Never say ‘ No’ to a great image tidily being it is impossible. — Dr. Robert Schuller
July 4, 1939, during a doubleheader between the New York Yankees and Washington Senators, one of the most memorable events in the history of major league baseball occurred.
Lou Gehrig, Yankee first baseman, after ending his streak of 2, 130 consecutive games ( a inscribe only recently surpassed by Baltimore Oriole shortstop Cal Ripkin ), announced to the world he had been striken with amyotrophic indirect sclerosis, a neurological disease, and there was no cure.
The Yankees decided to veneration baseball’ s Iron Man with a pass at Yankee Grassland. Yankee Stadium that day was packed. There wasn’ t, I’ ve heard, a dry eye in the stands. Baseball greats who played later Gehrig, including Canary Ruth, assembled to remuneration tribute to a dear comrade — along with members of the Washington Senators.
Gehrig, his voice weak and fighting back requiem, read a speech, a short one, he had written the night before.
“ Fans, for the ended two weeks you have been reading about a bad break I got. Yet today I subscribe to myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth. I have been in ballparks for 17 senility and I have never published individual but clemency and encouragement from you fans. Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn’ t envisage it the dramatize of his career just to associate with them for even one day?
Gehrig went on to tell the Yankee grassland crowd WHY he considered himself lucky and finished his speech in jeremiad: “ When you have a superb cyclopean - in - law who takes sides with you in squabbles against her own daughter — that’ s something! When you have a father and giant who work all their lives so that you can have an education and build your body— it’ s a blessing! When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed — that’ s the finest I know!
“ So I close in saying that I might have been prone a bad break, but I have an awful lot to live for! Thank you. ”
Gehrig died June 2, 1941 ardent to the prong he still had much to live for. ALS, the disease that took his life, is now referred to as Lou Gehrig’ s disease.
Love, Luck, Money, Serendipity, Good Fortune, The Good Life — we all want these things, as did Lou Gehrig who considered his life a lucky one.
So, how lucky were you today? Does Lou Gehrig’ s story add a bit of perspective to how you answer this dispute?
LUCK AND POSSIBILIITY THINKING
Does possibility thinking tilt luck in our favor? Is it your view that exorbitantly negative people get taken care of by life ( for reasons that make no sense ) and do intensely well while people you know ( whose commission is love and light ) tussle around to find enough cash to keep their lights on?
Lou Gehrig’ s positive outlook, his suspicion that a way might be found to cure ALS before it took him, did not play out the way he hoped. Finally, to the tail, Gehrig considered himself a lucky man.
One thing Lou Gehrig’ s story taught me is this: If we cannot appreciate how lucky we current are then we are unlucky as we feel ourselves so. Also, not many of flirt with themselves lucky due to the failing of a bad thing to happen.
“ Bearings are my lucky leisure, the ones others seem to get? ” L. T. wonders. “ The friends I graduated with? I look at them. I notice what they’ ve got. Then, I look at what I own. I can’ t help but be discouraged. ” After all, in my view, L. T. and his wife have a great life— each has a well - victorious employment, they have their health, youth, two great youngsters, plus all the present conveniences in their home a current - day family will ever need.
Is L. T. lucky? He doesn’ t seem to think so. With his twist, it’ s easy to side with with him. L. T. is unlucky seeing he feels he is, even though it’ s hard to remark how he can feel so “ down” about his life.
“ Let not your mind run on what you absence as much as on what you have up-to-date, ” the Roman Tsar Marcus Aurelius wrote. “ Of the things you have, select the best, and then repercuss how readily they would have been sought if you did not have them. ”
L. T., in my view, is lucky beyond understanding! And, unlucky not to envisage how great is his good fortune!
“ If the stars should turn out one night in a thousand years, ” Ralph Waldo Emerson noted, “ how men would lap up and flip over and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the Area of Divine being which had been shown! ”
The believers would be lucky! As it is, the stars expose nightly and those who do not mind or care whether or not stars are in the sky cannot be considered called lucky, don’ t you buy into?
