List some of the “usual” milestones in life:
- Birth (obviously)
- First day of school
- First kiss
- Prom
- Driver’s license
- First job
- Graduating from high school
- Leaving for college (if you leave home)
- Graduating from college
- Getting your first “real job”
- Getting married
- Buying your first house
- Having kids
- Getting promoted
- Starting your own business
- Getting your first boat (or other big toy)
- Selling that big toy
- Seeing your kids graduate from high school, college, etc.
- Retirement
The list is unending and varies for each individual.
There’s another list that matters even more. Your list of power moments. Moments that happen, usually out of nowhere, that change the direction of your life. These moments make your milestones possible.
Here are just a few of mine (there are many more):
- Meeting a lifelong friend while microwaving a frozen burrito at work.
- Playing bingo for the first time in my life and meeting the woman I would marry a few years later.
- Accidentally taking an introduction to computers class that convinced me to change my major and never look back.
- Running a warm-up lap and finding myself on the pole vault squad at the end of that lap.
- Out of curiosity, attending the first HOA Board meeting after buying our house and getting elected to serve with someone I would never have met otherwise…and having him as a friend for nearly 28 years (and counting).
- Getting a phone call from that lifelong frozen burrito friend, asking if I know anything about the notary business. My answer was, “No.” I took the job anyway and began an awesome thirteen-year odyssey at that company.
It turns out that most of the power moments in our lives are chance encounters with the right people at the right time.
What makes them the right people? What makes it the right time?
I doubt we will ever know, but I bet it has more to do with openness than anything else. Our openness to this new person, their ideas, their strengths, their weaknesses. Our openness to letting these people impact our lives more than they will ever know, and without even trying.
I’ve heard it said that we’re less than five degrees of separation from everyone else on the planet. While that may be true, I believe we’re only one person away from the next bold chapter in our journey through life…if we’re open to the possibilities.
Photo Credit: Unsplash.com, Treza Trisnandhy
Encouragement is Personal 