How To Be A Lucky Duck

"Lucky Ducks"

(small watercolor study)

Gouache

Ever used the expression, "You lucky duck!", to someone who perhaps just got a hole-in-one on the 18th hole in golf or found a five dollar bill while out jogging?  We use expressions like that all the time.  Do you ever wonder why they originated?  That's what I wondered about the phrase, "lucky duck".  Not much is available as to its origin, except that the rhyming qualities of luck and duck are catchy.  The emphasis is more on the luck part and not intimating the duck nature to a human being.

But wait!  Is there really any way a person can increase their chances of luck or experience good turns in life?  Psychologist Richard Wiseman thinks so.  He wrote a book about it called The Luck Factor:  Changing Your Luck, Changing Your Life:  The Four Essential Principles.  In it he espouses that we have much more to do with being in the right place at the right time than we think.  Thus, the four principles of which I'll briefly water ski over the surface:

1.  Relax.  

That sounds pleasant enough.  I think we all could handle more of that in our lives.  Mr. Wiseman goes on to provide evidence for why relaxed people have better luck in more opportunities than uptight folks.  Here he emphasizes how relaxed people are better able to maximize opportunities.

2.  Trust your gut.

Here Mr. Wiseman writes that people who rely more on their intuition are luckier than those who don't.  So listen to your heart!

3.  Expect the best.

On this point, Wiseman found in his research that positive outlooks greatly trumped a negative view in taking chances and looking at the future.  Those with positive outlooks had a self-fulfilling prophecy when it came to achieving good outcomes in their lives.  Negative outlooks can create a vicious downward cycle of not taking risks and playing safe, thus losing out on growth and good opportunities.

4.  Turn that frown upside-down.

This point focuses on the fact that we all have bad experiences in our lives, even the seeming "luckier" ones.  But the key here is how one responds to hard knocks.  Do we get down and succumb to the situation, or do we express gratitude that things aren't worse, learn from it, get up and keep persevering?  Those with "luckier" attitudes believe that things will ultimately turn out best in their favor.  They don't dwell on the negative.  Instead they take action to create better opportunities.  

So, there's nothing "quack" about that advice.  Basically, it is just good common sense about the best way to live life no matter what good or bad comes your way.

One aspect that gives me great confidence about the unknown is found in what King David wrote in Psalm 31: 14,15:

But I am trusting you, O Lord,

saying, 'You are my God!'

My future is in Your hands.

We all have opportunities to make choices that impact our lives.  Beyond that we can trust our lives and the unknown into the sovereign, loving, all-powerful hands of the great Creator God.

Live bravely and beautifully!