Two years ago, when I started writing this blog, I used this place like a diary, more than I do now unlikely.
I wrote this article about how I felt, this probably was not a good period, by the way, I was writing about the interference that the environment had with my psychological health.
I spend my day trying to do be more productive but I’m constantly stressed. I don’t know what I have to do, I thought the problem was the ambient I live, probably is correct I don’t know. But I need to experiment new ambient and new people, I need to change air. I can’t stand wasting time; I wish to do so many things but I can’t actually do everything at all.
You know, what I was mistaken in that period was not where I was, but what I thought I had to do.
I was motivated by the wrong thing and wanted to change for the wrong thing, and this brought me on a destructive path.
It was not the fault of the environment, it had a marginal role.
It’s clear, that the ambient has a huge and determinant responsibility to dictate who we are probably going to be or believe, is obvious that if you grow up in a poor country, with no instruction and possibilities, is very unlikely that you are going to win a Nobel price for physic.
I would like to discuss this in this article, possibilities.
How many possibilities have we stepped through, and how can we catch them? How do we expose ourselves to them?
It is obvious that not everybody has the same opportunities, this is a data of fact.
According to UIS data, almost 60% of youth between the ages of about 15 and 17 are not in school.
Everyone has his possibilities and should be a duty for everyone to use them.
I wondered why we are so blind in front of clear and easy possibilities.
Environment and measurement problem
The first problem is clear, opportunities are difficult to evaluate, how can you spot them, how do you understand is the right thing to do?
The main problem for the impossibility of this solution is that the majority of our changes are dictated by luck, that may be the right time in the right place, or being born in the right family, in a country not at war, with free healthcare, free education without any problems.
So I think opportunities are problems only for the first world, then if you are wondering or complaining about those chances you had and you didn’t take, probably you are in the first group.
Opportunities are for all those people who do have not to fear for their life or food.
Let’s make clear what I mean by seeking opportunities.
I believe that seeking opportunities is a matter of exposing yourself to as many possible outcomes as possible, trying to measure the correlation between positive and negative outcomes, and trying always to balance the positive end.
The more the probability of a positive outcome is high and more my attention to that thing will go.
This is the reason why people move to another place for work, only their physical presence is a sight of more possibility, being in a bigger city for example, makes you more suitable for a lucky meeting or random business proposal.
Not always we can judge well what is a good or bad opportunity.
In the beginning, everything seems to be suitable, but in reality, there are always some drawbacks.
There is nothing in the world that creates only advantages, there are always some drawbacks.
Some people like me, are more risk-averse than others, this is a good thing, the advantage is that makes you cautious, the drawback indeed is that we are even less proactive to risk when the odds to win are higher.
We make decisions that entail risks every day, the action of hanging out your home is a risk, as taking the car also, but we never take into account the risk-benefit correlated with those actions, and at the same time, we are first to criticize people who take a risk for a better job or finding their way someway else.
When I went to England for my semester, because of my risk-aversion tendency, initially, I didn’t want to go.
But my reasoning was not dictated by rationality, I was just substituting a question with another.
I used to tell myself that was to my benefit to stay where I was, indeed I was scared.
I was biased, I wasn’t considering the benefits and the cons that a decision like that would have caused.
Luck plays a fundamental role, we wouldn’t be here without it, so luckily I convinced myself to go, to be on the odds, and I won, was the best period of my life.
What I learned about human judgment.
Human Judgment is biased, every decision process we make has a big possibility of being incorrect or not completely for being biased.
It’s fundamental to study these biases to be able to spot them every time we get stuck on them, and trust me you will be biased more time than you think.
So not everyone wants to play the game, but data shows that is a game worth trying.
If you read this article probably you will find yourself in the group of the “first world”, where you don’t have to care for your survival or food.
In this case, the environment plays an important role in deciding what you believe and what opportunities will get in the way.
I think that, especially when you are young, you should take as many possibilities as possible, since you do have not many alternatives.
Growing up alternatives arise and you have a wider range between which to choose, but that range will be based on the decisions that you took when you were young.
This is a call for staying calm and taking your time, if you do the right thing, think clearly and unbiasedly and don’t burn out and stressed your time will come soon or later.
But this is something you understand doing what you already like to do, there is this false misconception that you have to reach a point to be happy, but it’s not true.
Happiness is only a state of mind, and I think you can reach it regardless of the point you find yourself on whatever scale: richness, beautifulness etc…
The path to understanding yourself is infinite, and in everything you put yourself out there, you understand something of yourself that the day before you couldn’t explain.
What If I don’t see opportunities?
Opportunities are everywhere, I think that it’s more a way of living, and thinking than a reality.
Opportunities are willingness to learn and curiosity, people who take opportunities are the ones who see the best in other people, who help others, and who see the positive side also in the worst situations.
Opportunities are everywhere.
Every time we mistakes, we have two possible paths, the first one is not to reflect on what happened, making you afraid of that thing, scared.
The second is to embrace rationality, you know, I think that everything that happens to me, there is something to learn from to some degree.
Dreams are the engines that make us seek a better life, it’s the reason why seek opportunities.
What is something that everybody has in common, something invisible that unites everybody?
Everybody has a dream, no matter what or when, no matter the conditions, war, or money, everybody has a dream.
What makes me alive, is the ability to dream and to plan a future, like every other human being who projects their goals to the future.
There is no importance on whether the dream is achievable or not, it’s the reason to pursue the real goal.
Dreaming makes everything possible regardless of what is real and what is not.
A dream is a dream.
For this reason, I hate when people say your dream is not achievable, it doesn’t matter.
A dream is different from a plan.
In the end, taking opportunities requires risk, and not everybody is risk-averse.
We are more afraid of the potential losses than the gains we could get from them.
Changing requires courage, I grew up in a world that I see as standardised, but I know that is not like this, not everywhere.
Everything has already been made, discovered and explored.
We think to not have other possibilities than follow a path that someone else has drawn for us.
Growing up you have to choose a group, of what you want and you are going to be in, but I don’t want to choose one, because I’m not sure, or I’m scared it won’t fit very well only in one.
What a mean is, why should we accept that this is true? I don’t believe that everything has been explored, or discovered.
I still believe that I can make a difference, it’s not easy trying to find your place in the world.
But I will never follow a route that I don’t feel mine.
Thinking, facing your fears, taking opportunities, courage and luck that one day your dream may come true.