Game On! Most Companies Rally Behind B-Ball Fun at Work

Game On Most Companies Rally Behind B-Ball Fun at WorkGame On Most Companies Rally Behind B-Ball Fun at WorkGAME ONMOST COMPANIES RALLY BEHIND B-BALL FUN AT WORKWhat managers say about college basketball playoff activities in the office72% say they increase staff moraleCities that report the biggest morale boost1 Des Moines, Indianapolis (tie)2 Raleigh3 Dallas, Detroit, Salt Lake City (tie)52% see productivity benefitsCities that report the biggest productivity boost1 Miami2 Los Angeles3 Detroit75% of companies organize sports-related festivities.How companies celebrate45% Friendly competitions43% Wearing team apparel29% Watching games28% Decorating workspaces(Multiple responses were permitted.)Cities with the most companies that celebrate sports1 Des Moines2 Austin, Chicago, Indianapolis (tie3 Miami

Go Zen When Workplace Conflict Gets in the Way

Go Zen When Workplace Conflict Gets in the WayGo Zen When Workplace Conflict Gets in the WayGo Zen When Workplace Conflict Gets in the Way Sanker, author of Collaborate The species of We (Jossey-Bass, 2012)When workplace conflict seems to be getting in the way of the groups progredienz or interfering with relationships, consider whether people are doing any of the followingFocusing on personalities and personal traits instead of on issues or ideasArguing for positions, instead of focusing on ideas for achieving a resultShooting down one anothers ideasBeing judgmentalTrying to control the direction of the discussionTalking instead of listeningFocusing on trivial pointsGoing off on tangentsPushing for a solution or decision before everyones ideas have been heardKeep the Focus on the Common GoalIn the heat of workplace conflict, it can be easy for people to forget about the shared goal that is the reason for the collaboration.When workplace conflict seems to be bogging the group down or having negative effects on relationships, bring the focus back to what you are all working together to achieve.For example, start every meetingwith a recap of what youre trying to achieve and how your teams work will help you get there. The team leader assumes a coach-like role when dealing with internal conflict within the group.If a conflict between team members is allowed to continue in a sports setting, it will be detrimental to the team as a whole and they will likely begin losing competitions. In the same manner, internal conflict is damaging to a business team.The focus and energy must be placed on making the collaboration a successful one.Resolve Personal Conflicts Quickly and PrivatelyIts a beautiful thing when youre collaborating with someone who can practically complete your sentences.Its less beautiful when you must constantly smooth the ruffled feathers of participants who differ in their viewpoints, workstyles, or attitudes. Some teams are riddled with such personal c onflicts. Those teams are usually short-lived and accomplish little of value.As a group, you need to agree to foster an environment that is tolerant of different ideas and opinions, but not tolerant of personal slights or drama-infused conflicts.Critiques should be kept to the ideas expressed and not the people behind them. Personal conflicts need to be resolved outside the group, or if the members cant work it out, both need to go.Maintaining Commitment to the ProjectCollaboration requires mora than an initial enthusiasm about the common goal. It requires an ongoing commitment from everyone in the group. That commitment keeps people energized and involved even when the project bogs down or encounters difficult obstacles.Agreement on the shared goal, trust, free and open communication, and an effective conflict resolution process go a long way toward maintaining the initial commitment.Here are some other steps the group can take.Clarify Roles and ResponsibilitiesTo stay committed, p eople need to feel involved, useful, and valued throughout the collaboration process. That means making sure that every member of the group knows what he or she is supposed to do and how that effort contributes to achieving the goal.Because not everyone will be involved at every stage of the project, the group needs to pay special attention to keeping people in the communication loop and finding ways to engage the less active participants regularly.Respect Peoples Other PrioritiesThe people who participate in collaborative projects usually have a lot on their plate. When setting priorities, the group needs to consider other responsibilities and projects that could impact members commitment to the collaboration process and project deadlines.Members who have very little time or schedule flexibility should disclose this. The group may decide that the project requires too much time for that person to participate and can look for a different team member.Recognize Accomplishments and Cele brate MilestonesDepending on the issue, a collaborative project might take anywhere from a few hours to a number of years. Thus it is important to keep everyones head in the game through some occasional recognition of success.This does not have to be formal or costly, but should simply call attention to the fact that the groups commitment to the project has paid off in the short term and indicate that continued commitment will allow them to accomplish the final goal.The morale boost of, say, a group lunch can bring new energy to the project and inspire confidence as they begin working on their next milestone.Reprinted by permission of the publisher, John Wiley Sons, Inc., from Collaborate The Art of We by Dan Sanker.Copyright (c) 2012 by John Wiley Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.Author BioDan Sanker (Fayetteville, AR) is the Founder, CEO and President of CaseStack, a company that has been recognized as one of the fastest growing companies in the US by Inc Magazine, Entrepreneur an d PricewaterhouseCoopers. Under his leadership, the Company has been chosen as One of the Best Places to Work, and noted for its innovative technology and collaborative relationships.Sanker has held leadership positions at Procter Gamble, Nabisco, Deloitte, and KPMG, and he has been published, quoted, or profiled in numerous publications including The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times.

