Friday 7 December 2007

What Has Luck Gotta to Do With It?

When I told friends that I was going to escape from London for a while and spend time in Barbados many of them commented how lucky I was. I started to think so myself at one point before I stopped that thought dead in its tracks. It's not that I'm not grateful for being in a position to do this but luck has nothing to do with it.

Motivational speaker and author Johnny Wimbrey describes LUCK as "Labouring Under Correct Knowledge" and the greatest lesson that I have learnt in life is that we create our own reality. It's a lesson I wish I had learnt much earlier in life but now that I am aware of it I am using this knowledge to transform my life.

I don't particularly enjoy the winter months in London. It's not so much the cold that gets me down. It's the shortened days. I suffer from SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) and during the winter months I use a full spectrum lamp to help me to cope with the long hours of darkness and lack of sunlight. Otherwise I experience feelings of depression and irritability. I was explaining this to my brother recently who has lived in Barbados virtually all his life. He hadn't even heard about SAD. He remarked that he thought it was "sad" that I had to use a special lamp to prevent the negative fluctuations of my moods.

A friend emailed me recently and said:

"This is the worst time of the year for me the winter months. I sit here and think of Barbados and look forward to Christmas and after that Spring, then Summer. Yippee!"

This person loves Barbados and is planning to retire to the island. It's called delayed gratification and it has its place. However, often it just sucks.

So this year I set my intention to escape from wintry London and spend Christmas in the Caribbean. Then I sent about working to bring this goal about. In fact, I'm working while I here and when friends said enjoy your holiday I had to remind them that I was not going on holiday that I was simply relocating for a short time. You see, I set a goal a while ago that I would develop portable skills, i.e. skills that would enable me to work anywhere in the world, as long as I had a phone and connection to the Internet. Coaching is one example of such a skill. I have never met some of my clients in person as I coach over the phone and this means that not only can I coach from almost anywhere but my clients can be based almost anywhere as well.

So once again for those who think I'm "lucky", I'm just labouring under the correct knowledge that I create my reality and that I have a choice. I can choose to create a lifestyle that empowers me or I can choose to create a lifestyle that disempowers me. You have the same choices open to you.

Luck has nothing to do with it. As H L Hunt said,

"Decide what you want, decide what you are willing to exchange for it. Establish your priorities and go to work."

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