keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words. keep your words positive because your words become your behaviors. keep your behaviors positive because your behaviors become your habits. keep your habits positive because your habits become your values. keep your values positive because your values become your destiny.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

you don't have to be irish to be lucky

I haven't given up on the blog! I just had a rough week and needed to take a little break :-)

Updates: As of now I haven't gotten into any of the grad schools to which I applied (hence my bad week *smile*). I'm still waiting to hear from two Master's programs - all the other "nos" have been from PhD programs...so no Dr. Brightside anytime soon. I'm not gonna lie, I was really really down about this last week. I put in a lot of work, time and even money into this process...and I came soooo close by making it to the interview round at 3 schools. I was sort of a hot mess for one day but now I'm feeling pretty good about everything.

Some people may think that saying "everything happens for a reason" is a way to take yourself out of the equation of life...and see yourself as being at the whim of the world. I disagree. I feel confident that I put a great amount of effort into my goal. Having fallen short of the ultimate goal (a PhD) I am now comfortable with the fact that perhaps that particular aim wasn't meant to be (right now if ever). The way I see it, maybe what life has in store for me doesn't require a PhD. Maybe it would have been something that I wasn't prepared for and ended up being stuck in. Whatever the case, I still have some options to go back to school, and I'm waiting anxiously on those. But don't worry, I already have some backup plans in mind :-)

In other news, I got all four wisdom teeth extracted last week...another big reason why I haven't felt like writing. I just felt ick all weekend...I spent the majority of the time lying around with Nix (she got her's out last week too lol) watching Food Network and movies. I saw The Hurt Locker, The Lucky Ones, The HangoverDid You Hear About the Morgans, and Up in the Air....as you can see I did a lot of nothing this weekend!

Those are my major updates. I'll get back to writing more regularly from now on.

Since today is St. Patrick's Day, I wanted to write a little bit about luck. The interesting thing about luck is that it's sort of hard to define and people have many different views about it. It's generally thrown around in a nonchalant manner. People often speak of themselves as being lucky/unlucky but not in a very concrete way...after all, you can't really measure luck. One thing you'll often hear me say is that I have bad luck when it comes to chance (i.e., I don't win drawings or bingo or those sorts of things) but I have amazing life luck. Stuff works out for me! Another way I express this is by acknowledging and appreciating that I am blessed. But, this doesn't mean that everything in my life is perfect and goes exactly how I want it to...it just means that things happen in a way that I feel good about and that are providential even if not according to plan.

Those who think they're unlucky should change their outlook and 
discover how to generate good fortune.

The other day I read this interesting article on luck, based on research that revealed that lucky people generate good fortune via four basic principles. They:
  • are skilled at creating and noticing chance opportunities
  • make lucky decisions by listening to their intuition
  • create self-fulfilling prophesies via positive expectations 
  • adopt a resilient attitude that transforms bad luck into good
Unlucky people often fail to follow their intuition when making a choice, while lucky people tend to respect hunches. The article also mentions that lucky people are interested in how they both think and feel about the various options, rather than simply looking at the rational side of the situation. I tend to go on "vibes" that I get from things, people, situations.

Unlucky people tend to be creatures of routine....for example, taking the same route to and from work and talking to the same types of people at parties. Conversely, many lucky people try to introduce variety into their lives. The article gives an amusing anecdote about how someone thought of a color before arriving at a party and then introduced himself to people wearing that color. Apparently, this kind of behaviour boosts the likelihood of chance opportunities by introducing variety.

Lucky people tend to see the positive side of their ill fortune. One easy way of doing this is to imagine how things could have been (or could be) worse. For example, in one interview, a volunteer arrived with his leg in a plaster cast and described how he had fallen down a flight of stairs....he cheerfully explained that he felt luckier than he had before....because he could have broken his neck. Now that is one way to look on the bright side...although I guess it's more like looking at the darkside and being glad you're not there lol. I tend to do this a lot...

In celebration of St. Patty's Day, focus on your luck this week by taking notice of chance opportunities, listening to your intuition, expecting to be lucky, and being more resilient to bad luck!

Today's *big chune* is from Corinne Bailey Rae, who released her second album a few weeks ago. After listening through a few times, I've decided this is one of my favs.


:-D
 

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