Chance events

Have you ever had a ceiling crash down in front of you, a near miss? I have not. But a few weeks ago I went to a friend's CD release party at Denver's gorgeous (and old) Oriental Theater. Exactly a week later, I missed another show I'd considered going to. Immediately after that show ended, the ceiling above the stage caved in, crashing some large beams down onto the stage.

Wonderfully, no one was hurt. We might say the musicians who had just finished their encore were at the right place at the right time, even though a few minutes or a few feet would have changed that equation to wrong place at wrong time.

We've all had that feeling that we narrowly escaped something dreadful, just as we've all had important positive chance encounters that wouldn't have happened if we'd taken a later bus, gone out for pizza instead of Mexican, or watched Mythbusters instead of meeting friends out.

Think about how many things in your life up to this point have occurred by chance*, either for better or worse. In career development or a job search, people typically don't want to leave anything to chance – but chance events happen regardless. We miss an opportunity because we just learned about it, and the application deadline was yesterday (I'd recommend applying anyway, just in case). But we also meet just the right person because she happened to be invited to the same Halloween party, and we took the initiative to put on a costume and go.

It might be worth thinking about both sides of the equation for yourself. What would you do if the ceiling crashed, so to speak? And how can you keep yourself available for the fascinating, and sometimes life-changing, chance encounters and random events that come up?

*I know, I know – many people will say "nothing happens by chance, there's a reason for everything." That's a perspective that can be helpful to take, and maybe a topic for another post….