I have three words that I’ve started focusing on for 2013: opportunity, intentionality, and dedication.

One obstacle with opportunity is simply to see the opportunities that come our way. We so easily overlook them because we get so busy with our current obligations and responsibilities.

• Pay attention to things around you. You never know when or where you may come across a new opportunity.
• Actively look for new opportunities. Look online, at work, at church, etc. Find out what the needs are and try to fill them.
• Create new opportunities. Sometimes you may need to just step out and do something. Even something small can grow into something big.

It’s not always easy, but when you are able to see the opportunities, try to act on them. We’re less than a month into the new year, and I’ve seen and acted on a couple opportunities:

• My business. I’ve thought about expanding the work I do with web design and development for years. I’m finally taking some actions to pursue this. I spoke with a client that should provide about a month’s worth of income and expand my skills. I should be registering my company this week as an LLC and opening a business account at the bank (no, not credit).
• Podcast. I’ve thought about starting a podcast since I restarted this blog back in June, but I didn’t want to tackle too much at that time. The past few months, I’ve started listening to some podcasts about podcasting (such as The Podcast Answer Man and The School of Podcasting). I’m getting ready to launch it in the next few weeks (definitely by March). The name is “Quality Living Made Simple.” I’m still looking for some feedback via a survey/questionnaire.
• Other opportunities. I wrote last week about John giving praise to a boy while I was at a gas station – such a powerful lesson learned in less than three minutes! It was because I started paying attention to what was going on around me.

Questions: Are you seeing the many opportunities around you? Are you acting on them?