I wish you "Good Fun"

As we say goodbye to March, I want to wish you "Good Fun!"

In our family, this is what we say in the place of "Good Luck." The reason being, we know we are lucky, and if we remember to have fun, than how can any experience be anything but good?

Look ahead to April and the rest of 2008 with an attitude of prosperity and abundance. Know you are lucky, and concentrate on having fun no matter what you are doing. I bet, if you can find this mindset, you will not only be lucky, you will be happy! "Good fun to you!"

Waiting on Wyoming

In October, 2003 everything in my life seemed to be falling into place. My husband Dave and I had been married for almost two years and we had just welcomed our first son, Mason into our family.

Dave and I had been friends for more than six years before we finally saw what all of our family and friends had seen all along; we were a great fit as a couple. Having consoled and supported each other through numerous failed relationships, we were happy to have finally settled into happily-married life. Now, with Mason, we were looking forward to happily-married-family-life.

On November 4, 2003 Dave got “the call.” Dave is a longtime member of the California Army National Guard, and he was being deployed to Iraq. I don’t remember another time that I felt such a horrible mix of emotions, all at the same time I was feeling as proud as I had ever felt. You see, my family had a very long line of military service, all the way back to my great grandfather, so I was extremely proud of Dave to serve our country. When it came right down to it, it was clear that Dave would go to Iraq, I would stay home and take care of Mason, and we would find a way to get through this very difficult time.

The first five months of the eighteen month deployment were stateside for training. Mason and I stayed in California while Dave trained in the cold, snowy conditions at Ft. Lewis, Washington. While we were adjusting to the separation that was only going to grow farther apart, I kept trying to come up with some kind of thing we could do to help count down the days to what we hoped would be Dave’s safe return home. I knew I would send lots of cards and letters but there had to be something more we could do to make this fun, meaningful and give Dave some way to gauge how soon he could return to his new family in California. Some families make a paper chain with each link representing a day, and then decorating with the completed chain for the welcome home. Others mark “Xs” on the squares on the calendar to see the days go by. I just wanted something more interactive, something we could do together.

Standing in line at the post office to buy postage stamps, I saw them; Postcards of the fifty United States stamps. This is perfect I thought to myself. There are fifty states and just about that many weeks in a year. One postcard mailed on the same day each week will arrive on a regular basis, giving Dave something to look forward to. With a personal, loving note from me on one side, and a reminder of each state back home that he is in Iraq representing and protecting, this was my answer.

When Dave received the first card, Alabama, I had written about how I would love to visit Alabama with him when he returned home. I referenced something “little known” about the state and reminded him he only had forty-nine more weeks to go. The next week he found Alaska, then Arkansas, and Arizona after that. On every card I wrote about something we could do or see when we would visit that state, and then there was a reminder about how appreciative we as Americans are, in every state, for every one of our men and women serving to keep us safe back home.

I can’t recall exactly when, but not long after the alphabetical pattern had become clear, I received an e-mail that simply read, “Waiting on Wyoming. I love you. Love Dave.” It worked! Dave was looking forward to mail call and looking for his next postcard. I was sending other cards and letters, but it was the postcards of the United States that were decorating the fabric of the inside of his tent. While other families were marking off days on a calendar, Dave was marking off states with a black marker on a small map. On that map was a very clear focal point, a big red heart circling the state of Wyoming with the words “waiting on Wyoming” written in small letters.

On February 1, 2005, Dave and his unit were frantically packing and preparing for the long trip home. Nobody was thinking about mail and was far less concerned about letters, and more concerned with getting all the details signed off so they could process out of Iraq and back into America. As Dave hurried to take care of his administrative business, he slipped away to the mail tent. He found his last bundle of mail he would receive in Iraq and through several other pieces of mail, he found it, like a bright spot of sunshine, the colorful little card reading, in big letters across the front, “WYOMING.” With a big smile and a sense of pride, he put the card in his pocket and finished his work.

