A walk in Hafer park

A walk in Hafer park

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Make Your Own Luck

This week we'll all celebrate the Irish holiday St. Patrick's Day. A holiday bestowing luck, good will, leprecauns, and pots of gold. Does luck really hide behind a colorful rainbow? Do only the good find it? Does it even really involve green beer at all?

This week I'm bestowing my advice on how to make your own luck. It's my St. Patrick's Day gift to you.

1. The larger your network the greater your chances of meeting someone who can help you land the job, score the tickets or land the big sale.

2. Follow your heart. Some people seem luckier than others and it's just not fair. It's usually because their guided by their instincts. Be still, breathe deeply and see what comes to you.

3. Zig Ziglar said it best "You will get all you want in life when you help enough other people get what they want."

4. Imagine success. Luck is, in part, a self-fullfilling prophecy, so visualize a positive outcome.

5. See the big picture. "Unlucky" people tend to be so focused on the small stuff in life that they miss a potential big break.

Have a LUCKY St. Patrick's Day because you made it that way!

Sunday, February 14, 2010

This is What I Know to be True

If you had your own blog, what would you blog about? Would you write articles niching a specific target audience to try to gain readers hoping to strike it uber-famous or would you spill your inner-most secrets to get them off your chest, hoping that no one ever found you in your tiny little corner of cyber space? Would you stare frozen at the blinking curser waiting to channel Carrie from Sex and the City or Julie from Julie and Julia or would you type feverishly with pity comments, wise advice and hillarious stories wondering where this easy listening BFF has been all your life?

Oprah publishes an article in her O Magazine called "Things I Know for Sure". How do we really know that anything is for sure? Does Oprah know? It was that article that gave me the inspiration for this blog. I believe that there are two ways we can know things for sure - what we know to be true. #1 Faith and #2 Wisdom. My 10 year high school reunion taught me many things. At first I felt very old to be the ripe old age of 28 with no husband and no kids to boast. But after I settled and reflected, I realized that age brings experiences; experiences bring lessons; lessons bring wisdom; and wisdom brings confidence. Wisdom is perhaps the greatest gift of all. It can never be taken from you and it builds upon itself to take you through life. God gives wisdom as a precious gift. It was at that moment, about a week after I returned from my reunion that I first blogged and I first learned to be thankful for the terrible disaterous moments in life. Those moments that knock the wind out of you; when you're trudging through the valley of the shadow of death. I have been through a sadly sudden divorce and an all-to-early death of a grandparent. I have also moved cross country a few times with no job, no home and no plans for the future. All three experiences in retrospect were blessings in the same result. They gave me the biggest nuggets of wisdom. It was through those experiences (and a few other tough pills to swallow) that I learned who I am, who I want to be and what I know to be true. I know Who to run to when I'm faced with another challenge that feels oddly and fearfully familiar. Had I not had those experiences, had I stayed in my protective bubble, had I kept the gritty smile on my face, I would not be who I am today and I would not have the confidence that comes with been-there-done-that wisdom.
I encourage you to post your own stories here. Where did you first find wisdom? Perhaps it was demonstrated to you. Perhaps it was a small gesture and perhaps it was a monumental movement. I would love to hear it and we all need to know. When we see wisdom through others' eyes, we see God at work and we realize that He is at work around us - teaching us and we look for it more often. Seek wisdom and remember I think you're awesome.