What is Luck?

What is Luck?

Not in the sense of the literal definition, but what does luck mean to you? Is it winning a million dollars? coming first in a race? getting a promotion? becoming a celebrity? or simply avoiding a horrible tragedy?

I have often equated luck to material objects. In my view I was lucky if I got to go on a holiday or if I won a competition. I was extremely lucky if I won the lottery (although the odds aren't in my favour on that one!) or if I was able to meet my favourite celebrity (it's true- having the chance to meet Adam Lambert made me feel like the luckiest girl alive) however lately I have begun to wonder if my perception of luck is all wrong.

True story (from my highly (in)accurate source-My dad): There was this guy who visited a psychic who told him that he would experience great luck in his near future. A few days later the guy got offered the opportunity to speak at a medical conference in Mexico. He felt like it was a huge honour and it was the LUCKIEST thing that had ever happened to him. He'd been waiting all of his life for this opportunity. However, on the day he was supposed to leave, bad weather prevented his flight from flying out and it got cancelled. The next available flight he could get on, would deliver him at his final destination a few hours too late. The guy was devastated. He went home from the airport and rang the psychic back. He was angry because he had been UNLUCKY which wasn't what the psychic had predicted for him. The next day he turned on the news to find out that the hotel in Mexico, where the conference was being held and he would've been had the flight left on time, had collapsed and most people had inside the building had died or were severely injured.

The point to the story: the guy's LUCK was that he avoided death. The LUCK he thought he'd received wasn't talking at this conference but instead he was LUCKY that not going to the conference saved his life.

This story was what made me change my perception of luck. Sometimes we forget to look at the big picture...instead of being thankful that we are lucky to have our health, our family, our friends, our partners, a steady income, a roof over our heads etc, we focus on all of things we don't have or we want- to win the lottery, a new car, winning a holiday, a bigger pay cheque.

They say that if you find the end of the rainbow, you'll find a pot of gold. Well I've found the end of my rainbow and what I've found is that I'm lucky for the life I have now. It may not be perfect but I've got my health, I've got the love of my friends and family and I've got financial security- and that makes me the luckiest girl on the planet.

So next time your sitting at a traffic light that's taking forever to change, or your flight gets cancelled- instead of getting upset- remember that things happen for a reason and by being exactly where you are in that moment it may make you the luckiest person in the world to be alive!