A Doing Word…

I find that the more I plan, the more I seem to manifest spontaneous and serendipitous fun.

Sitting at home might just result in some cool people stopping by with dinner and karaoke (you know who you are), but even that is the result of their planning and effort. Get yourself to a beach in Catalonia with friends from France and somehow lots of fun serendipity seems to happen.

My friend Rick embraces serendipity, at times more than me. I remember his passion for wandering the East Village at 1:30 AM on a weeknight. Despite my skepticism we did find some pizza and have a fun and memorable night. He is also an energetic and bold planner and is always working on new things. He manifested the trip to New York including getting two other families to travel there for a week – no easy task. But once that’s done he switches that off and flips into serendipity mode, heading off down a random back street.

Only the limitations of language force this into an oxymoron, but I think it works this way because it is two very different yet complimentary mindsets.

How do we reconcile being mindful and in the moment with getting things done? Booking flights for a yoga retreat? Dealing with all the travel logistic, planning, and packing to go on a backpacking trip? One friend said that life is a mix of work and fun and you just have to deal with it, but I resist that compromise. I’m looking more for a superposition mindset that holds both states at the same time.

I’m going to be exploring this concept in writing and talking with others. Who knows, it might even lead to a book, vlog, app, or something else? All this work might end up being quite serendipitous.

Topics

Coming up…

FS: Travel with friends

FS: How do monks install septic systems?

FS: Career navigation