Surprising little adventures are waiting to be discovered every day. Serendipity is a happy, lucky coincidence that is not sought after. And the wonderful thing is that life is full of serendipity. However, we miss most of it because we are so busy pushing and pulling through our days, trying to morph and shape our schedules so they resemble the perfect life. In the meantime, we are missing out on the sweet life. For it is only in the open, quiet space that you can hear clearly. You can’t force serendipity. It happens by a chance discovery. Even though you cannot plan, organize or schedule serendipity, you can curate a life that invites it in when it quietly knocks on your soul’s door.
15 ways to invite serendipity into your life
- Leave White Space in your day. Instead of scheduling your calendar until you cannot breathe, leave blank spaces that are openings to adventure and surprise.
- Say “yes.” Quite thinking of all the reasons that you cannot do something and say “yes” when opportunity presents itself. You will miss lots of little adventures if you wait until it is convenient.
- Be ready. It reduces your chance of creating excuses. If you stay up on your routine maintenance, you will be more open and ready when the opportunity knocks.
- Unpack your brain of all the commitments and responsibilities that take up so much valuable real estate there.
- Release your fears: fear of failure, fear of looking like a fool, fear of being wrong, and fear of the unknown. Let it all go.
- Follow your nose and see where it takes you. Let the wind lead you instead of your calendar for a change.
- Let your imagination soar. Imagination allows you to look at things from a unique and colorful perspective.
- Say hello. You never know where a conversation with a stranger will take you. It could be a friend in waiting or just an interesting conversation that opens up your thinking.
- Take the back roads. The freeway seldom leads to serendipity. Ah, but the bumpy backroads lead to the unexpected.
- Leave judgement in the dust of your footsteps – the judgement of others if you do not follow the expected pathway, but also our own judgement.
- Be brave and willing to make mistakes. Perfection is not the path to adventure and surprise.
- Curate a creative life. A creative life fosters serendipity and serendipity ignites your creativity.
- Take the less worn path. The one that does not have a safe, predictable outcome.
- Stop long enough to feel what is tugging on your soul. Follow where it leads you, even I it doesn’t seem practical.
- Eliminate the word “should” from your vocabulary. One seldom meets serendipity while wrestling with what they should be doing.

Now that we are retired, we have more open hours in a day. More time to let serendipity in. Yet, I forget. I get so focused on the task at hand, and the task after that one, that I get tunnel vision. With spring just around the corner (O.K. – I might be overly optimistic) I am trying to be more available to the present moment and whatever gift that it provides. Allow myself to be caught up in the moment and where it leads. It is time to invite more serendipity into my life. Be more aware of the simple joy of the unexpected. And what better time than Valentine’s Day to start living the sweet life.