‘Tis the “get lucky” season… so how lucky would you say you are?

A) “I’m permalucky—four leaf clovers are everywhere I look! I whirl them in my smoothies! I use them as toilet paper!” (So, you’re a lucky ass?)

B) “I eat Lucky Charms for breakfast sometimes, so I guess that makes me kinda average in the luck department?” (Sure thing, you Leprechaun, you.) (Okay quick sidebar: Lucky Charms are one of the only yummy gluten-free cereals out there, so I do feel lucky every time I eat a bowlful of their alarmingly synthetic-colored-yet-still-magically-delicious marshmallows.) (Luck: it’s in the eye of the beholder.)

C) “I am chronically unlucky: in love, with my looks, at the bank, at the slot machines. Lady Luck is out to get me.” (I’ll just put on a country music ballad before I tip-toe backwards out of the room.)

Regardless of your track record with luck, here’s the perspective I’m hoping you walk away with today:

YOU ARE LUCKY TO BE ALIVE.

At the risk of sounding dismissive of your life problems—because if you are alive you for sure have problems—you might need a reminder of this “you’re lucky to be here” factoid.

• Even if you’re a bit down on your luck as of late, like if you’ve swiping the wrong way on all the dating app duds, you get to be here to swipe left or right in the first place. You get to sample more of the fish in the sea.
• Even if you’re on an official losing streak, like if you haven’t landed a new account at work in months, you have a pulse and can pound the pavement again tomorrow.
• Even if you’re not feeling so hot, like if you were just diagnosed with fibromyalgia or any other bummer of a health issue, you get to wake up and experience something as stunningly-simply-beautiful as the sunrise or a snuggle with your animal or the taste of a tangerine tomorrow. (Rumor has it that dead people can’t taste tangerines.)
• I have more examples but life is short so I’ll get to the point.

If you woke up today, you’re already luckier than the 75,600-ish people who didn’t get to do that (because that many people died yesterday). If you get to wake up tomorrow, you’ll also be luckier than the 75,600-ish sad sacks who will kick the bucket today and won’t see that sunrise.

YOU: “Yes, I am grateful to be alive, but there are a few chinks in the armor of my life over here. It’s not all roses.”

ME: “I love a good mixed metaphor.”

YOU: (*Side-eyeing me with a distinctly unlucky look on your lucky-to-be-alive face*)

ME: “YOU ARE LUCKY TO BE ALIVE THOUGH, RIGHT?” (The caps denote passion, not rage. Fine: 86% passion, 14% rage.)

I’m thinking of my friend whose cancer just came back, and not just with a mild “I’m back for a quick visit”—no, an aggressive stage four reappearance—a diagnosis that does not reek of good luck. My complaints about not hearing back from the NYT with the Op Ed I submitted don’t seem to matter when I think about my luckometer number compared to hers. It’s not that I don’t have a right to lick my rejected wounds, but it does put my disappointment in perspective. I get to try again, and have the honor of getting rejected again and again over the years, while she won’t have those kind of chances. I need to bake that into my psyche (and maybe you need to bake it in, too):

We have the privilege of getting rejected… while we’re still alive.

We have the privilege of failing at things we give a try… while we’re still alive.

We have the privilege of feeling uncomfortable things like unrequited love… the grief of losing a loved one (or dear cat)… the ho-hum malaise of boredom… the fear of not being enough… the exhaustion of the hamster wheel of burnout… while we’re still alive.

Being alive makes us inherently lucky; it’s a gift we get to unwrap every morning we’re fortunate enough to wake up. A gift of ups and downs, sure. But a gift we’ve been bestowed.

Paul Graham offers words of wisdom about getting lucky: “So you need to make yourself a big target for luck, and the way to do that is to be curious. Try lots of things, meet lots of people, read lots of books, ask lots of questions.”

On a similar vein, Brian Tracy said that “…luck is quite predictable. If you want more luck, take more chances. Be more active. Show up more often.”

We get one go (as far as we know; if you have intel that says otherwise, please contact me!). Let’s widen the net with how lucky we get to be by getting out there, experiencing new things, taking risks, swiping right, applying for the big gig, doing things that make us feel butterfly-inducingly alive. We are so unbelievably lucky, so let’s start reveling in it.

Life: “it’s magically delicious!” — so says the maniacally exuberant-looking Lucky Charms leprechaun, Sir Charms