Learning How to Find the Right Career

Learning How to Find the Right Career Learning How to Find the Right Career If you start off with a clear career plan, you can save yourself time and energy in positions that are just the wrong fit for you. You can get a crash course in how to find a career by following some simple processes.Visit a Career CounselorWhether you are in high school or college, there is a career or guidance counselor available that can show you how to find the right career for you. A counselor may offer you a variety of personality or career tests or simply talk with you to determine your interests and show you how to find a career that will be rewarding. Career tests can help you to narrow down your interests. With some insight from your career counselor and a strong test, you will be able to choose a good career for you.Take Online TestsMany online career aptitude tests exist online and can help you in your quest to find a great career. As with tests in a career counselors office, ansicht tests will not spell out for you how to find the right career, but they will help you to understand your personality. Understanding yourself and your preferences enables you to see why one career may be a better choice for you. Once you have this information, you can narrow down your career choices.Research CareersThe Occupational Outlook Handbook, published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics, lists thorough information about different careers. You can find information related to educational requirements, expected salaries, and even working conditions in different. This is important information to consider as you find the right career for yourself. While this information also does not spell out for you a step-by-step method for finding the right career, knowledge is indeed power.As you set out to find the perfect career, do not discount the information you can glean from the people you meet and see every day. Ask people about their jobs if you find what they do interesting or research the professions as you run across them. Learning how to find the right career is not difficult, but you will be richly rewarded for spending the time to learn what career is best for you.

Downplaying Short Tenures on a Medical Resume

Downplaying Short Tenures on a Medical ResumeDownplaying Short Tenures on a Medical ResumeLifetime employees are a thing of the past, but multiple short-tenured jobs arent exactly what this health-care executive wanted to lead with.The days of 30-year tenures are gone. But the connotation of a job hopper lives on. Though employers are becoming more lenient with short tenures due to the recession, job seekers are still worried about making a faulty first impression.Such was the case of Phillip Woellner, a senior-level health-care executive with experience in psychiatric and hospital management. Woellner was laid off from his job with Diamond Healthcare in the Richmond, Virginia and needed to to play down any gaps on his resume.I was explicit about getting beyond some of the dates that were on my resume, said Woellner. I was not a job hopper at all, but had some unfortunate timing with some of the companies I had worked for one that went under completely only after a few months of bein g there. The appearance of changing jobs frequently is a known turn off for recruiters and hiring managers, so Tina Brasher, a certified professional resume writer who works with Ladders, was keen on attending to the needs of her client by putting Woellners strengths at the very top section of the document, in his profile. Near the very top of his resume his experience as a VP, director and supervisor responsible for a 30 percent improvement in an inpatient program became highlighted.On his former resume, his profile was a tad too old fashioned. It had an objective statement, which is outdated, and was full of generalities like accomplished director of operations, said Brasher. He needed his profile boosted with quantified results and a layout that allowed for the tucking in of dates - so as to not draw more attention than necessary to some of the shorter term jobs he had.What are companies looking for from potential employees these days? said Brasher. People who can reduce costs a nd save them money. If you arent putting things in terms that display cost cutting, you need to rethink your whole resume.Brasher said she bolstered the document by showing off his experience with high-volume hospitals that made turnarounds, of working in start-up environments, and being able to wear many hats while hitting milestones and getting results. These are all key traits employers would be looking for in management-level positions in health care.Create a section without dates for jobs held years agoBrasher also allowed the resume to go back about eight years, and then created a special section on Page 2 of the resume called Prior Positions. There are no dates in this section, which certainly opens itself up for conversation in an interview.By leveraging what has already been read on Page One of the resume, the dates become less significant, said Brasher.The emphasis on these kinds of skills seems to be working. Within a few weeks upon receiving the new resume, Woellner has several interviews lined up. While Woellner realizes that its going to take some time to land a final offer, and could mean relocation to another state, hes confident hell make a good first impression.

