Triage a torrent, flood is temporary
~ not every flood is a disaster, but you still need a plan
Opportunity doesn’t knock, it kicks the door in.
Managing multiple opportunities is about clarity, not capacity. Sure, but not so easy …
Ironically, it’s like the heavy rains that turn many swollen little streams into a destructive flood - we see that on TV or as we lived through it with our neighbours.
It’s the ‘business 101’ version - the one we train ourselves to spot and outsmart, that energy-sucking scarcity we feel when hustling for crumbs, and celebrating scraps.
It’s also the daily affirmation of maintaining a giving nature and solid practices in good times and bad, trusting the wisdom and value of processes and the value of relationships we take care of. And the ones we neglect, too.
But … what if …
What if the phone rings, a new opportunity, some new urgency, some work; and then it rings again, and again, and again - it’s not a flood, but it’s certainly a real-life manifestation of those swollen streams.
What happens when that floodgate opens?
Get this idea - if a limousine delivering a great opportunity pulls up to greet you, there’s a brass band playing, a red carpet ready, and a beautiful opportunity steps out to shake your hand. That’s great, that’s the fairy tale, that’s the magic wand waving result everyone wishes for.
Now, get this idea - 5 limousines, or 5 tractors - it matters not which one it is, comes racing toward us, there is no red carpet, there are no well-educated, sharply dressed assistants begging to help in any way they can. There is a collision as they all arrive at once - a pile-up, and suddenly the question of which opportunity to treat first, next, or last is a palpable dilemma. These are not casualties of a collision - that would be the wrong takeaway. Instead, there is a collision of opportunities on my plate, on my desk, on my mind and my schedule …
Some are demanding, some are not, some are ‘the things I’d planned carefully to do over the next 5 days (I love long weekends to work when everyone else is away) …
I had a day, actually two days run together, just like that; my challenge for today and the next few days is to give those new opportunities 100% effort …
Easy to say, but can I do that?
Am I capable?
Do I have the time?
Are they each real, worth it, and can I win?
To say nothing of everything else on my calendar, on my desk, and all the urgency contained therein - it’s a good thing a long weekend is coming, and I can work on everything at once …
We all understand scarcity.
The grind, the hustle, the hope.
Then, suddenly, it’s not about lack.
It’s about too much arriving all at once.
One opportunity is thrilling.
Two is pressure.
Four, or five, or ten at once?
That’s not a champagne problem, that’s a triage nightmare scenario disguised as success. Suddenly, the game isn’t about finding options. It’s about which ones not to drop.
The shift from scarcity to abundance isn’t a parade. It’s triage. Confusion. A stack of decisions where clarity matters more than ambition.
Opportunities don’t arrive in a logical, critical-path order. They never.
And, on days like yesterday and today, I’m frenetically taking care of ‘everything’, but also sitting in the calm of this mini-hurricane, dismissing temptation to be out in the sunshine, relaxing or swinging a club - my place, my right place, is right here in this place, getting shift done …
Progress often comes like molasses, slow and sticky. We plan, push, revise, and wait. Then, without warning, doors swing open, several at once.
This is that what we wanted, is it not?
Maybe. But opportunity doesn’t queue up politely. It floods the room.
Suddenly, I’m not just busy, but it feels like the pace of making life-altering decisions on the fly. I’m not, not today, I know I have that steely calm inside me - it’s got me through so many tough times and I feel anchored in my capacity to still distinguish the shit from the shinola …
This dynamic isn’t unique to my work. It shows up in careers and kitchens, in boardrooms and hospital rooms. Whether life is complex or seemingly simple, the terrain is familiar: the shift from struggling to get traction to suddenly needing better brakes, sharper steering, and faster decision-making.
I’ve not been preparing for days or weeks; I’ve been preparing for decades, it’s what experience and expertise are supposed to mean, to teach and to learn from. I love it and yet cringe in the face of it nearly every time. It shouldn’t be easy, ever.
Excellence, whether we are delivering customer service to a new client, or our oldest and most trusted; whether we are fixing the unfixable, dreaming the impossible or hand-holding with clients to muscle-memory teeth-grit our way through some troubles. Oh yes, and helping others manage the stress as if it were our own - but the calm detachment that it’s not our stress, it’s someone else’s stress, and our job is to manage the facts, the situation, so we get many things over their proverbial goal lines
It’s the rush we claimed we were ready for; the payoff for patience, perseverance, and strategy. But being ready and feeling ready are rarely the same thing.
I used to think the hardest part of progress was getting something moving. Now I’m not so sure. Maybe the real test is managing motion once it begins, without too many good things converging, competing for the same slice of bandwidth, energy, and clarity.
When potential abundance arrives, it doesn’t politely schedule itself. In my experience, the end result is a ‘many puzzle pieces later’ product of luck, management, ideas, problem solving, sweat and midnight oil …
We all face moments where the pace of change accelerates. The difference in outcomes isn’t in how many options appear—it’s in how we handle them.
That’s the real division.
Some people freeze. Others chase everything and catch nothing. A rare few pause, breathe, and triage with discipline. Because abundance isn’t just a gift. It’s a test.
I’ve been the deer in the headlights. I’ve also been the triage nurse in my own emergency room, trying to tell the difference between noise and necessity, between shiny and significant. That’s where this shift becomes magic—or mayhem.
The inbox fills. The phone rings. The once-elusive answers arrive in stereo. And just when you should feel triumphant, you feel like a juggler with no gravity.
So I’m leaning into something simpler: not to do it all, but to do what matters, right now, with reasoned precision. Clarity isn’t just helpful.
It’s the skill that separates momentum from mess.
When opportunity arrives unannounced, the challenge isn’t to say YES, it’s one of figuring out which fire to light first …
Opportunity doesn't knock. It arrives uninvited and expects you to make coffee. And hurry up …
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