Take five minutes and write down three to five times in your life when something unexpected happened that caused a change in your plans. Don’t “think” as you write the list. Just make it as quickly as you can. List everything that comes to your mind without evaluating it.

It could be anything, large or small, that caused you to see a new path forward or influenced you:

• a car accident
• an unexpected job offer
• wining an prize or award
• a sudden death
• a time when you read a book or saw a movie that caught you off guard
• a friend’s reaction
• meeting a new person
• getting fired
• an old friend getting in touch after many years

Pick one of these times and explain the changes in your life that resulted. Write a story about how it happened and how it influenced you.