“ You wake up in the morning, and lo! your pouch is magically filled, ” Arnold Bennett wrote, “ with twenty - four hours of the unmanufactured tissue of the universe of your life! ”
How lucky, how fortunate, how serendipitously delightful to wake up and be gifted with fresh hours of life! How unlucky not to grasp this divine reality and live FROM it.
And so, here’ s the bemoan of the unlucky, the impossibility thinkers, the unthankful and ungrateful who occupy space among us but do not fill it with circumstance but their laments: “ Why me? Why have I been singled out? Why do my best laid plans always go awry”
“ Lost: in consummation between sunrise and evening, ” Horace Mann phrases it, “ two golden hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes. No reward is offered, for they are gone forever. ”
How unlucky!
And then there is our current day listlessness of doubt. So much to bitch about these days. Anguish, fear, doubts, upsets, aspiration, frustration, hasten, precipitate, quicken, rush, rush, rush, here, there, universal, faster, faster, faster, no time, overscheduled life, drooping, exhausted, worn out - - how unlucky!
Johann von Goethe’ s “ take” on his life and times led to this shrewd and insightful observation:
“ If the morning wakes us to no new joys, if the evening brings us not the hopes of new pleasures, is it worthwhile to dress and undress? ”
What a dismal sentiment! How unlucky— to live with a sense that you’ re losing your life in an header to live it.
So, if you’ re unlucky in love, are unluckily trapped in a job you loathe, unluckily facing lapse once again, how can you reverse your luck?
Dr. Richard Wiseman has studied luck for over a decade. His book The Luck factor lists four essential comprehension he believes will alter the course of an unlucky life.
Dr. Wiseman says that lucky people create, heed, and act upon the chance opportunities in their life. They build and maintain a strong “ network of luck, ” and are unlocked to new experiences.
This strong “ network of luck” is what Max Gunther in his book The Luck Factor calls “ throwing out many luck commodities. ” Gunther points out that “ The electric remark that makes for luck infrequently comes from our well - worn contacts, ” and encourages us to take an explorer’ s lookout in the world which is how we repeatedly serendipitously felicitous people with common interests.
Next, Wiseman says the lucky listen to their lucky hunches. Gunther’ s savvy was to point out that each of us carries an invisible luck potential and that “ With luck, half - seared plans get you sometime. With bad luck, no plan will work. ”
Use your intuitive luck potential to throw out more luck merchandise and recognize, while you’ re doing so, this is NOT all about you. “ Your mild - spirited actions sustain awareness of you in other minds, ” Gunther writes. In other words, be firm conclave YOU makes others lucky!
Thirdly, lucky people’ s expectations abut the near help them fulfill their dreams and ambitions. In other words, they EXPECT good fortune, even if their chances to achieve a certain goal seem slim. They also rest assured their interactions with others will be lucky and fortuitous.
Being Juiced up makes you luck contagious! Gunther points out that “ Expectation sends an electrical message to our neural system. While it lasts we are alert and most apt to be rewarded. ”
In other words, we are likely to be LUCKY!
After all, Dr. Wiseman says lucky people are able to transform their bad luck into good fortune. “ They identify the positive side of their bad luck and are downright any ill fortune will, in the long run, work out for their best. The lucky do not dwell on their ‘ unfortunate’ foregone failings and they take constructive steps to prevent more bad luck in the to be. ”
Love what you do and do more of it! Gunther notes that “ The lucky renew their energy through the activity in which they’ re engaged, ” a gospel that is so overt we much wink at it when we’ re amazed or suffering. “ When ZEST enters into life, luck is often not far behind, ” Gunther reminds us.
Plus, as Nicholas Rescher points out in his book Luck: The Brilliant Randomness of Everyday Life, the lucky delight in the unpredictability of life and spread out for new experiences. “ For if the forthcoming could be predicted, what fun would promote in life? ” Arthur Schlesinger asks in his writings, which is why we ofttimes do madcap and “ crazy” things— just to break the monotony in our life. No matter what befalls us, it is the view of Frederick Wiedmann that a happy, very lucky and successful life is one in which we have “ The mature capacity to find the ‘ Yes’ in all things.
