I Wouldn’t Be an Astronaut if I Hadn’t Joined the Chess Club

Life is predictably unpredictable, and a small action you took decades ago (like joining the chess club) can have ripple effects (you met a NASA recruiter at a chess tournament). These simple Treasure Hunts can help make the treasures right in front of you much more visible. There are two versions, one that will take just a few minutes, and a longer one that you can play with over the course of a week or more.

Before doing this, we suggest you spend a few minutes to read about the unpredictable marriage of Carol and Paul.

Five-minute Treasure Hunt

Look back at your life and list the major events that brought you into existence and made your life as good as it is right now.

Notice that each of these events could have happened differently. Get curious.

Ask yourself:

If this event hadn’t happened exactly the way it did,

would I live where live, do the work I do, have the relationships I have, or maybe even exist at all?

An Ongoing Treasure Hunt

This week your job will be to pay attention to

the things you didn’t predict.

When something you didn’t predict happens, notice it.

Get curious about it.

Pay attention to it. And then get more curious.

And then as you’re getting curious, ask yourself

How is this a treasure?

Sometimes it takes a while for the treasure to appear. So you may want to make a note of each unpredictable event and ask yourself a few days later, “How was that a treasure?”