“Your competition is not other people but the time you kill, the ill will you create, the knowledge you neglect to learn, the connections you fail to build, the health you sacrifice along the path, your inability to generate ideas, the people around you who don’t support and love your efforts, and whatever god you curse for your bad luck.”  —James Altucher

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“You’re So Lucky!”

 Too often those described as lucky
are actually only plucky.
It’s the decisions that they make
that make their lives a piece of cake.

If they have a cushy job,
far above the teeming mob,
it is because they chose to go
to college, so they made it so.

Or if they traveled after school,
when others said they were a fool,
and tell of their adventures young,
some people tend to come unstrung

and say they wish they’d had the chance
to participate in life’s wild dance
when they had the energy,
but, you know, traveling’s not free.

The truth is that most anybody
can go to college if they study
or travel anywhere they wish.
Life’s feast is a communal dish.

There is work that you can do
from Broken Hill to Timbuktu
if you are willing to do the tasks–
whatever the situation asks.

It’s true that there are places where
life is not equitable or fair–
places where a woman’s lot
keeps her chained to stove and cot,

or places where sheer poverty
limits all that you can be.
Yet  many who bemoan their fate
simply needed to leave their gate

and take the chance to see the world–
allow their lives to be unfurled.
But, lacking courage, they remained
in the place that fate ordained

was their lot in life and so
just maintained the status quo.
Many are happy where they are
and have no wish to roam afar,

but for those who moan and fuss,
saying all the luck’s with us
who have chosen to live in paradise
(and say it more than once or twice,)

I just want to say once more,
“Here is your suitcase, there’s the door.”
Luck is more often made than won,
and is, I fear, too quickly done.

So even if you’re old and gray,
do what you want to do today.
If you feel caught in the muck,
break free from it and make your luck!

In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Doubter’s Alert.” What commonly accepted truth (or “truth”) do you think is wrong, or at least seriously doubt?  Why?

(Photo of lucky clover downloaded from internet.)

10 thoughts on ““You’re So Lucky!””

  4. Laura Newhampshire's avatarLaura L.

    Interesting quote and poem — with which I mainly, but not totally, agree. We do make (or break) a lot of our own luck, for a variety of reasons. Random things DO happen (luck/unlucky). We should take responsibility for what is ours but not take on the burden of those things which are not of our own doing. A lot of time TIME is needed to recognize the correct/incorrect choices which lead to our luck.

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    1. lifelessons's avatarlifelessons Post author

      I completely agree, Laura. We do not have control over everything. Chance and ill fortune find us whether we go or stay and whatever choices we make. I’m just saying that there are things we can do to increase our chances of being content with our lives.

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  5. OnChi's avatarOnChi

    So absolutely true! We all get out of life what we put into it. It takes courage to break out of the status quo. I admire you. Your hubby must have been just like you.

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