I know I keep saying “All the good things in life happened because I met a stranger.” Marriage, new friends, new books, new ideas. All of that and more.
There is a corollary.
All the good stuff hasn’t happened yet. The good stuff will happen because I do something new, something that I hadn’t done before. (Well, yes, the good stuff could also happen because I do the same thing for the 1,542nd time, at which point the payoff occurs.)
The principle is to keep an open mind and don’t be a scared or lazy son of a bitch. Open mind because you can’t know the payoff until you have the experience. You can’t know the joy of talking to a new person until you talk.
Prejudging and saying “I won’t do this because it is a waste of time” creates a known payoff: stasis. Maybe you’re right. Equally possible? You’re wrong.
“Yeah, maybe. What the hell. Let’s give it a shot.”
Do lots of that.