Hunting for hidden opportunities - channelling Oxóssi
OXOSSI| November 2025
Hunting for hidden opportunities - channelling Oxóssi
Hi friends,
I am sitting here and dreaming of Brazil – specifically, Rio de Janeiro. For those who know me, Rio is my absolute favourite place in the world. I was reminded of a photo I took in Lapa, one of Rio’s most vibrant neighbourhoods, full of energy, history, and incredible nightlife. One day, on a food tour there, I noticed a door painted with the word Oxóssi. Orisha Oxossi is actually a Yoruba word/tradition that means divine hunter, protector of the forest and provider of abundance.
The belief travelled to Brazil through the transatlantic slave trade, carried by enslaved Africans who honoured Oxóssi as a deity. The story holds timeless wisdom: Oxóssi hunts with a single, perfectly aimed arrow that never misses its target - a symbol of clarity, focus, and intuition. Not just hunting for themself; but provides for the community and safeguards the balance of nature.
That image made me wonder: What if we reimagined ourselves as the divine hunter - seekers of opportunity, abundance, and purpose in the forests of our own lives?
This got me thinking about opportunity, the brain and possibility:
Why some people see what others don’t?
Have you ever noticed that some people just seem lucky? They stumble upon the right connection, the perfect timing, the unexpected “yes”. Where one person sees a wall, another sees a door or even a piece of land to knock down the wall and build their dream!
In The Art of Uncertainty, Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter describes uncertainty as a living relationship between us and the world: “Uncertainty is all about us, but, like the air we breathe, it tends to remain unexamined.”
Often, opportunities stay hidden because we haven’t trained ourselves to see them or we’ve become too comfortable in fear or scarcity. In The Source: Open Your Mind, Change Your Life, Dr. Tara Swart explains that it’s not luck at all. Our brains are malleable - we can train them to notice patterns, make connections, and lean toward possibility rather than limitation.
I’m a glass-half-full kind of girl. Recently, I was looking through my journal and realised that the word opportunity appears almost every week. I hadn’t noticed before, but I was literally unintentionally tracking and noting opportunities coming my way.
How to become a modern day hunter of opportunity?
Here are a few ways I encourage the people around me to hunt for opportunities:
1. Surround yourself with the right environment
Who you spend time with shapes what you see as possible. Choose communities, mentors, and spaces that stretch you, inspire you, and remind you that growth is contagious. As the Confucius saying goes, “If you’re the smartest in the room, you’re in the wrong room.”
2. Keep knocking on doors
Persistence transforms “no” into “not yet.” Every “no” has value – focus on the why? Learn from it, and keep moving. Every knock builds muscle and momentum.
3. Take intelligent risks
Risk doesn’t have to be reckless. It’s about stepping slightly beyond your comfort zone - intentionally and with self-trust. As Robert F. Smith said at the Forbes BLK Summit, opportunity often arrives disguised. You can’t always wait for perfect conditions; you must be ready to move when it appears.
Now the fun bit…
Aligning the opportunity with your value
Alongside opportunity comes discernment - knowing which opportunities to pursue and which to release.
Reflect on this:
What do you currently do for free because it aligns with your values
What do you do because you feel you have to, even if it doesn’t align with your values?
What do you do that leads to more opportunity?
What do you do for less than your value?
And what do you do for more than your value?
At different seasons of life, we all navigate these choices. The goal is to move closer to alignment - to the place where what you say “yes” to honours your worth, energy, and joy.
A friend recently received a job offer: slightly more pay, but likely more stress. We sat down to unpack it. They realised they’d never sat down to define their true value. What would make it worth leaving their current role? That conversation reminded me that our value isn’t just what others are willing to pay; it’s what we choose to honour within ourselves.
Now, take that value, double it, and add tax (because let’s be honest, even when we think we’ve got it right, we’re often still undervaluing ourselves). That’s when you call your bestie to hype you up and remind you who you are.
So I ask you: How do you own your Oxóssi - protecting your forest (the things that matter most) and providing abundance for yourself and those around you?
A thought for the week
This week, I invite you to:
Pause and look around - what small opportunity have you overlooked?
Stretch your vision - even slightly, toward what’s possible.
Take one brave risk - not huge, just enough to stretch your edges.
This week I have been…
Reading: Reframing Blackness by Alayo Akinkugbe - a reflection on Black identity in art history.
Watching: Entergalactic (Netflix) - I recently dived back into this great animation with a gorgeous dreamy colour palette and great sound track by Kid Cudi.
Listening: “Watermelon” by two faves; Robert Glasper and Esperanza Spalding. Obsessed.
Let’s step into the week with that Oxóssi energy - eyes open to the opportunities surrounding us every day.
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