Jung describes synchronicity as "a meaningful coincidence of two or more events, where something other than probability of chance is involved."
In his book Synchronicity: The Inner Path of Leadership, author Joseph Jaworski,
describes how chance meetings can be life changing, and shares this key insight from his own leadership journey -- "when we are in this state of being where we are open to life and all its possibilities, willing to take the next step as it is presented to us, then we meet the most remarkable people who are important contributors to our life."
And that is what I have found. When I am on the right path, I meet the people I am meant to meet and suddenly my journey has more meaning and depth. But you have to be open to such chance opportunities. You have to be open. Period.
When we are all closed up, holding our plans tight and not sharing them with anyone for fear that someone might steal the idea, mock and ridicule you, or just totally dismiss your dream, then we run the risk of losing out altogether, of not gaining the insights and feedback that might actually help make this dream come closer to becoming a reality.
What's spurred me to write this is a lunch meeting I had last week. For some time now I have been contemplating writing another book. I had even narrowed down what it would all be about. In the past my books have been more stories, and while I still believe in the strength and power of storytelling, I wanted this book to be more powerful, more deep and as a result, have more of an impact on the reader. I want it to be life changing.
So I am having lunch with one of my members, someone I admire and who I've known for over a year now, but this was really our first one-on-one time together. So in the course of our conversation, she mentions that she's giving a keynote and was a bit nervous about the prospect of talking in front of over 100 women and girls, many of whom she knew.
It was when I asked her what the topic was that her response gave me goosebumps. Why? Because the title of her talk, was exactly the same as my draft title for my book. So I shared what I wanted to do, and we talked about her research for the talk, the books she'd read and the video clips she'd watched, many of which I had done too. Suddenly our conversation was at a different level.
That would have been coincidence enough, but one of the books was written by someone who changed my life's direction over 12 years ago, and who I'd been trying to bring to Canada to speak. I hadn't read the book, but I knew all about it.
Our casual get-to-know-each-other-better lunch, had suddenly turned into a deep conversation on a topic we both cared about and shared an interest. I guess we could have just left it at that, as we obviously had more in common than we first thought.
But we didn't. Struck by the synchronicity of it all, we decided to talk further about how we can do this book together and how much richer it will be with her research and inquisitive mind and my story-telling skills.
I tell you...watch this space. I still get goosebumps as I share this story.