”
Dr. Wiseman believes it is possible, armed with his four essential techniques for turning around our luck, we can reverse and pull out of the downward spiral or cycle of bad luck we’ ve been in. He has created a luck indoctrinate to teach unlucky people to do just this — and with considerable success.
LUCK, IMAGRY, AND EXPECTATION
How are our beliefs bound to to the determinations we make inside ourselves that we are a lucky or unlucky person?
In his book Healing Visualizations, Dr. Gerald Epstein says imagery is a superb way to initiate one’ s healing process. Imagery is a simple process and the benefits far outweigh the effects of smartly doing trifle.
“ It means finding, discovering, or creating a mental picture, a mental form. The imagined— but still real— form has all the characteristics of any event, thing, or footing of any waking event, thing, or locale that we might heed in everyday waking reality. ”
Dr. Epstein continues, “ The difference is that, unlike objects perceived when expert, they have no plant or mass. In short, they have no substance. Conclusively, they do have energy. We might think of these images [my comment: or reactions] as our mental children. We give birth to them to act on our advantage as agents of healing [or luck, we might also add]; then, with the energy they dominate, they pursue to stimulate the healing [or act as a lucky self - fulfilling prophecy] process on their own. ”
In other words, as Dr. Epstein explains, it’ s clear that what we creatively scheme is a insoluble reality, but IT IS A REALITY with the power to affect our bodies and, by extension, our luck. The paranormal writer Neville Goddard pointed out many times that we do not get what we want in life so much as we arrogate what we EXPECT or feel we DESERVE.
Dr. Wiseman says the lucky treat to get luckier and the unlucky unluckier as time goes by. Perhaps this explains the another meaning Jesus had in mind when he uttered, “ To him that hath shall be disposed and to him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. ” The rich get richer, the poor poorer.
Timepiece your EXPECTATIONS - - what you EXPECT to be TRUE - - if you plan to power up your luck potential and in doing so diminish any symbol of unlucky episodes you were final to encounter in the elderliness ahead.
LUCK AND POSSIBILITY THINKING:
Many senescence ago Dr. Robert Schuller wrote a get off about Possibility Thinking. “ Never say ‘ no’ to a great concept smartly thanks to it is droll, ” he verbal. This was, to me, an sensational idea the first time I read it. I wrote on a button down, “ Never say ‘ no’ to a great thought plainly owing to it is ludicrous, ” and carried it in my purse for senility.
I’ ve over come to conceive that the dismal say ‘ No’ to luck just as easily as they turn molehills into mountains. In that they sit on this ability and use it usually they are, we competence say, magicians of the nonsensical reasonably than magicians of the possible— in other words, they are unfriendly.
No explanation how malefic you’ ve been, a possibility gray matter is always informed, as Max Gunther notes, that “ One great whack, a at variance constructive chance can counterbalance a run of ( seeming ) bad luck. ”
Can it ever. Be used by a rich notion that will turn your luck around. “ Bearings do I find rich ideas? ” the inhospitable ask. When media mogul Ted Turner donated a billion dollars to a toward cause a few senility ago he was asked by a reporter, “ Aren’ t you going to miss the money you’ re giving away? ” Turner grinned confidently and replied, “ The world is humungous with money. ”
What a thriving way to sight the world and money. “ Unquestionably, but he’ s got money. He can serve to think that way, ” the inhospitable say. There is always a basis not to be used by a rich notion isn’ t there? Discover YOUR great opportunity ( it’ s probably closer than you recognize ) and you will be well on the way to putting a bumper tab on your design that says, “ Luck Happens! ”
As does serendipity!
LUCK AND SERENDIPITY:
IN 1754 an Englishman, Horace Walpole, wrote a take down to his classmate Horace Mann in which Walpole resurrected an abstruse Oriental word. In his scriven, he told Horace man about a whopper called The Three Princes of Serendip. Walpole coined the word Serendipity and a inquiring in Britain ( 2, 000 A. D. ) voted Serendipity as that country’ s favorite word.
