Serendipity and Imagination.

Have you ever had the experience of finding things just falling into place for you? That's Serendipity.

I got an email from my friend Griz at about the same time as I finished posting my last blog entry. He pointed me at this article: Imagine this: Study suggests power of imagination is more than just a metaphor Scientific Proof of what I've been talking about!

Look at the first definition of Serendipity from dictionary.com:

ser⋅en⋅dip⋅i⋅ty/ˌsɛrənˈdɪpɪti/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [ser-uhn-dip-i-tee]

1.	an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident.

I like the thought that we may have an aptitude for serendipity.

From the study:

The authors conclude that the present study confirms "an idea that has long been espoused by motivational speakers, sports psychologists, and John Lennon alike: The imagination has the extraordinary capacity to shape reality."

Think about this: In preparing for your mental game, the power of imagination is as important as your mechanical ability, if not more so. Using your imagination can lead you to those serendipitous moments on the Golf course. The ones that lead to better scores.

Let me share a true story with you. This happened on the second hole at Sherryl Park. It's a slight dog leg left, pond in front of the green 280 yards out. To my left there's a bridge across the creek feeding the pond, you cross the bridge to get to the green. For once I landed my three wood in the middle of the fairway, it rolled to about 100 yards out. As I'm contemplating the shot, and frankly figuring how I was going to screw it up -- because at the time I could not hit the broad side of a barn from 100 yards out on a good day -- I see the bridge and tell myself "wouldn't it be funny if someone rolled a ball across the bridge and unto the green?" I chortled to myself and addressed the ball. Let's just say it was an epic shank: caught it off the hosel coming inside out. The ball went skittering across the grass, bounced twice on the cart path before hitting the bridge. I think "well, that's it: another ball sacrificed to the water gods." But the stupid thing keeps rolling across the bridge. And rolling. And off the bridge. And clips the curb and bounces up toward the green. It stops about 10 yards short of the green. (I know this would have made a better story if it had actually landed on the green, but I'm only sharing truth here.)

I have never laughed so hard in my life. I looked around at my playing partners, all they could do was shake their heads.

Of course I went on to blow the chip on and three putt... but that's not the point. The point is that for some perverse reason, my imagination took over and a serendipitous moment happened!

Now then, how would it be if we practiced that imagination and got us some serendipity?