More than a year later, while unpacking a box he had shipped home, he came across the rubber-banded bundle of postcards. He pulled them out and shared with me what they meant to him. He told me that not only did he enjoy the game, but more importantly, he felt the sense of pride and responsibility that a Soldier feels with regard to protecting our Country. He said he just couldn’t come home without Wyoming. Knowing he had all fifty of his states, he was ready to return home to his happily-married-family-life.

Gett'n Lucky and the Sure Thing

So all this month I've asked you if you believe in luck, and more importantly, do you believe you're lucky? What did you come up with?

I know I'm lucky. I live a blessed life, not always the way I think it should be, but wonderful and abundant. Abundant in life, energy, friends, family, and love.

Today the Sacramento Bee did a story on one of many of love stories Dave and I have shared. Click the link if you want to check it out and I will post the story Waiting on Wyoming on Sunday.

http://www.sacbee.com/107/story/814685.html

Who Knows?

I do! I know that whatever you think, you're right! If you think you're lucky, you'll see the outcome of all things in your life through that lens. "It was lucky that we were picked to play!" or "It was sure lucky that didn't go worse than it did!"

For me, I'm lucky. Dave and I are pursuing an invention we came up with more than two years ago. I don't know how we could be any luckier as we go through each step of this very interesting process. It seems that though we have no idea what we're doing, every person or resource we need seems to present itself just as we need to implement that step. How do you explain that? I say, it's happening because this is exactly as I said it would happen. I have faith that what we need will be there for us when we need it. Not just in this area of our life, but in every area.

What do you think? Do you have faith that all is well and will continue to be well? Even if things are not rosy and easy, do you believe you will benefit, and be okay when you have tough times to learn from? Do you believe you are lucky when things go wrong? It is all in how you choose to see it!

Luck and Timing

I think you need to be ready to be lucky. You need to have the right mindset, but I also think you need to be in a place in your life where you have done your personal work so that you can have all that luck brings you.

I was in Arizona this last week pursuing a dream to bring a product to market. My hubby invented something two years ago and we are only just now pursuing it. Why? Because two years ago we weren't ready. We also figured this thing had to exist. We did a little research and when we didn't find anything, we lost interest and went on with out lives.

The real truth is, we weren't ready. Last year, we made a budget and stuck to it. We paid our bills off, and mostly got our financial ethics in line. Here we are now, a little money in the bank and emotionally ready for what this product can bring us.

Some will say we were lucky to meet the people we now have in our Rolodex, or that we were lucky we got to meet the buyer for QVC. Yes, we were lucky, but we were also ready and the timing was right. Luck and timing happen when you do the work you need to do to be lucky and timely.

The Luck Factor - Book Information

The Luck Factor is a fun read. I recommend it as it'll get your wheels turning and make you think about how you perceive luck and being lucky.

You can't buy this book in stores but you can get it through Amazon.com. The stories of the people Dr. Wiseman studied are the people we know and the strangers we meet each day. There are exercises you can do to improve you luck and help get your thinking on the lucky path.

What do you think of all of this? Did you realize there could actually be a formula to being lucky? Hell, as I get older, I've come to realize there's a science or formula to everything!

Principle Number Four

The fourth and final principle is "Turn Bad Luck Into Good." Lucky people are able to turn their occasional bad luck into good fortune.

According to Dr. Wiseman, sometimes even lucky people encounter bad luck and negative events (I can vouch for that). His research into how lucky people deal with bad luck revealed that they have an uncanny way of transforming their misfortune into amazing good fortune.

One example of this is Olympians who win medals. The winner of the bronze medal is often happier than the winner of the silver medal. Studies show that the winner of the silver medal is thinking if they had just performed a little better, they would have won the gold. The bronze winner is thinking how grateful they are that they performed as well as they did or they would have won nothing. Psychologists refer to this kind of thinking as "counter-factual thinking."

Dr. Wiseman found that lucky people tend to use counter-factual thinking to come up with how things might have been worse, thus making them feel more empowered to turn their bad luck into something good. You might call this looking on the bright side. Whatever you call it, it seems to be the happier side of life. Won't you join me on the bright side?