2016-06-30
What you pay attention to, you get more of. It's a universal principle.

Most lucky people not only receive more good fortune, they also put a positive spin on anything. What most people would view as unfortunate, they express as ultimately lucky.

This is the simplest, yet perhaps most powerful of all the luck-building principles: When you notice, appreciate, and actively look for serendipitous, lucky experiences in your daily life, you not only augment your awareness of good fortune, you also increase the likelihood of it occurring.

Want More Luck?
Most of us spend way too much precious energy whining over life events that don't go our way. It's like wearing a heavy winter coat on a sunny summer day--you can't feel God's blessings if you are focused on the darkness, not the light.

Cary Vera-Garcia of Coral Springs, Florida, had plenty of reason to be cursing her bad luck. She shared with me the following story familiar to many men and women struggling with the pain of infertility.

"I spent over 10 years doing fertility treatments, determined that I would someday have a child. After continued treatments that cost over $5,000 a month, I finally became pregnant. But my water broke at 20 weeks and the baby was too premature to survive. Although I was devastated by my loss, I was able to look on his tiny face and I knew that someday, somehow, I would hold a child once more."About a year later, we began attending an adoption support group, even though we knew adoption was expensive and we'd depleted our financial resources. After a month, we got a call that an attorney was desperately looking for a Hispanic couple that wanted to adopt a baby. The birth mother, who was Hispanic herself, insisted her baby be adopted by someone who would teach the child about her culture.

"We had no money. We debated if it was even worth calling the attorney back because we thought we wouldn't be accepted, since we didn't have the necessary legal funds.

"Knowing the love that was in our hearts, we went for it. We borrowed the money we needed for the adoption. We trusted that God would somehow bring this child into our lives. We trusted that the birth mother would not change her mind. Our daughter was born at 3:00 a.m. the day after Mother's Day. She is now almost 9 years old. She is a loving, sweet child who has been a blessing to us in every way.

"What is even more amazing is that she looks just like me. I tell her that my body was not able to give her life, and God found a way to bring her to us. I can't imagine life without her. But, if we hadn't trusted enough to make that call to the attorney, go through the adoption, ask for the money we needed, trust we would have the funds to pay it back, trust that God was giving us a gift, we never would have had our daughter.

"We are a very lucky family."

Is the story of Cary Vera-Garcia's life one of good luck or bad? All that wasted money on infertility treatments, the horrific grief of losing a premature baby, her inability to fulfill her dream of being a biological mother--doesn't she have reason to claim membership in the club to which none of us wants to belong--the unluckies? Surely she has plenty of reason to say, "Poor me."

But she looks at the daughter she loves as much as life itself, and she realizes that if she had gotten what she thought she wanted and needed, her daughter, as close to her as a biological one could be, would have been elsewhere. Cary defines herself as a lucky woman because she trusts that in God's plan, and now hers, everything worked out exactly as it was meant to be, and the treasure of her daughter's love convinces her that she is, indeed, a lucky woman.

Creating Luck Strategy:

Reinvent the story you are telling yourself. Take one of your old favorite "poor me" stories, the one you tell when you need sympathy or when you are angry with God, or when you are dwelling on the "could have beens.

" Now, can you search for the hidden blessing in NOT getting what you wanted? Can you see how the bad luck you condemn may have also brought you unexpected positive opportunities and blessings? It's there if you look for it. To really solidify this habit, start a gratitude journal and train your mind to record your gratitude every single day. There is more to be grateful for on any given day than you have the time to write.

As we come to the end of this course, let's leave on this note, which is of course really only a new beginning. At every moment in time, you have a choice--will you believe in luck? Will you trust in God's plan instead of your own? Will you count your blessings, or your curses?

Choosing to focus on the positive will not only bring more blessings into your life, but it will also convince you that you are lucky as well! Lucky people are happier, and they make others happier as well. So go for it!

I've been blessed to join with you for these eight weeks as we've explored this topic in some depth. I wish you much luck in your journeys! Thank you for being a part of mine.

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