. Our lives are short. They are brief opportunities to find what makes us happy, to reach some level of fulfilment and to achieve some positive effect within our society. So, despite living in a crazy world, where inflation at the time of writing this was 11 million percent in Zimbabwe, where people are not allowed to draw out enough of their own savings to buy even a newspaper, we can take heart and keep our eyes open for the next juicy opportunity to present itself to us.