Making Chance Your Ally

I always feel like I'm being chased by something.

“I have to plan properly,” “I have to be efficient,” “I have to cut down on wasted time.”
Living in the modern age, we find ourselves constantly demanded to perform only the “correct actions.”
For example, though the list is endless, there is schedule and task management, searching for the shortest path, and optimizing for time and cost performance.

Of course, these things are important.

Living a planned life brings stability.
However, I sometimes think.

Perhaps many of the things that make life interesting are actually “coincidences.”
This is not an unusual occurrence in daily life.

A cafe you entered because it was nearby. Someone who happened to strike up a conversation with you. A book you found in a bookstore you wandered into. A path you took because you felt like taking a detour.

Such “unplanned events” sometimes become precious memories when you look back on them later.


Conversely, a perfectly planned day can sometimes be surprisingly unmemorable.
We may be seeking the “security of predictability” while simultaneously being moved by “unpredictable encounters.”

Of course, it would be difficult to live relying solely on chance.

Work has deadlines, and there are situations where saying you will leave things to chance would make people doubt your sense of responsibility.

That is precisely why I believe it is important to leave just a little bit of “margin.”


Don't pack your schedule too full. Try walking down a street you don't know. Try entering a shop that caught your eye. Try taking a walk without a set destination once in a while.

Then, something mysterious happens.

Room is created for coincidence to enter.

Perhaps the journey to discover that margin is what daily life is all about.



Sociologist Robert Merton speaks about a phenomenon called“serendipity.”It is the phenomenon where important discoveries are born from coincidence, even though you weren't looking for anything in particular.

Even in the world of science, there is coincidence behind major discoveries.

However, coincidence does not visit only those who “do nothing.”

Coincidence meets those who are walking.

Coincidence approaches those who are moving.
Therefore, “making chance your ally” does not mean leaving things to fate.

Rather, it may mean having the “flexibility to accept the unpredictable.”

There are things in life that cannot be helped.


There are days that do not go according to plan.

There are times when you put in the effort but get no results.
There are human relationships that do not go the way you want.
But perhaps that is exactly why it is interesting.

If life were entirely controllable, there would be no surprises or discoveries.
Coincidence sometimes troubles us.

But sometimes, it also saves us.
Why not loosen up your plans just a little bit today?


Try taking a detour.

Try listening to music you don't know.
Try opening a book you don't usually read.
Those small coincidences might just support your future self.

Coincidence is not an enemy.

At times, it becomes an “ally” in life.

Perhaps it is okay to have that kind of “perspective” as well.