put your psychological antennae up and come out of your normal shell. What have you got to lose

Personal Development and the Curious Case of the Intimate Stranger by Willie Horton
Consider where you are in life at the moment - in your career or business and in your relationships,I went to sleep last night with fantasies of all I would get done today. Up at 6. Isn't it true to say that they most important people in your life today were once complete and total strangers,3166 Ugg Sheepskin Cuff Tall Sand Boots? For some reason, at some particular point in your life, you connected with strangers who have made, quite possibly, a life-long difference - for better or for worse. In fact, if you actually think about it, you are where you are as a result of a series of seemingly random events. However, whether it be Carl Jung's concept of synchronicity, Deepak Chopra's take on 'synchro-destiny' or quantum physics' ideas on quantum entanglement, it may well be that these events were neither coincidental nor random.
Be that as it may, your short reflection on the now intimate though one-time strangers in your life, should have alerted you to something that can potentially move your life in all the wonderful directions that you heart desires - I am assuming that you have some idea of what you really what out of life, of course. If you haven't, then how are you going to get it! The key point that I'm making is that there are undoubtedly other important strangers roaming around out there who have the potential to take you life in all kinds of exciting and rewarding directions. The difficulty is that you've no idea who they are!
Unfortunately, normal people often think they know who the next most important person in their lives is. They think it's going to be the person that interviews them for the job they really want - or they think they'll meet them when they go for their American Idol or X Factor audition. Consequently, they prepare themselves for what they perceive as the big event - when the big event may is going on right before your very eyes. Life does not work according to your plans - the best things in life just happen - and, more often than not, you already have the evidence to prove it. The real business of life is done by what the normal person might consider chance. I have seen so many clients' careers change as a result of apparently chance encounters in bars, in elevators, on trains, in airport lounges waiting for delayed flights - I've even seen people's lives changed as a result of people quite literally bumping into each other in road accidents,"Actions!
Not only are you wrong if you think that you will get what you want out of life by rigorously following some preconceived plan, you also, as a normal person have a couple of major problems on your hands. First of all, as a child, you were probably told never to talk to strangers. This was done with good reason at the time - but the subconscious mind is still clutching on to the subliminal message that you must avoid all strangers at all costs. Next time you're on a train, metro, tube, subway or bus, next time you're in an elevator, notice how careful people are to avoid eye contact and, if possible, any form of contact at all. And, yet you could be standing next to the next most important stranger in your life in the elevator. How will you know if you don't make some form of connection?
But, in trying to making a connection, we have a further problem. Normal adults normally make no connection at all - even with people that they think they're actually connecting with. From childhood, we have developed a capacity for categorization - essentially a psychological facility that means that we don't have to waste our precious attention on evaluating and making an appropriate value judgment in relation to anyone new that we meet in our lives. There's the odd exception to this mindlessness - the most notable being when you fall head-over-heels in love with someone because, in doing so, your subconscious attention is grabbed. That aside, you never really meet any of the new people that you think you meet. Your subconscious mind makes up your mind for you within about four seconds - not enough time to even learn their name! Worst of all, you've no idea this is going on because it is subconscious.
So, given that the people who are of paramount importance in your life today were once complete and total strangers and given that we all have to keep moving and growing in our lives (disagree with this and you might as well finish yourself off because you're already as good as dead!), how are you going to spot the next most important stranger? You're going to have to let yourself off the leash of normal programming that stops you taking the tiny leap of faith that is required to actually and simply engage with your fellow human being. The funny thing is that, when you do, you will find that others are crying out for a little contact. Now, I'm not suggesting that you start behaving inappropriately in public places! What I am suggesting is, however, that you open your eyes, tune into the reality of the here and now,but is it even worth entering one at this point, put your psychological antennae up and come out of your normal shell. What have you got to lose? Because there's so much more out of life to be gained.
Copyright (c) 2010 Willie Horton