Are you ready when opportunity knocks? Today’s blog is all about the power of being prepared. We often think about preparation as something we do ahead of an event we know is coming. A big presentation, an important meeting, a demanding project or a particularly busy period at work.
And that’s exactly what the Prepare phase of the Cadence Approach is about: anticipating what’s ahead and taking steps to ensure we have the energy, resilience and resources to perform at our best.
But there’s another side to preparation that’s just as important.
What about the opportunities we don’t see coming?
Not everything unexpected is a challenge or a crisis. Sometimes, the unexpected presents an opportunity. And whether we’re able to make the most of it often comes down to how prepared we were before it arrived.
A phone call that changed everything
Anyone who knows me will know I’m a big boxing fan, and there’s a story from the sport that illustrates this brilliantly.
In February 2025, world champion Shakur Stevenson was due to fight Floyd Schofield Jr. in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. But just days before the fight, Schofield pulled out.
The organisers suddenly had a problem. They needed an opponent, and quickly. Without one, Stevenson wouldn’t fight, there would be a gap on the card, and a huge opportunity would be lost.
Meanwhile, thousands of miles away in Doncaster, a young boxer called Josh Padley was up on a roof fitting solar panels.
Then his phone rang.
Was he fit? Yes.
Was he close to fighting weight? Pretty much.
Could he get himself sorted, travel to Riyadh and step into the ring with one of the best pound-for-pound boxers in the world at just a few days’ notice?
Yes.
And that’s exactly what he did.
Padley flew to Riyadh, stepped into the ring with Stevenson and lasted nine rounds before being stopped. An impressive achievement against an elite opponent, particularly given the circumstances.
But the most remarkable part of this story isn’t what happened in the ring. It’s what happened before the phone rang. Padley was fit. He was close to weight. He was training and keeping himself ready, despite working another job.
When the opportunity arrived, he was in a position to say yes.
That fight changed the direction of his career. He left his job fitting solar panels to pursue boxing professionally. The opportunity might have come unexpectedly, but his readiness wasn’t an accident.
Preparation creates possibilities
There’s an important lesson here, and it applies just as much to our working lives as it does to professional sport.
We can’t predict every opportunity that might come our way. We don’t know when someone might offer us a new role, invite us to lead a project, introduce us to an important contact or ask us to step up in a way we hadn’t anticipated.
But we can put ourselves in a better position to respond.
That’s what the Prepare phase of my Cadence Approach encourages us to think about.
Preparation isn’t just about getting ready for the next big thing in our diary. It’s about building the foundations that allow us to handle the demands of everyday life and respond when something unexpected comes along.
That means looking after our physical and mental wellbeing, managing our energy, developing our capabilities and making time for recovery.
Because when we’re constantly exhausted, overstretched or operating at the limits of our capacity, even a brilliant opportunity can feel like another demand we simply can’t accommodate. And sometimes, we might then let it pass us by.
Are you creating the capacity to say yes?
I think this is an important question for individuals, leaders and organisations alike.
We’re often so focused on delivering what’s immediately in front of us that we overlook the importance of maintaining the capacity for what might come next.
For individuals, that might mean protecting the habits that keep us healthy, energised and ready to take on new challenges.
For leaders, it could mean developing people before they’re needed for a bigger role or project, rather than waiting until a vacancy or challenge forces the issue.
And for organisations, it means creating a culture where people have the capacity to adapt, innovate and seize opportunities, rather than being so stretched by today’s demands that there’s little room for anything else.
Being prepared doesn’t mean being permanently switched on or ready to work harder. Quite the opposite. It means creating the conditions that allow us to perform when it matters, without sacrificing our wellbeing in the process.
Prepare for what you know. Be ready for what you don’t.
Throughout this mini-series, we’ve explored the Prepare phase of the Cadence Approach and how anticipating pressure, setting boundaries and protecting our daily non-negotiables can help us navigate demanding periods more effectively.
But I wanted to finish with this story because it’s a reminder that preparation isn’t only about protecting ourselves from the pressures ahead. It’s also about putting ourselves in the best possible position to make the most of what life and work might offer us.
Josh Padley didn’t know that phone call was coming when he climbed onto that roof in Doncaster. But when it did, he was ready.
So here’s a question to leave you with:
If an exciting opportunity came your way tomorrow, would you have the energy, capacity and confidence to say yes?
That’s another reason why preparation matters. And it’s why sustainable high performance starts long before the moment we’re called upon to perform.
The Cadence Approach helps individuals, leaders and organisations manage energy, anticipate pressure and build sustainable high performance through four phases: Predict, Prepare, Perform and Recover.
Discover how the Cadence Approach can help your people prepare for pressure, perform at their best and recover well.
