Missed Opportunities

It seems that I am quickly becoming the queen of missed career opportunities. Rather, I waffle on whether or not to take advantage of an opportunity and then end up missing it. Then I become  inwardly annoyed with the person who ended up getting the opportunity - in most cases someone who technically has less experience then I do (which hasn't seemed to matter much in many of the moves I see being made).

The latest missed opportunity occurred recently. It was the opportunity to supervise one of the labs at work. Operators had approached me, asking me to look into the position as they thought I would be a good fit and would like to work for me. I did my research and went to our company website to look up the job description. When I did, the only supervisory position was a swing shift opportunity - not something I would want. Plus, even though the operators wanted me to bring my detail and organizational skills to the lab, I don't know how I would be in a supervisory role because of my intense emotions and tendency to get very stressed out. So I sort of put the opportunity to the back of my mind.  (This was my big mistake. I now realize if I was at all interested, I should have gone and physically talked to somebody about it.) Now I find out that the position is taken and that it was in fact a day shift opportunity. I'm finding myself a little resentful although the fault sits squarely on my shoulders!

I think the majority of the time, I don't actively pursue these opportunities because I'm afraid at failing at the new position. I also have plans for starting a family and don't want a new career move to get in the way. Both of these are BAD reasons to miss opportunities. I just don't know what to do to gain more confidence in myself and just do it.

Failure is something that I already deal with in my current position, so how could taking this new opportunity be any different. I read on SO many blogs (click on each for GREAT personal development stuff) that you need to take risks to reap great rewards, but for some reason I am not putting what I learn into action.

As for starting a family, who knows when that will actually pan out. Four months in and I don't even think things are moving in the right direction (i.e. - no Aunt Flo, no egg, no baby).  I need to go see the doctor, but figure she'd probably make me wait six months anyways until they would do anything. I normally see her in Aug, so I think I'll just wait till then to see what she says. But until then, well, I guess I need to keep looking for opportunities and not worry about the what if's of when a baby comes...


How do you all approach opportunities? Are you like me and tend to miss them or do you take the bull by the horns and just go for it?