This week in Happiness 101 we enjoyed a great discussion about luck and what it has to do with happiness. Before going on, please ask yourself these questions:
Do you think you’re a lucky person?
What IS luck?
Do you really believe in luck and what does that mean?
Can a person change their luck? If so, how?
In my happy adventures I have heard many people say things like “If I didn’t have bad luck, I’d have no luck at all” or “that’s just my luck” or “I never win”. Think about these statements. They are frought with language of ill fate. FATE.
How you answered the seemingly benign questions about luck can speak volumes as to your stance on some of the big questions. Do you believe in fate or destiny? Do you think you can change it? If you feel lucky or unlucky, do you have some influence on this?
One of the absolute greatest minds of our time, Albert Einstein said the greatest question we can ask ourselves (there should be a drum roll inserted here – this IS one of the greatest minds saying this is THE BIG QUESTION) is do you believe you live in a friendly universe? If you consider yourself to be unlucky, what does that say about how you feel about the way the universe works AND how do you fit into that universe? How does that belief effect your happiness? It would be easy to see how a person that thinks of themselves as unlucky with no hope of changing that luck, might feel hopeless. This attitude would undoubtedly color that person’s decisions when opportunity comes along.
In her book, Characteristics of Lucky People, Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen describes that lucky people see opporunity where unlucky people see danger. Other characteristics of lucky people are that they work smart (instead of hard), they take an active (rather than passive) role in life, they are willing to take healthy risks, they are assertive (rather than aggressive), listen to their intuition and have a sense of good timing.
A drum we beat a lot in the Happiness 101 class is about making CHOICES that lead us to happiness. Can we CHOOSE to be lucky? Can we change our language, our behavior and our choices to change our luck? Whether your answer is “yes”, “no” or “I don’t know”, I invite you to think about it and do so all the way through until you come to your own answers. When you arrive at those answers, please think about how your chosen stance effects your happiness. If you do not believe yourself to have your choice of luck, I hope you will at least believe that you can make daily choices (big and small) that will increase (or diminish) your Happiness. If you choose not to believe that, I hope you will choose to join us for Happiness 101.
Happiness 101 is a FREE class using empirical research, teaching how to be happy now AND also in the long-term. It’s held every Tuesday night at 7pm at my office: 220 East 3900 South, Suite 7. This upcoming Tuesday (8/25/09) we will discuss the Happiness Diet: how diet and exercise effect our happiness. Call 801-262-0317 for recorded information.
Feel free to comment on this topic. I’d love to hear from you.
~Frank