Serendipity is the sparkle of everyday life

What gets you out of bed in the morning? What big things in your life charge you up and get you going? Those are typically easy questions to answer, everyone has dreams, drives, and wants that motivate them to move. But what about the small things… the tiniest of things that happen each day? How often do we take the time to stop and consider those extraordinarily small moments that make us smile?

Far too often we miss the little moments that make up our lives. Each day there are thousands of small things that take place in our lives that shape the way our day goes. So why do we only focus on the big events: promotions, new cars, substantial weight loss, and big wins? What happened to the small wins? The little things? Are the little things that make up the majority of our lives insignificant because they don’t come in grand packaging or with shiny paint jobs?

Serendipity is the sparkle of everyday life – the little moments that make up our existence are the bulk sum of events that also shape our existence.

Scenario A: Late for work, no time for coffee, late to your first meeting, no time for lunch, computer keeps crashing, missed afternoon deadline, spilled on your shirt,  missed the last bus home….

Scenario B: Up on time, on time to work, on time to your first meeting, had a normal lunch, computer working fine, made your afternoon deadline, didn’t spill on yourself, caught the bus home….

The only difference between these two scenarios are the way we allow ourselves to feel, or not to feel about them. The first makes us crabby, irritable, and would most commonly be considered a bad day. The second is normal, average – no frills. Why can’t an average day make us happy like a new car or a promotion or a great meal?

There is no reason that a day lived peacefully can’t or shouldn’t make us as happy as a big life event, the only reason it doesn’t is because we have been trained that only something that makes a splash is worth our excitement. This isn’t to say that there aren’t those out there who take the time to smell the roses, and appreciate the subtle moments in life – but most of us don’t.

Serendipity happens to us all day, everyday, every second we are alive – we just don’t acknowledge it. Because it’s not the new car or the promotion we’ve been waiting for we chance wasting our lives by never fully appreciating the sheer gift of existence. It’s just as easy to have a good day, as a bad day – each day is what we make it.

Decide today is going to be the first good day, made up of simple things, in a series of unbroken good days that make up the rest of your life.