The role of serendipity in our lives.

[00:00:00] You're listening to the Daily 5, an experimental podcast by Aurooba, where I talk about something for five minutes. So let's get to it, shall we?

[00:00:16] You can't really plan for serendipity because by definition it's something that is unexpected, that happens by chance. And yet serendipity plays such a, I don't know, pivotal role, important role in life and the discoveries that have been made, the inventions that have been created, the realizations that people have had, the epiphanies.

[00:00:58] So how do you plan for [00:01:00] serendipity? You know, that's something that I've been thinking about because clearly, you know, a well lived life has a solid dose of serendipity in it. You cannot plan every single minute of every single day of your life.

[00:01:25] Like for example, think about you know, your passion or the things that you now enjoy, you didn't always know you enjoyed them. You most likely came across those things by chance, through serendipitous events. And then maybe it happened again and again and you realize that this was something you were interested in pursuing.

[00:01:50] And eventually it developed into something you like and maybe care deeply about. But it all began with serendipity, [00:02:00] um, it's actually a very important component of life, if you think about it. And we lead such busy lives now. You know, I, I was thinking about how I have group chat with a bunch of people and that group chat is dedicated to like figuring out times to hang out.

[00:02:24] And there's always these little like groups getting together from within that group chat and you know, having a dinner or doing a games night. And I was thinking about how like four weeks or something have gone by and I have yet to be able to make it to one of those. Because I am just so busy, my goodness, what am I doing that I am so busy that I cannot make it to one social engagement out of like 10 that I could have gone to and maybe met an interesting person or came up with a different idea or saw something from a [00:03:00] different angle.

[00:03:02] You know, why are we so busy? And I was thinking about how, in order for serendipity to be a part of our life, what we, the only thing we can do is create space in our lives, right? If I had space around eight o'clock last week, I could have gone to that random games night that just sort of happened, and I remember, you know, like in university?

[00:03:35] We would have all of these spontaneous events. Oh, we're spontaneously in the middle of the night going to this one pub or a cafe that happens to be open like super late, or we're randomly waking up and deciding to go for breakfast together or something with friends, you know, or someone you'd literally just met the other day.

[00:03:56] And we were able to do that because we had [00:04:00] space in our lives. Now as you grow up, yes, you have responsibilities and you know your time does fill up, but perhaps it's very important for us to schedule openness into our days too. You can't plan for serendipity, but you can leave room for it to occur and for your, and leave room for your ability to

[00:04:30] t ake advantage of it when it comes into your path. You know, that's, I don't know. It's been something that's been on my mind recently. Serendipity. Thanks for listening. Talk to you tomorrow.