Chapter 8: Being Lucky

Dear reader,

I took a four day rest--did you miss me? I missed you too. Now come here and give me a hug before you get all emotional on me. :D

One of my favourite super hero films has to be The Dark Knight directed by Christopher Nolan.  For those who haven't seen this film, I recommend that you do.

In The Dark Knight, Harvey Dent is a respectable man who fights crime with the the law rather than wearing the cape and cowl serving as a vigilante. His personal philosophy is symbolized in a coin. One scene that stays with me was when Harvey asked the character Rachel to flip this coin, betting on the coin to land on heads in his favor. When the coin landed in her hand, heads up, she realizes that both of the coin's faces were actually heads: a two faced coin. Then, smiling to herself, she repeats his words saying: "I make my own luck."

Luck to me is one's validation of success. What Harvey is saying in this scene, is that ultimately luck can be dictated by your thoughts and your actions. Luck is entirely dependent on your state of mind. You can control the probability of how you will do things psychologically by removing the word "fail" from your vocabulary. If both sides of the coin are the same, you win either way--you control the outcome. This is even when the odds are completely out of your favour.

Then why is that we have bad luck too? My own family is a superstitious one. I have grown up with Filipino suspicions. An example is when you drop cutlery onto the floor. If you drop a fork then it said you will have a male visitor. If you drop a spoon, then you will have a female. I have also heard of not walking under ladders, not breaking glass, or seeing a black cat cross the street to which you may be more familiar. With bad luck the Harvey Dent coin applies, only this time both of the faces work against you. You will lose either way. Bad luck gravitates to unsuccessful people, because unsuccessful people believe they have bad luck.

I am of the great opinion that there is no such thing as bad luck, but only good luck. Why should you hold onto negative superstitions when you can simply believe in the good? An experiment for you my friend is this: learn the art of re-framing your reality. If you spend time believing that you are a lucky person--the more likely good things will start to happen to you. Not because of a magic trick, or a supernatural interference, but because the more you are opening yourself up to the possibility of experiencing good things. Hence why many of the most successful people in this world are optimists. Pessimism closes you into limited possibility. So next time when you miss that goal and your buddy says "unlucky, mate" what he actually meant to say was "glad you can improve".

On one of Derren Brown's psychological shows he experimented by going into a remote country village and placing a statue of a dog in a public park. He then started a rumour which spread quickly by word of mouth. The rumour was that if you patted the statueon the head you would become lucky in your daily routine. Sure enough over the course of the next two weeks, more and more people ended up patting the dog on the head, and people started to be won over to the idea that the dog caused them to be lucky. Consequently, the more positive experiences there were, the stronger the belief became until it was published in the local newspaper, and broadcast on their local news. The belief was self perpetuating. This is exactly what happens to us in everyday life.

When we deal with failure--we should understand that it is not failure at all. In fact, there is no such thing as failing. Failing is the illusion of pain, doubt and disappointment. What failure should be is the chance to become better. When you tried to beat a level on a video game again, and again, with no "luck", you end up changing your strategy and each time you get one step closer to beating that final boss. When you finally beat him the idea of failing is gone. It wasn't because you destroyed the need to fail--it just that failure wasn't there in the first place. Life in all of its beauty is an opportunity--every single time, win or lose, we always gain something.

I have my own lucky things. One of them is a wooden frog that sits on my desk and he gives me a lots of luck and good fortune and why does he do that? He does that because I make him do it. In my reality I only have to look at the frog and I already feel lucky. Being lucky is being happy, appreciative of what you have and what you could have. Let me do it for you right now--reading these words you will become the luckiest person in the world. Bingo--step out, forget about the negativity and nail it. Improve your chances by 100% by believing that you are the 100%.

 I consider myself lucky that you read this all of the way to the end. ;) Stay safe, and have a great week, you wonderful sexy people.