Making the most of an opportunity or experience is a lot different from getting the most from it. Successful people focus more on the making than they do on the getting.
Let’s say you have an opportunity to play for one of the best coaches in your sport. This experience won’t last forever. What are you going to do to make the most of it? What will you do to make this something that you look back on years later and realize how valuable the experience was?
What if you try out for the lead in the school musical and end up with a much smaller part instead? You have two choices—you can lament that you’re not front and center, or you can just figure out how to make the most of it. You can be the best, most positive, team-playing bit-player you can be. You can care more about the production than you do about your significance. You can find a way to make contributions that would be missed if you ever left.
No, you shouldn’t just plod through things that don’t seem to give anything back. From playing time, to stage time, to learning, and even just fun, you should feel like your time and energy is rewarding in some way.
But a student with no elected position in a club who steps up, takes initiative, organizes, and otherwise makes an impact can end up knowing a lot more about leadership than even the club’s president does.
The path to getting the most out of something starts with making the most out of it and giving the most to it.