I had a discussion earlier today with a friend in which I made a comment that a situation that I'm soon to be in was an opportunity for me to step outside my comfort zone. My friend promptly corrected me saying that until the outcome of the situation is determined it is just that: a situation. An opportunity implies that the situation resulted in a positive outcome. I'm not sure what we would term a situation that yields a negative outcome, but that was never discussed.
I argued that a situation or opportunity are for the most part the same thing. I'm sure there are subtle differences (and if you can delineate the two please comment away), but I couldn't really come up with any. In my mind every situation one is in offers the opportunity to grow through the choices we make. The choices and how we handle the situation might yield a positive or negative outcome, but the outcome is irrelevant. It is what we take from the outcome that matters. If we learn or grow from the experience in any capacity then I would argue that was some positive benefit.
For example, the loss of someone close to you in your life is clearly a negative situation. However, that doesn't mean that it is not an opportunity to learn about the impermanence of life, the need to live in the moment, and the importance of enjoying what time we have with our friends and loved ones. Having experienced the loss of two loved ones in a little over a year I think both the HyWy and I would agree that they were very difficult experiences, but we both grew tremendously from the experience. I won't say that they were positive experiences, but there was definitely something positive that we took away from them.
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15 years ago
1 comment:
Interesting question. Webster's defines "situation" as "a relative position or combination of circumstances at a certain moment" and "opportunity" as "a favorable juncture of circumstances."
I can see what your friend is saying: in essence, until something positive happens, you can't say that the original situation turned out to be an opportunity. Looking at it another way though, When we say, for example, that this is a "good career opportunity", we haven't already realized the benefits -- we see potential benefits and feel that we have a good chance to achieve those benefits. In other words, it's favorable. And going back to the definition again, the word juncture is key -- it implies that things can go in different ways, and that also seems to suggest that an opportunity is therefore prospective in nature.
All in all, I think what differentiates a situation from an opportunity is simply a positive perspective. Just my two cents!
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