What is Serendiptity and how is its linked to luck? Benjamin N. Cardozo wrote, “ Like many of the best things of life, like happiness and tranquility and elevation, the gain that is most good is not the thing sought, but the one that comes from itself in the explore for smash fresh. ”
Sir James A. H. Murray described Serendipity as “ The competence of making happy and unexpected discoveries by chance, ” and a definition from Webster’ s Dictionary described it as “ the tip of finding appreciated or agreeable things not sought for. ”
Take several minutes and repeat on the many instance station and when serendipity played an unsuspected role in your life? You’ ll be surprised when you toss your mind back to the long forgotten instances of so many lucky and fortuitous times when the gain that was most precious to you was not the thing sought, but the one that surfaced in your search for something else— like the festive occasion you didn’ t feel like gun, single your mind at the last minute, and while there met the person of your dreams who also, for reasons they’ re not fully specific about, also at variance their mind and decided to go.
As Marcus Bach would point out, quoting the name of his book, what other could this magical confluence of events be exclude The Magic Power of Serendipity?
Bach claims there is a also serendipitous test of guidance: “ It always motivates you ( you do not actuate it ); it always fills you with a sense of rightness; it always leaves you and your world in better spirits than before. ”
This is very coinciding to one of Dr. Richard Wiseman’ s four techniques for creating a luckier life: Listen to Your Lucky Hunches.
So, build your lucky opportunities by first of all writing your proposition upon the heavens [in other words, shake your dreams out of your mental pockets or purse] and listen to, play, and trust your lucky hunches to guide you to them.
LUCK AND MONEY
My confrere Peter has a theory about money and luck. He says, as we all engage, that money is energy. Peter, however, says money on the physical plane is DENSE energy. You can learn to play around with dense energy and get yourself a home, a car, furniture and food, or you can grow a mystic carrot. A real carrot, Peter notes, is grown from the dense energy of the smear. What good, he asks, is a mystic carrot if you can’ t eat it? His view is that when Jesus told his followers to “ be wise as a serpent and innocuous as a dove, ” he was saying be wise in the ways of the world and if survival depends on a physical plane existence and you’ re going to have to play in the same stadium as the the well - to - do, then you better to give up any fanciful notions you have about money being the root of all evil [actually the Greek is “ a” root of evil], get real and wise, become as educated and informed as your competitors are, and let your light shine as brightly or even more brilliantly than theirs does. You’ ll do this if you want to “ make it” in this ancient world of ours.
This, Peter says, is what the lucky do. The unlucky wait and drift. They just sort of mosey through life patriotic “ the universe” will somehow take care of them ( or the control, or Aunt Jewell’ s will, or the sweepstake if they’ re lucky! ). To cite Max Gunther again, “ Unlucky people are notably passive. ”
Is being lucky in love or money ( perhaps both ) a fortuitous “ chance” circumstance, merely a roll of the dice? Some win, some lose? My dad used to think so and he played life like the gambler he was. The stakes were high and winning required that you know more about the game than your antagonist. “ Win some, lose some, ” he used to say.
He won the tributes of life more recurrently than he lost. Midpoint, I admit for, even so he played the odds, but he only played them when they were undoubtedly in his favor. In other words, he knew how to attract luck. Dad never went into a business pursuit or deal without prompt having visualized the outcome he expected. He worked out the ending in his mind and, unlike most people, proceeded backwards from his goals ( as if they were instant accomplished reality ). And this, I think, made him ( a man with only a poll grade education ) a financially lucky man.
After all, he married the girl of his dreams. He was fortunate in love, you might say, in that his buddy, who was engaged to her at the time, introduced them! He was unlucky in love, perhaps— as was she— in that they were so unalike.
Are we all in this game of life playing the genetic hand dealt us at birth ( for better or worse ) or is there an underlying motif, a structure to luck all of us can learn ( if we choose ) and, by doing so, upgrade the quality of our existence here?
The Luck Factor, Possibility Thinking, Serendipity, and Good Fortune — Too Much For A Person to Expect in One Lifetime? Part 2, concludes in the next detail
