[FONT=Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Sans-serif]Remember the Oscar award-winning movie 'Apollo 13' in which Tom Hanks played astronaut James A. Lovell, Jr.? What difficult challenges the crew faced when a service module oxygen tank ruptured! How could they get back to Earth safely? In one of the scenes, an alternate procedure was developed to use the sun as an alignment star. To survive, the astronauts had to improvise. They 'made their own window'. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Sans-serif][/FONT] [FONT=Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Sans-serif]A window for an astronaut is a time and a place where conditions are absolutely perfect for them to return to earth. If an astronaut hesitates with indecision, or the craft loses power, or for whatever reason they miss their window, they may have to wait 12 or 24 hours for another window to open. In space 12 to 24 hours can seem like years or even a lifetime when you're low on fuel, power, food or have injuries. Hesitancy at one of these windows could even cost astronauts their lives. [/FONT] [FONT=Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Sans-serif]Our own lives have windows. [/FONT] [FONT=Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Sans-serif][/FONT] [FONT=Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Sans-serif]These are times when conditions are perfect, when windows of opportunity open for us to move forward in our lives, business, or career. Our windows of opportunity are like an astronaut's window. They don't stay open forever. They only last 'that' long. You don't have to physically shut your windows of opportunity to miss them; all you need do is hesitate long enough for them to pass. [/FONT] [FONT=Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Sans-serif]When you finally do decide to capitalise on the opportunity, the window has closed. Now honestly, do you think the opportunity is going to come round again? Probably not. How many more months or years will you have to wait for that kind of window of opportunity to open again? The lesson here is that when windows of opportunity open, we have to learn to recognize and act on them. [/FONT] [FONT=Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Sans-serif]When conditions are right, don't hesitate, don't make excuses and miss the moment. When windows of opportunity open, there is that leap of faith that we all must take. I pray you don't hesitate in front of your windows of opportunity. They may not come again for months, years or even a lifetime. Seize the moment! [/FONT] <!-- toctype = X-unknown --><!-- toctype = text --><!-- text -->
