Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is about how to put more serendipity into
Speaker 1: your life. This will help you find new ideas and
Speaker 1: new opportunities. Serendipity will also help you stretch the experience
Speaker 1: of time by making it more memorable. First, I want
Speaker 1: to say that routines are great. It's also fun to
Speaker 1: become a regular at place as you enjoy, which we'll
Speaker 1: talk about in an upcoming episode. But when life becomes
Speaker 1: too routine, that means you're doing the same things over
Speaker 1: and over again. You can start to feel in a rut.
Speaker 1: You need to introduce new material in order to get
Speaker 1: things going. Fortunately, there are lots of ways to introduce
Speaker 1: serendipity into life. The easiest way is to tweak your
Speaker 1: routines just a bit. Here are five ideas. One, if
Speaker 1: it's possible in your job work from somewhere different one
Speaker 1: day a week. I thought it was so strange when
Speaker 1: a few years ago some organizations made headlines by canceling
Speaker 1: work from home arrangements. The idea is that there would
Speaker 1: be more serendipity when people were in the office bumping
Speaker 1: into co workers. I mean maybe, but if you're in
Speaker 1: your cubicle five days a week, that's a lot of routine.
Speaker 1: The best option might be three days in the office
Speaker 1: and two in a coworking space, coffee shop, library, or
Speaker 1: at home looking at something scenic from your back porch.
Speaker 1: Two meet someone intriguing for a quick breakfast, lunch, or
Speaker 1: coffee every other week and producer Brian Grazer's new book,
Speaker 1: Face to Face, he calls these meetings curiosity conversations. Ones
Speaker 1: you schedule just because you find the other person fascinating.
Speaker 1: Research the person you're meeting with beforehand, and be sure
Speaker 1: to share useful information and ask thoughtful questions. But you
Speaker 1: don't need to go in with any particular agenda. These
Speaker 1: conversations can lead to unexpected places, or maybe they won't.
Speaker 1: But the good news with coffee is that you've wasted
Speaker 1: less than an hour. When you get in the habit
Speaker 1: of meeting new people, you start looking for people to meet,
Speaker 1: and that could open up lots of possibilities. Three take
Speaker 1: the scenic route. No, you're not going to come up
Speaker 1: with a new commute daily, but the goal is to
Speaker 1: make time spent in transit not completely brainless. Mix it
Speaker 1: up between driving, using public transit, biking, and car pooling.
Speaker 1: If driving is the only option, try taking slightly different
Speaker 1: routes from time to time to make this seem more efficient.
Speaker 1: Add in a stop once a week or so, a
Speaker 1: new store, a park, a restaurant, a friend, place to
Speaker 1: say hello. Four Say yes. Sometimes there's much to be
Speaker 1: said for saying no to things we don't want to do.
Speaker 1: But the reason to say no is that this opens
Speaker 1: up space to say yes on occasion when things pique
Speaker 1: our interest. If co workers invite you to a new
Speaker 1: place for lunch, tag along. If you see an intriguing
Speaker 1: workshopper webinar offered, do it occasionally. Be the sort of
Speaker 1: person who decides to go to a jazz club on
Speaker 1: a Monday night. It will definitely be memorable. Five. Expand
Speaker 1: your inputs. I love to read things online, but one
Speaker 1: of the problems with this is that search engines and
Speaker 1: publications become very good at figuring out what you usually
Speaker 1: click on. Then you see more of that. You have
Speaker 1: to consciously fight this tendency to keep your reading material
Speaker 1: more serendipitous. I subscribe to a number of print publications
Speaker 1: because my actions don't influence that algorithm. While flipping through
Speaker 1: the pages, I inevitably come across something like an article
Speaker 1: on canned wine in the weekend Wall Street Journal that
Speaker 1: would not have shown up on my social media feed.
Speaker 1: It's not that anyone meeting article or trip to a
Speaker 1: bar will result in something special, though. You never know.
Speaker 1: I met my husband sixteen years ago because I stopped
Speaker 1: by a second bar one night when a friend happened
Speaker 1: to text to see if I was in the neighborhood.
Speaker 1: It's just that new ideas often stem from crossing new
Speaker 1: inputs with your existing knowledge and good habits. You don't
Speaker 1: get the new inputs if you always do the same thing.
Speaker 1: Introduce something random, though, and you never know what will happen.
Speaker 1: Maybe nothing much, but maybe something great. In the meantime,
Speaker 1: this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making
Speaker 1: the most of our time. M M Hey everybody, I'd
Speaker 1: love to hear from you. You can send me your tips,
Speaker 1: your questions, or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter,
Speaker 1: Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod that's B the
Speaker 1: number four then Breakfast p o D. You can also
Speaker 1: shoot me an email at Before Breakfast podcast at i
Speaker 1: heeart media dot com that before Breakfast is spelled out
Speaker 1: with all the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward
Speaker 1: to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of
Speaker 1: I heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.