The Butterfly Effect by Def Lepard

Yesterday was a terrific day. I started out the day spending it with someone I like very much who made me a wonderful breakfast, I made some great contacts for my business, I got free tickets to a concert with some of my very favorite people whom I don’t get to spend nearly enough time with, bumped into another dear friend whom I had lost contact with, and then in the parking lot after the concert, I ran into two friends from my puppyhood and we got to spend about 30 minutes hunting for our respective cars and chatting about life. Turns out we were parked about six spots away from each other. What are those odds? I spent good motion professionally and personally. I slept well.

Digesting this a bit more, it would have been really easy not to go. I am over-loaded with a pending move, behind in my marketing bootcamp assignments, I left late and could have stayed home. I was unfamiliar with the venue, arriving alone, a bit late. I like these people a lot but this is our first outside-of-work social event and I was kind of nervous. I parked about a mile away from the concert hall, didn’t know which entrance to go into and my cell phone was close to death. But I found a gate and got in without a ticket. I eventually hooked up with my peeps. After going for a beer and a pee, I got separated from my friend. It was while I was looking around that I found my friend who literally attended the home birth of my firstborn. It was dark as I walked back into the crowd to look for my hosts. I spent a few minutes hunting for them before I just gave up and stood alone feeling kind of conspicuous in the middle of the venue. Thought about going home but didn’t. My phone lasted. We texted and re-found each other. Some 80’s dancing later, we went to our respective exits having had a very fun time of it, and that is where I ran into my friends from, I kid you not, elementary school.

What if I had left the concert when I got separated? What if I hadn’t stepped out of my comfort level and gone? What if I just let my puppy friends pass without flagging them down? I wouldn’t have built a stronger friendship that matters to me with my hosts–one that I would like to invest more time in. I wouldn’t have caught up with my birthing buddy. I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to have access right back into my small town high school set? I wouldn’t have bought that $9 beer. And I wouldn’t have been able to dance very badly to Pyromania.

So get off your ass and go do that thing that you really don’t want to do but think might be good for you anyway. Choose expansion over contraction. Unless, of course, they are the right KIND of contractions!

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