Score. Contract. Date.
Have you ever been at the right place at the right time? Was it serendipity, intuition or was a greater force at work?
Did you listen to a little voice that told you to do a specific thing? Were you even aware of the events, thoughts and images that preceded your decision to take action?
Once we begin to pay full attention to what we're engaged in, we are able to listen to our inner voice (intuition) and then act accordingly. This allows us to seize (and see) the moments as they arise. One of the best ways to do this is to activate the power of our heart by learning some effective techniques that are enhanced with the use of powerful educational technology.
This is one of my "right place, right time" stories:
"Anne" stopped at my booth at a trade show and was very interested in going through my coaching program to help her deal with the stress of a car accident. She took my card and left me her number. When I later tried to call her the number was not in service.
Several weeks later, I decided to go to the grocery store at what would be an unusual time of day for me and was surprised to see Anne walking down the sidewalk. I pulled over into a parking lot and called to her. Her first comment was, "Gee, I was just thinking about you and wondering where I put your card!"
I invite you to share your "right place, right time" stories.
Hi Marianna,
Absolutely! Quite possibly right this second as I found your question in my RSS feed and decided to answer – who knows what it could lead to!
Seriously, as a journalist I often found myself at the right place and right time to land many terrific stories and since being in business as a public relations company it has been much the same with amazing energy between those I encounter and myself.
Honestly though, I believe this is down to attitude. If you have a positive outlook you spot the opportunities and have the courage to seize them. So whilst you might consider that serendipity (my all time favourite word incidentally) creates a situation or encounter – it is only you who can make the most of that and be sure that you are in the right place at the right time.
Take your lovely country! I made some terrific friends with a couple from Toronto after we happened to be on the same trek in Tasmania a few years ago. I knew I wanted to visit them and introduce my wife to them and we had been talking about it the very day we happened across the opportunity to enter a stand up comedy competition… I entered and subsequently won us a trip to the Montreal Comedy Festival – just up the road from Toronto and I got to see my friends!
Serendiptious? Absolutely! But what happened beyond that was down to the people involved.
Thanks for your enthusiastic post, Nigel!
Yes, who knows?
Speaking of energy (or should that be ‘synergy?), I find that I have the honour of working with great clients. Sounds like you do, too!
So, here’s to synchronicity and to ‘keeping the radio tuned to the station’, so the ‘signal’ comes in clearly & coherently!
Thanks for a great question. Mine was a wrong number, right connection story.
About ten years ago I had attended a writers’ workshop and shortly thereafter had a letter to a local newspaper published as an opinion column on Memorial Day. My confidence was a little stronger as a result, and my college mentor, John E. Hallwas, had recently had a book, The Bootlegger: A Story of Small-Town America, published. I felt I could give Dr. Hallwas no greater thanks than by reviewing his book. The challenge was to find a publication which would print it.
In one of Dr. Hallwas’s courses, I’d learned to write both scholarly and popular book reviews, so I called directory assistance and asked for the phone number for the Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society. Instead, the operator gave me the phone number of Illinois’s oldest downstate newspaper, The State Journal-Register of Springfield, Ill. My connection there, the late Doug Pokorski, was familiar with Dr. Hallwas’s work, so he asked me to send the review and he’d take a look.
Fortunately, he liked it. That was the first of a number of Illinois-related reviews I did for the paper over the next couple years. Thanks to the wrong number, right connection, I had a portfolio to present when a communications job opened at the company where I worked as a customer service representative. My published works helped me to land the job I have today.
Right place, right time – wrong number, right connection – either way, it’s been a blessing in my life. I work for a great company with super people and get to do what I love doing – putting words on paper. And, though I don’t have time right now to freelance for The State Journal-Register, I still read it every day. Someday, I still hope to have something published in the Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society – and if my dreams really come true, it will be something I’ve written about Abraham Lincoln!
As Walt Disney said, “All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.”
Links:
http://www.sj-r.com/
http://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/83gwq9st9780252068447.html
http://www.historyillinois.org/Publications/Journal_Information%20for%20authors.htm
Hi Ann:
I love it! Amazing how events/synchronicity (to use Nigel’s favourite word!)/The Universe…whatever you wish to call it, made it possible for you to move towards fulfilling your dreams.
I’m sure that you will get to publish your Abraham Lincoln story – the trick is perseverance and of course, being in the right time at the right place! (Ha! Got that mixed up, but maybe not! :))
Thanks for the Walt Disney quote! It bears repeating.
“Earlier this year, I lost one of my bigger clients. Their budget had been cut and they decided to cancel several training sessions and bring the rest in house. In February, I went to deliver my last session. Things finished early and I arrived at the airport in time to catch an earlier flight to New York (on standby–I wasn’t supposed to be on the flight). I lost my first class upgrade, but I was happy to be getting home a few hours earlier than I otherwise would have.
A gentleman sat next to me and we began to chat. He was flying home from his annual strategy meeting with his boss. At the meeting, he told his boss that he wanted to implement a training curriculum for his engineers that included “the fundamentals” — presentation skills, conflict management, facilitation skills, etc. He even showed me the notes he had scratched during the meeting. “Is that something that you do?” he asked. In essence, it’s EVERYTHING I do!
In short, we connected and this man’s company is now my single biggest client. We entered into an agreement to deliver an entire “fundamentals” training curriculum for his engineering team. The first sessions were so well-received that we were asked to expand beyond engineering and offer the programs to the entire division.
I wasn’t supposed to be on that flight, but I TRULY believe that I was on that flight for a reason. I absolutely believe in the power of the universe. If you put something out there — a power, an energy, etc. — the universe will respond.”
Your story demonstrates how, if we get out of our way and just accept what is happening, we get more than what we initially envisioned.
I love the surprise element. You set your compass for one direction, but forces greater than you corrected your ‘sails’, bringing you to an even better ‘harbour’.