Opportunity : A chance for advancement, profit or progress.

Opportunity Cost : The value of the best alternative you give up when you choose to do something else.

You are constantly choosing even if you do not realize it

Every single day you let go of opportunities that could change your life. When you decide to watch football instead of coding an extra hour, you are forgoing the opportunity of coding and getting better for entertainment. Hence it might be wise to spend time understanding what opportunities and opportunity cost means so as to gain the most from opportunities around you.

How does one make the most of Opportunities?

Humans like any other animals have needs, sometimes you will feel like pursuing a short term opportunity instead of doing what would benefit you in the long term. Weird as it seems in certain cases this is usually the best choice.

My advice for making the most out of opportunities is weighing your options and after considering your circumstances choosing an option that would be the most suitable for you in the long term. This can get a bit confusing so let me explain with words.

Every choice excludes others; the cost is what you could have done instead
~Elon Musk

Say you had a month to live, in the long term it would be more to your benefit if you spent time with family instead of going to work. why is that? well because looking at the time you have left it would be a bit depressing to be on your death bed filled with regret wishing you had called your mum more.

A good rule of thumb for judging if an opportunity is worth its cost is by seeing examining the other options you have around and how missing out on them makes you feel instead of the opportunity you are pursuing.