The Appeal of Resume Designs Templates

The Appeal of Resume Designs Templates Since you may see, theres a vast range of freebies to select from. It has to be crafted well by providing each of the necessary details that have to be included in a decent resume. Several sites exist specifically to assist you make an attractive visual resume. A few of the templates are free while others cost a couple of dollars. Resumes dont have to be boring. They do not have to take so much of your time but still should not be neglected. Infographic-style resumes have gotten popular, and they are sometimes effective when done well. Both may be used to create chronological or functional resumes. Things You Should Know About Resume Designs Templates If you would like to find some samples for your reference Best Templates supplies a large selection of resume templates offered for download. With all these templates, it is helpful to have a guide to the very best modern resume designs available as part of an Elements subscription. U sing one of these ready-made templates, youll have a gelegenheit to have an expert CV free of charge and as quick as a flash. Apart from that, these templates can be printed without the cost of printing them on an industrial press. Resume Designs Templates Secrets Big selection of design style will make sure you will come across a resume template that fits with your taste. The styles can present your creative mind by means of visual elements that actually grab attention at a glance. Dont neglect to check out all our resume designs. Find several types of design styles to meet your industry to leave a long-lasting impression. There are many free creative resume templates youre able to use, enabling you to focus your energy on everything else you should do. Theres no doubt that the more artistic the more you are able to demonstrate that youre indeed someone creative for the position that theyre seeking to fill. And theres A LOT of distinct methods to customize your resume. A bi g issue with layouts that out-of-the-box is they overlook the employers needs. The Resume Designs Templates Trap This resume design works for any professional who would like to demonstrate they are daring enough to differ from the competition. Creative Resume Content Whichever creative resume design you pick, the content has to be no aufgabe to find and logically organized. Far more ways are readily available to enhance the executive curriculum vitae template of graphics designers. If youre on the lookout for a modern resume design that doesnt incorporate a conventional CV layout, this template will be convenient. Graphic design resume templates are sometimes an excellent learning tool for figuring out techniques to utilize in your design but employing a template like a fill in the blank form is merely likely to hurt your odds of employment. This absolutely free timeline-based resume template welches produced by graphic designer Patryk Korycki. These templates are excellent f or a graphic artist or designer by way of example, but if youre applying to become an accountant, you might want to go for an elegant or traditional design instead. The Lost Secret of Resume Designs Templates Whether you are a newcomer to the expert photography field or are attempting to raise your client base business cards are imperative. A better approach to showcase your skills is to produce an attempt to discover clever strategies to add them inside the experience bullet points. The times you ought to use a creative resume are fewer than when you need to use a formal resume. In case you have any volunteer work or whether youve been a working student before, do not neglect to list them down in your experience resume. Getting the Best Resume Designs Templates If you are planning to create a resume with a basic resume template, here are helpful strategies for you to be guided. Not to mention the simple fact our templates are professionally done from scratch so that you are able to personalize them according to your preference. Each template offers structure, examples and tips so you dont need to start from scratch when creating your resume. Employing a resume template is now an acceptable and smart practice for quite a few reasons. Resume Designs Templates Options Every resumes objective is to endorse the personal experience and capabilities, that is the reason why you should highlight your vast understanding of a specific field if you lack some work experiences or if you would like to enrich your mastery. Ensure you keep this in mind when writing your resume. Finding it hard to set your creative abilities into concrete words. A resume usually presents personal background info, skills, together with accomplishments. What Is So Fascinating About Resume Designs Templates? Based on the sort of application process youre addressing, it could be appropriate to include samples of your work in your CV. Regardless what position it could be, every job- hunter should not neglect to get a resume during the full job-hunting practice. Resumes supply the all important first impressions to an employer an applicant cant give during the first phase of the application practice. Customize the template to coordinate with your institutions referral program policies. It includes the fonts and icons, in addition to the Photoshop resume template, and is completely editable. This template from Beautiful Resumes features vibrant colours, but you may just as easily get the exact saatkorn effect having a more subtle color scheme. Try out the Infographic Resume template if you desire a special and contemporary look. You might get your hands on such templates for just $15. This easy and absolutely free Word template is contained in this list not due to its design but due to what the concept and structure of an extensive CV needs to be. Much like the Envato Elements library, there are a lot of templates to pick from that it will help to have an assortment of the best choices.

