Screw The Five Year Plan

Embrace the plot twist

I’m re-sharing one of my most popular posts as I’m taking time offline to heal. I’ve removed the paywall on my Substack for the month of December. I hope you enjoy reading my words.

What if the best things in life aren’t planned but discovered?

Last week taking a different route home to avoid a fallen tree, I passed a community centre with a sign advertising a “creativity workshop” being hosted on the weekend. Something made me take a mental note to remind myself to pop by. I’d been feeling a little disconnected from my local community for a few weeks, so the decision to join a room full of strangers led to insights that transformed not just my creative practice but gave me the courage to enquire about hosting my own workshops in the centre. It also reignited my understanding of how connection on a local level can fuel inspiration. Moving forward I’m going to take different routes home, curious about what other invitations I might discover.

This is serendipity at work.

Those moments when life offers us gifts we never thought to ask for, connections we couldn’t have orchestrated, and opportunities that sometimes arrive disguised as coincidence.

But here’s what I’ve discovered through years of journalling and guiding other women through their own challenges and reflective moments: serendipity isn’t just about lucky accidents. It’s about cultivating the kind of inner awareness that helps us recognise magic when it shows up.

"Vital lives are about action. You can't feel warmth unless you create it, can't feel delight until you play, can't know serendipity unless you risk." Joan Erickson

Why We Miss Life’s Beautiful Surprises

In our productivity obsessed society, we’ve been trained, conditioned even, to believe that the best outcomes come from careful planning, detailed goal setting, and relentless execution. While there’s nothing wrong with having direction, this mindset can make us so focused on our predetermined path that we miss the detours that might lead to something even more wonderful.

We are SO busy chasing what we think we want, that we overlook what life is actually offering us. It’s happened to me on many occasions, whereby I’ve rushed past conversations that could have changed my perspective. Or I’ve dismissed random encounters as meaningless. How many times have you dealt with unexpected changes as disruptions rather than invitations? Here’s a thought, what if your cancelled meeting created space for the phone call that shifted everything or gave you an extra hour to write or meet a friend for lunch? What if getting lost led you to exactly where you needed to be?

The Serendipity-Journalling Connection

For me this is where journalling becomes not just a practice of self-reflection, but a tool for cultivating receptivity to life’s hidden gifts. When we journal regularly, we develop what I call “serendipity consciousness” an awareness that helps us…

• Notice patterns we’d otherwise miss

• Process resistance to the unexpected

• Track the magic that’s already happening

• Develop trust in our intuition

Simple Ways to Journal Your Way to More Serendipity

You don’t need to commit to hour long journalling sessions or profoundly deep explorations of your soul. Sometimes the most transformative practices are the most accessible, here are some I use and share in my Journal with Ease sessions…

One Word, One Day at a Time - it’s a simple as writing just one word on the page, one day at a time. Try it for 14 days and see whether curiosity leads you, you may discover you’re happy to write a few words which may lead to a paragraph.

The Daily Magic Minute - each evening write one sentence about something unexpected that happened that day, however small. Training yourself to notice these moments creates more space for bigger ones to unfold.

The “What If” Exercise - once a week, write about something that didn’t go according to plan. Instead of focusing on the frustration or disappointment, explore what opportunities did this create? What did I learn? How might this seemingly random event actually be perfectly timed?

The Trust Check In - once a month, write about your relationship with uncertainty. If you’ve got 5 minutes spare, grab your journal and complete these sentence stems:

“When life feels unpredictable, I tend to…”

“I trust my creative flow most when…”

“To welcome more serendipity into my life, I could…”

The Gratitude for Surprises Practice - at the end of each week, write a thank you note to life for one unexpected gift you received, maybe a conversation or an insight or even an opportunity at work. This journalling technique trains us to see surprises as gifts rather than disruptions.

Through journalling about the unexpected twists and turns in my own life, I’ve learned that serendipity isn’t just about luck, it’s about living with what I call “graceful receptivity.” It’s about being available to life’s invitations without abandoning all sense of direction.

Your Invitation to Wonder

If you’ve been thinking about starting a journalling practice, or if you have a journal but struggle with consistency, perhaps serendipity is your perfect entry point. Instead of pressurising yourself to have profound insights or process deep trauma, what if you simply started paying attention to life’s daily surprises.

What if journalling became less about figuring everything out and more about staying curious about what wants to unfold?

Here’s a gentle challenge for you… for the next seven days, spend just 3-5 minutes each evening writing about one unexpected moment from your day. It might be a conversation, a coincidence, a change of plan, or simply noticing something beautiful that you’d normally walk past.

Don’t analyse or try to interpret, just notice and appreciate. See what patterns emerge. Notice how this simple practice of attention might create more space for wonder in your everyday life.

The Ripple Effect of Receptivity

What I’ve witnessed in my workshops, and experiences in my own life, is that when I become more receptive to serendipity, everything shifts. I tend to make decisions from curiosity rather than fear. I take creative risks because I trust that even “mistakes” might lead somewhere beautiful. Thinking about it, what if we try and approach our days with a sense of adventure rather than just checking items off our list, maybe something radical will shift. Which without doubt, will help us all to channel our emotions into something more positive and creative.

What serendipitous moment brought you to read this essay today? I’d love to hear about it. If you’re curious about the wellbeing benefits of guided therapeutic journalling, paid subscribers get FREE access to my Journal with Ease lunchtime club via zoom. So hopefully I’ll see you in the New Year for some gentle guided journalling.

Until the next time,

Take care and stay safe xx

My RECOMMENDATIONS with EASE

PUBLICATION - The Writer's Room - The Hidden Worlds That Shape the Books We Love by Katie Da Cunha Lewin. This recently released publication was gifted to me by my dear friend Nicola Wyllie who has a keen eye for interesting new books. She is always one step ahead of me, I’m sure she was a bookseller in a previous life. Let me know if The Writer’s Room is on your TBR pile this winter.

PLACE - Come and join my next Rest & Read Retreat. A weekend designed for book lovers! This isn’t a book club. It’s not a reading challenge. It’s a sanctuary for women who’ve forgotten what it feels like to read for pleasure without the world demanding their attention. Hosted in a beautiful beach house on the west Wales coast, I promise you’ll not want to leave. Plus, there will be guest author interviews with award winning novelist Lucy Clarke and debut novelist Carys Shannon. Email hello@easeretreats.com for more information.

PODCAST - I love a good podcast interview, and I must admit The Shift by sam baker is one of my all time favourites! There are almost 300 episodes to choose from. It will be the perfect companion while you’re driving home for Christmas.