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As
defined by Webster's dictionary, serendipity is "the
faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things
not sought for."
We've
all had those moments when serendipity seems to magically occur
-- you sit next to someone at a conference and learn she is
employed by a company you're just dying to work for or you
discover your neighbor has a need for a consultant right after
you leave your permanent job. A "chance" meeting can
make an enormous difference on any given day.
Unfortunately
as Moms, we often don't leave enough room in our days for
serendipity to grace our lives. We are so busy taking care of
our day-to-day challenges -- using lunch hours to run errands
and evenings to do laundry -- that we don't allow enough
opportunity for those "lucky" conversations to take
place.
Of
course, by definitition, you can't plan for serendipity. But, if
you make a conscience effort, you can create more space
for serendipity to cross your path. Here are four easy ways to
generate more good fortune from your everyday routine:
- At least once every few days, make it a point to introduce
yourself to someone new. Talk to the person next to you on
the treadmill, strike up a conversation with the
receptionist at the dentist's office or introduce yourself
to the new person at the PTA meeting. You never know what
fruitful connections will result from your initiative.
- Once a week, go to a meeting, class, lecture or event
outside of your "normal" routine.
- Once a month, pick up the phone and call someone new for
lunch.
- Once a year, make a point to reconnect with long lost
friends. Start an e-mail chain letter to catch up with your
old cronies from high school or college. Write a brief
description of what you've been up to recently, pass it on
to a friend, and have them send it to someone else from your
class. This is a fun way to reconnect with old buddies while
effortlessly expanding your network of contacts.
Just
making a few small, but consistent, changes can have a major
impact on your life over time.
Keep
in mind the words of Kenneth Hildebrand:
"Someone
receives a promotion, gets an important assignment, makes a
major discovery, or moves into the president's office.
"He's lucky," an envious person remarks. "He gets
the breaks; they're always in his favor." In reality, luck
or the breaks of life had little or nothing to do with it.
So-called "luck" usually is found at the exact point
where preparation meets opportunity. For a time, an individual
may get ahead by "pull," but eventually someone with
push will displace him. Success is not due to a fortuitous
concourse of stars at our birth, but to a steady trail of sparks
from the grindstone of hard work each day."
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