Writing Your First Cs Resume Exposed

Writing Your First Cs Resume Exposed Life After Writing Your First Cs Resume This offers you the occasion to prepare a customized resume and submit your application at the suitable time, to the correct individual. Now its time to produce your first resume. Writing your resume for the digital age is the initial step in making certain youre getting every chance to produce the ideal impression. By putting in some work, and adhering to a strategy, you can make an effective resume that gives a great start on the work industry. Details of Writing Your First Cs Resume Your resume is your very first opportunity to produce a positive impression on your upcoming employee. To raise your chances of making it past the ATS screening, you ought to carefully review the job posting youre responding to and make sure your resume contains the search phrases and abilities mentioned in the announcement. It is leid ideal that we must use only a resume to figure out who might be the correct candid ate for the job. Frequently the individual writing the requirements isnt even the very same person who makes the hiring decision. But a professional resume needs to be black-and-white and traditionally formatted. Be certain the provider accepts PDF resumes. On account of the screening programs companies use for sifting through candidates, the very best resumes are those which are written especially for each corporation. What You Should Do to Find Out About Writing Your First Cs Resume Before Youre Left Behind You need your resume to seem full but not too overcrowded. If you are in need of a quick kick-start on developing a template first, have a look at a resume builder before employing a professional. Your resume should consist of discrete sections that address different requirements a hiring manager would like to see. Writing generic resume is never wise as every job differs. Writing your first resume may look like a daunting job. Writing your first resume may look l ike a tricky job. Writing your very first resume is a really challenging endeavor. Vital Pieces of Writing Your First Cs Resume Offer your resume an expert look As we mentioned, recruiters frequently have to review hundreds of resumes at a moment. Resumes ought never to be written in third individual. Keep in mind that in the real world, they are a little different. The standard of your writing should be ideal. Learning how to do a resume when do not have any work experience is quite a bit easier if you may demonstrate some seasonal or short-term work experience. Writing a quality resume isnt straightforward. So once youre contemplating how to compose a resume, dont forget that you need to be selling your abilities and accomplishments, not only listing your work history and your old responsibilities. Even if you create an outstanding impression with your resume, not all jobs will be perfect for you. Here are some suggestions to help you nail your first resume. Our resum e builder (youre able to create your resume here) will provide you tips and examples on the best way to compose your resume summary or some other section. Our resume builder gives you tips and examples on how best to compose your resume summary.

