How Lucky Can You Be?
Back in the States for a visit last year, I was talking with a lady I’d just met. When I mentioned that my wife and I live in Thailand where the weather is always warm, the cost of living is low and the people are extremely friendly, my new acquaintance remarked, “Wow, you are so lucky.”
Naturally, I bit my tongue and let it pass, because I’ve heard that same remark a hundred times before. Nevertheless, it struck me all over again just how limited most people’s concept of “luck” really is.
It was not luck when I sold virtually every earthly possession and moved off to Japan (speaking not a word of the language) and started a new career doing work that I’d never done before. It was not luck when I persisted in staying there, even when the going got tough at times. And it was not luck when my wife and I did exactly the same thing 22 years later after deciding we wanted to retire in Thailand.
Every step was thought out, executed and (in some cases) repeated until we got it right.
No luck there at all. And yet, many people insist on calling good results “luck.”
If you are retired on a strong, healthy pension, you’re lucky – conveniently ignoring all those days and months and years you put in at a job that may or may not have thrilled you. And ignoring all those thousands of dollars you deposited in your retirement account – dollars that it might have been fun to spend rather than put away.
If you have a happy marriage, you’re lucky, too – overlooking the effort you and your spouse make to understand each other, to forgive and be forgiven in turn – overlooking the work it takes to continue seeing each other in the best light.
If your business is thriving, you’re lucky – because some people don’t want to think about all the hours you’ve worked, the skills you’ve stretched yourself to learn, and the contacts you’ve gone out of your way to meet and cultivate.
In other words, if you have anything that others may admire, envy (or resent), then dammit, you’re just lucky and it proves that life is not very fair (or they would have all those good things too).
But the thing is, ANYBODY could be lucky… if they were willing to make the effort.
I’ve written a book titled Command More Luck, and I’ve also read two excellent books on luck, both with the same title.
The Luck Factor by Max Gunther, published back in the 60s, recently re-released, and
The Luck Factor by Dr. Richard Wiseman, published in 2003.
I mention these books in passing, in case you’d like to do a little research.
But I can save you some time. One of the most important factors in having lucky things happen for you is finding (or making) a way to be happy with what life hands you.
And the only way to keep a happy, expectant outlook toward life is to have a powerful sense of resourcefulness. It’s knowing that no matter what crap life dumps on you tomorrow, you’ll find a way to turn it into something positive. In other words, when something unexpected happens, and at first glance it looks like something negative, you have a way of looking at it again, looking deeper, until you uncover a way to turn it to your benefit. Lucky people don’t quit looking till they find the most positive, profitable view.
In other words, you go through life reframing everything to your advantage. This skill is not something that the “lucky” few are born with. No, you can cultivate it too. Just practice it and practice it and practice it some more. Keep on doing it until it becomes so automatic you don’t have to remind yourself to be “positive.” Your mind does it for you, without conscious thought, just like it does any other habit.
So how lucky can you be?
It all depends on how lucky you decide to be… then make it happen.
Cheers from warm and smiling Thailand,
Charles
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