Why is "that thing" always so elusive?

THAT THING...  it is kind of a common catch phrase in today's culture.  "Hey, remember 'that thing' we did in college?" or "Hey, remember 'that thing' that guy was showing us?".  Sometimes it get's changed to "one of those things" but the context is always the same, and most times the response is "yeah, we were pretty screwed up that night" or "yeah, we really messed up by not jumping on that".

Everyone has a "that thing" in their closet - maybe it should be a syndrome.

It seems like most times "that thing" occurred in our past, and we often express regret by not allowing ourselves to partake in what was probably a life-changing event.  In most cases, "that thing" is usually THE determining factor in our lives that allow us to branch off and alter our destiny - for good or bad.  Sometimes it is a girl, sometimes it is an event, sometimes it is as simple as "not" doing something.  Sometimes it is as simple as a question.

It is only with the perfect 20/20 vision that hindsight provides us that we realize if "that thing" was indeed a destiny changing event.

Wouldn't it be great to know when "that thing" arrives, or had some sort of tag, or sign, or indicator? 

I recently posted an Opportunity in the Opportunity threads (here and here) about what I believe is "that thing" for me.  This has crossed the bounding line from "what I believe" to "what I know".  I believe that strongly that this is "that thing" and could be for many others.

But then I stopped and got thinking about how many other opportunities get posted daily where others believe the same thing?  When others "know" that this is "that thing" in their lives, and everyone's lives.

Well, obviously, not EVERY event that comes into EVERYONE'S lives can be "that thing" for EVERYONE, can it?  Because everyone knows that "that thing" is reserved for special one-time moments, where the planets align, chi is in harmony, God is smiling on them, and the fates have decided to be kind that day....it is only THEN that "that thing" is allowed to present itself.

This is fact - ask anyone that has experienced missing "that thing".

But then I was reminded of something I just heard Jim Rohn speaking about lately.  He said it is often easy to find blame for why things don't happen - the economy is bad, the wrong president is in the White House, my shoes had a blue swish-logo instead of green - whatever.  But we must remember that the same winds blow on us all.  The political winds, the economic winds, they blow on us all the same.  The only thing that separates our wind from being a devastating storm that blows us off course or becoming the winds of opportunity that blow us to our ultimate destination is one thing:  How We Set Our Sails.

If we can set our sails to go in one direction, it doesn't matter how the winds blow, we can move our sails and keep heading towards the same destination.  The only thing that separates those that do well in times of adversity from those that do poorly, is how they set their sails.  Are they willing to roll with the wind, or fight to the death against it?

So I got to thinking, that "that thing" that we are always pursuing - always waiting for it to land in our laps, and come with a neon sign attached, that is ever evading us, never aligning the planets on the right bio-rhythm days for us is really there every day.  We just have to tune ourselves in to these changing winds, and realize that we sometimes just have to adjust our sails properly so that "that thing" doesn't get the best of us.  We can always turn those winds into winds of opportunity if we just keep an open mind, and allow ourselves to reposition our sails.