How to Purposely Be Lucky

From the desk of Elijah “The Realist”
Subj: How to be a lucky man
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I don’t mean to brag but I recently realized how great my life is and how “lucky” I am.

Before you call me arrogant pretty please hear me out…..

I have recently returned from 4 weeks in the United States of America.

For the last two weeks of my trip I was in Boise, Idaho at a premier chiropractic/rehab facility doing some intense rehab work on my spine (I’m fine, not weightlifting related).

I did two weeks at the facility, doing rehab work for 7-9 hours per day, 5 days per week. I had to do something I didn’t exactly want to do (it wasn’t pleasant), but I needed to do it.

I’d go in at 9:30 am and leave somewhere between 5:30 pm – 7 pm. I’d be dog-tired when I got back to my hotel at night. So tired I’d just grab a bag of fast food, eat like a pig and basically lie in bed and watch videos until I fell asleep.

It hit me real hard – it was exactly like having a 9-5 job. I remembered that feeling from 6 or 7 years ago, last time I had a 9-5 job.

The difference, this time, is that it only lasted two weeks and then I got to go back to my real life.

For most people it’s the opposite, they get 1 or 2 weeks of freedom per year and then they work like dogs for 50 weeks per year.

My real life is like most people’s fantasy vacation: I don’t go to a job, I get waited on hand and foot, I have money to burn, I don’t have “days off”, I don’t save up “vacation time”, I don’t call the boss and pretend to be sick so I can stay home, I don’t have any debt and I am free to come and go as I please.

Within the confines of the law I can do almost anything I want.

Brash, cocky, arrogant? Guilty.

Stuck in a rut at a dead end job, forcing myself to wake up to a “beep beep beep” alarm clock every day for 40+ years? Not guilty, your honor.

That two weeks in Idaho was a great reminder of why I’ll never sell my soul again for a paycheck.

Everywhere I went I heard the same few sentences:

• It’s not enough to live on!
• I wish I could live like you.
• Wow, you’re so lucky. I hate my job…
• Not enough money…not enough time…not enough…

I know a paycheck isn’t enough to live on, that’s why I left a life of servitude behind. I made a few small changes that turned into gigantic results.

I made myself “lucky”.

How did I make myself lucky?

Easy. I quit my dead-end 9-5 job and then I started working for real. Wouldn’t you know it, 6 or 7 years after working for myself, not others, I’m as lucky as can be.

So how can you be purposely lucky?

Easy. You switch your mindset a little and you take control of your life. Your life isn’t a roller coaster that you have no control of, it’s a one seater race car and you’re the driver.

So you learn to be self-reliant.

You stop seeking approval, instead you start seeking results.

You stop using loser phrases like “it’s not fair”.

You don’t “share your feelings”, you tell what you want or need.

When something goes awry you don’t complain, you fix the problem.

You put the goal in your mind and you envision it everyday, always. You obsess over it.

You never take the blame, you take responsibility.

You start your own business and you build and you grow and you build some more. If you aren’t building something you are withering.

You be the man instead of giving your money to the man.

You be the man the buck stops with.

Go to the mirror right now: Right here and right now the buck stops.

And when you say it you’d better mean it. When I said it I meant it and I ended up lucky as can be.

Until next time.

Your man,

-Elijah “The Realist”