Do you consider yourself lucky?
Once when I was on a cruise with my family, a woman I did not know approached me and my husband when we were laying on lounge chairs by the pool and said “You’re so lucky you get to bring your dogs with you! How’d you do that?”
My husband didn’t miss a beat. He smiled and mischievously said, “First, you have to go blind”.
The woman was horrified and embarrassed. She didn’t realize we were blind and that our dogs weren’t pets, but Seeing Eye dogs. Eventually, she saw the humor in it and joined in with our laughter.
Even when people know we’re blind, some still comment on how lucky we are to be able to bring our dogs with us everywhere we go and how they wish they could do the same.
This used to upset me. Really? Lucky? I thought. I guess that depends on your definition of luck. And, that’s exactly it.
We often think of other people as being lucky when they have something we want. No matter the bigger picture, we focus on that one thing they’ve got, that we wish we had. If that’s what lucky is, then you’re already lucky because you’ve already got something in your life that another person wants. Do you know what that thing in your life is? And, more importantly are you grateful for it?
Don’t get me wrong. Focusing on what you have or can get that other people want is a really bad idea for basing your life. You’ll likely never be happy or feel successful. I know this from first-hand experience and observation. However, this definition of lucky is good for broadening your perspective and for identifying small things in your life where you have the opportunity to not only consider yourself lucky, but to be appreciative and grateful for the seemingly small things. It’s often the little things we take for granted because we are so focused on the big picture.
When you look at luck with this outlook and from this perspective, you’ll see that we’re all lucky. We each have an opportunity to create our own luck. If you want to be lucky, just look for those small things. They’re already in your life.