Blog Post: Opportunity in the Strangest Places (Part 2)

Set Up Your Own Lab -- 5 Steps You Can Take Now  

1.     Adopt a lab attitude.  Become a scientist.  Decide to have an air of expectation. “Put Yourself in Opportunity’s Way” is what we call it in the Now What? ®Program (1).  Laura Berman Fortgang describes this as being attentive to what is around you and noticing opportunities that were there but you were missing.                                                                       

2.     Assemble your lab partners.  Invite a few confidantes to take on the lab approach with you.  Involving others lightens things up and adds accountability.  

3.     Get to work experimenting.  Ask yourself:

What program, class, or other resource available to me here can I take advantage of?  For example: Pam, an IT professional working at a consulting firm, decided to acquire an advanced professional certification funded by her firm while continuing to explore her next career move.

What would I like to do more of?  Less of?  Gravitate toward assignments that allow you to do more of what you enjoy.  Barbara, a senior project manager, envisions a future where her passion for charitable fundraising combined with her political interests take center stage.  For now, she accepted a volunteer opportunity through her current job to lead initiatives for the company’s charitable foundation. 

4.     Engage all your senses.  A chemist observes how lab concoctions look, smell, feel, and react.  Likewise, as you effect change in your career and life, use all your senses, including your own intuition.

5.     Keep your lab notebook.  Record your observations on paper and see where your conclusions lead you. 

 “You cause opportunity by expecting it.”

--Laura Berman Fortgang 

How can you create a lab where you are right now?

(1) Now What?® is a registered trademark of InterCoach, Inc. and is based on the book Now What? 90 Days to a New Life Direction by Laura Berman Fortgang.  Ginny Kravitz, Debra Exner, and Maria Busch are the Phoenix-area Authorized Now What?® Program Facilitators.