Youth suicides spiked after release of Netflixs 13 Reasons Why

Youth suicides spiked after release of Netflixs 13 Reasons WhyYouth suicides spiked after release of Netflixs 13 Reasons WhyEarly warnings about Netflixs 13 Reasons Why glorifying teen suicides might be valid after a new study found suicides among Americas youth spiked nearly a third shortly after the show first aired.Research published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry said there was nearly a 30% increase in suicide among Americas youth - ages 10-17 - in the month that followed the shows first episode, which aired in March 2017.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and moreThe show, which chronicles a teenage girls suicide, initially sparked fear shortly after it made its debut. The National Association of School Psychologists warned of the negative effects of the show, claiming the show may lead impressionable viewers to romanticize the choices made by characters and/or develop revenge fantasies.NetflixThe release of 13 Reasons Why was associated with a significant increase in monthly suicide rates among U.S. youth aged 10 to 17 years. Caution regarding the exposure of children and adolescents to the series is warranted, the studys authors claim.Researchers found the number of suicides in April 2017 was much higher than any month over the five-year span that was examined in the study. The rate of suicides among Americas ages 10 to 17 rose to 28.9%, while there were 195 more youth suicides in the nine months following the shows release than expected.Netflix included warnings in some episodes and promoted suicide awareness throughout the series. They also started a website which offered help to those thinking about suicide.A spokesperson for the streaming giant released a statement to The Associated Press saying Netflix was looking into the study and research.The spokesperson also pointed toward another recent study, published b y University of Pennsylvania researchers last week, which conflicted the new findings and found that young adults between ages 18-29 who viewed the entirety of the shows second season reported declines in suicide ideation and self-harm relative to those who did not watch the show at all.The third season is currently in production and expected to release later this year.You might also enjoyNew neuroscience reveals 4 rituals that will make you happyStrangers know your social class in the first seven words you say, study finds10 lessons from Benjamin Franklins daily schedule that will double your productivityThe worst mistakes you can make in an interview, according to 12 CEOs10 habits of mentally strong people

Research About How Work-Life Benefits Improve Productivity

Research About How Work-Life Benefits Improve ProductivityResearch About How Work-Life Benefits Improve ProductivityIn March 2009, CEB (formally known as The Corporate Executive Board) release a study it conducted on work life benefits. All links to this study have been deleted but there are still many articles written about it (including this one). Here is what former Working Moms Expert Kathrine Lewis had to say about this study Effective work-life benefits encourage employees to work harder and discourage them from quitting their jobs, according to research by the Corporate Executive Board. Contrary to conventional wisdom, men and women hold similar views of work-life benefits, the board found in a survey of over 50,000 global workers. Moreover, star employees assign alfruchtwein as much importance to work-life balance as other employees and have similar work-life preferences. The report found that people who are happy with their work-life benefits Work 21 percent harderAre 33 per cent more likely to plan to stay at that organization Existing Work-Life Benefits Current work-life benefits could be better, the report found. Only 16 percent of employees are satisfied with their organizations work-life practices. Nearly a third of workers are skimping on work to meet personal commitments. The majority of people dont even know whats available to them. Fewer than one-third of employees are aware of their employers work-life offerings. Work-life benefits might include permission for telecommuting, flexible hours and on-site or subsidized child care. Of those who are aware, only 25 percent say those offerings match their preferences. And more than half of employees never use the available work-life benefits. Which Work-Life Benefits Do Employees Want? Employees prefer work-life benefits that help them manage their workload. For instance, they like flexible work schedules, an appropriate amount of work and predictable working hours. When asked about the five m ost desirable employer practices, 63 percent of employees included a flexible work schedule62 percent cited an appropriate workload13 percent was the average for all other work-life practices. Recommendations for Employers Companies should improve their work-life benefits and communicate them to employees, the report suggested. Employees dont necessarily have to use work-life practices to generate positive returns for the organization, the researchers noted. Awareness of the work-life proposition is, in fact, slightly more important than consumption of it. The most powerful factors that increase awareness and use of work-life benefits are Peers visibly using work-life practicesClear implementation guidelinesEmployee control The report noted that there are significant geographical differences in work-life preferences. Edited by Elizabeth McGrory

