Self drive and coincidences

The great feedback session I had today with my company's director made me keep on thinking on a part of the Alice in the Wonder World story, which I remembered earlier this week.
Alice: Which road should I take?
Rabbit: Where are you going to?
Alice: I don't know.
Rabbit: Then it doesn't matter.

I think there's no doubt we need to be very driven and decide the course of our careers and lives. But what about the coincidences?

A couple of weeks ago, I received a bulk mail from an acquaintance I admire asking to fill in a survey. I didn't fill it in, but replied to him. He happily responded telling he was helping to set up a development consulting program focused on governments in Latin America. It obviously made my eyes shine! We exchanged a few more emails and last night had a great skype conversation about the opportunities there, to which I'm likely to apply. All because of a bulk email!

So, do things really happen because we choose or because coincidences guide us there? The Celestine Prophecy (book by James Redfield) would say there are no coincidences and every single person we meet carries a message for us.

I'm not sure about every single person, but I'm getting more and more confident that when we keep our nagging questions in mind and are alert for all the happenings around us, things effectively move fast and amazingly, as if the whole world was conspiring for it!