Synchronicity Creating your own luck through your own efforts

Synchronicity Creating your own luck through your own effortsSynchronicity Creating your own luck through your own effortsHumans are split between two worlds The first is the world of space and time, cause and effect, energy and matter the second is the world of histories and futures, stories and meanings, memories and hopes.The happenings of the first world can be measured and predicted as a way to understand the deep past and, sometimes, assume the far future. Cause and effect connect this world When you do something here, your actions are bound by the logic unearthed by the laws of physics. This is the world your body lives in, and its a world your body has to live in harmony with.The happenings of the second world, however, are complex and uncertain. They are a product of the collisions that occur whenever a multitude of infinitely varied experiences come together to produce new joint experiences. This is the world of our individual and collective minds. Stories and meanings conn ect this world. History is a story the future is a story memories are shaped by meaning hopes are shaped by meaning. And its this second world that makes the first world rich and granular that adds color where there is otherwise only an outline.When these two worlds come into contact with each other, something interesting happens. In a world without humans, physical processes are either deterministic or random things happen, and thats that. In a world with humans, however, they are that, sure, but they are also judged to be good or bad relative to an observer meaning what happens in the world can be valued on a spectrum, a spectrum of fortune and misfortune.The Oxford English Dictionary defines luck as Success or failure apparently brought by chance rather than through ones own actions. This definition suggests that you cant ever create luck through your own efforts but you can adjust your exposure to luck by managing your actions. The more intention you apply, and the better that i ntention aligns with reality, the less you leave up to chance. The less you leave up to chance, the less likely it is that bad luck is going to disrupt your life, and the more likely it is that good luck simply isnt needed. In a way, this is the same as creating your own luck, but it lacks the serendipity that makes luck what it is.To be lucky, then, cant primarily be about action it has to be about interpretation, about what the meaning of something is. Its not hard to imagine how two people can have the same thing occur to them but make sense of this thing very differently, where one considers it to be a great fortune, while the other thinks of it as a great misfortune. The vorstellung itself is secondary. The important thing is how well the event fits into the existing story of the person experiencing said event.Managing our actions allows us to reduce the slings and arrows of chance in the first world, the world of space and time, which alters our exposure to luck both good and bad but its only the second world, the world of stories and meanings, that enables us to create what can be called luck.There is an incident the psychotherapist Carl Jung shares in his biography about a client he once had, a client that came to him at a low point in his life. Over time, however, with the help of Jung, this client began to make progress. Not only that, but he even developed a great friendship with Jung. But the clients wife, a possessive woman, didnt like this. Jealous of the time her husband welches spending with his therapist, she asked the man to prematurely stop the sessions against Jungs best recommendations. And he did.The way Jung tells it is that a few months later, he welches at a conference out of town. He had just returned to his hotel room late at night, and as he was ready to get into bed, he heard a loud crack and then felt a sudden pressure on his skull. Looking around, he found nothing no sign of life, no sign of fallen items, no sign of other disturb ances. The next morning, however, he received a call informing him that his old client had passed away the night before. The cause? A self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head around the same time Jung was getting back to his hotel room.This story reflects a personal superstition Jung had throughout his life He was a believer in the paranormal. He thought that two people or two events could be connected to each other beyond cause and effect and through meaning that is, say, a husband and a wife who have loved each other for decades would be capable of sharing a deep, inner bond beyond actions confined by space and time, almost as if this meaning existed on a different plane of existence altogether. He called this synchronicity.Today, scientists have diverged away from Jungs superstitious intuition, and they attribute synchronicity more to coincidence than they do paranormal forces. That said, its generally accepted that it plays an important role in how we understand the world we int eract with. There might not be a logical connection between a husband feeling an uneasy pressure in his heart while at the supermarket and the heart-attack suffered by his wife of 30 years at exactly the same time elsewhere, but if thats what he feels, it completely changes how he understands his life first, in the realm of stories and meanings, and subsequently, in the realm of space and time.These examples of synchronicity may at first appear detached from the idea of luck, but at its core, the process of identifying synchronous experiences is the same as the process of creating luck. When two disparate events are connected in your mind as having a relation beyond physical cause and effect, you are creating meaning. When you create meaning, you reconfigure your attention to see more connections in a random world. When you see more connections in a random world, you are more likely to notice luck where you might not have before because your surface area of recognition is greater yo ur attention is more attuned to certain surroundings.There is nothing lucky about Jungs old client taking his own life or an old mans wife suffering a heart-attack, but the fact that both people made the connections they did changes how they interact with their loved ones moving forward it changes what they remember, what they expect, what they value, what they are grateful for, what they are moved by. As long as their feet are planted on the ground in the real world, assigning the meanings they do to the coincidences in their lives only adds more beauty, more potentiality to the depth and the richness of their experiences.By definition, the creation of luck lies beyond intentional action. Its something that happens, something that happens randomly yet fits into your life perfectly. Its this fitness between randomness and the reality of our lived experiences that synchronicity helps establish, and its this same fitness that generates meaning and, thus, luck.Whether we realize it or not, we all make use of synchronicity in various non-obvious ways. Some people, naturally, do this more than others. In fact, a small minority take it so far they ignore the fact that we live in a physical world dictated by laws that dont bend to their personal expectations. And thats a problem. That said, being intentional about assigning synchronous meanings can yield gifts that are otherwise hidden, and those who ignore this possibility also ignore a level of beauty not found in a world of pure causes and pure effects. There is a certain magic that comes with generating your own luck, and if approached with humility and awe, this magic can spark up a special sense of aliveness and vividity.Personally, I spend a fair amount of time meeting new people in my life. I enjoy interesting company, so this is one of the things I value and prioritize. And yet, sometimes, meeting new people can be exhausting the novelty wears off, the next person begins to resemble the last person, and my o wn boredom with it all can make even the most fascinating encounter appear mundane. Its often the same with email. Because of my writing, Im fortunate enough to have a lot of really thoughtful people reach out to me on a daily basis. These interactions arent something I would trade for the world. But, sometimes, due to the sheer volume, it can departure to feel like a task.Recently, I have started to ask myself a simple question anytime I find myself falling into these habit patterns Why is this person in my life, right now, in this particular moment? To be sure, Im not inclined towards believing that some divine plan has brought them here or that its anything more than a coincidence, but the simple act of treating it like there might be a reason for it is generally enough to open my eyes wide enough to actually see the person who they are, how their life is colliding with my own, and all of the interesting things I could potentially learn from them.And true enough Because Im sudden ly paying attention to the words coming out of the other persons mouth or listening to the actual voice behind the writing in the email, I notice things that I otherwise would not. Sometimes its something as simple as realizing that a certain book recommendation is exactly what I need at a particular point in my life, one that I wouldnt have found without the stranger emailing it to me, one that perhaps even changes the trajectory of my life. Other times, its seeing that the person who just introduced themselves to me has qualities that I admire, a few that I even lack, and that I find that moving and inspiring and that I want to spend more time with them, time that may even lead to a relationship that, one day, I will look back on, not able to imagine having been without.Both people and events travel along paths, and every time they merge with other paths, they create new paths. Along these new paths, there are new meanings, new coincidences, new sources of luck. But new paths dont always get walked because we dont always have the vision to take them. Synchronicity is that vision, and helped with intention, its a vision that creates and generates worlds worlds of beauty and serendipity, life and zest, but most of all, worlds of potential, the potential for something brighter, something gentler, and perhaps, something a little more human.Want to think and live smarter? Zat Rana publishes a free weekly newsletter for 30,000+ readers atplan Luck.Thisarticlewas originally published onDesign Luck.