Lucky Duck, That's Me!

Lucky me! I won this fabulous watermelon quilt from Wendy. I am using it as a table-topper. I love the summery colors; the quilt lifts my spirits just to look at it!

I learned something important the summer after I graduated from High School. I learned it on a trip to Disney. In the van, as we were driving, I was chatting with a professional social worker about my career plans. She shared this lesson on LUCK with me, and it's a lesson that has positively impacted my life. It is this: Luck = Opportunity + Preparedness. In other words, we can shape our luck. I am a believer and a practitioner of this philosophy.

I am a lucky person, and I'm grateful. Certainly, some of it is chance. However, other parts of luck are because I was prepared when the opportunity came around. Case in point: I won the gorgeous watermelon quilt in the Sew, Mama, Sew! giveaway day. (Thank you, Wendy!) The chance part was that my name was drawn. But if we look at the formula above, it works like this: Luck (winning the quilt) = Opportunity (Sew, Mama, Sew giveaway day) + Preparedness (I was prepared for this event! I blocked my lunch hour, a week in advance, so I would have the free time. On the day of, I spent the hour browsing blogs and entering my name. It would have been easy to miss this opportunity if I hadn't prepared in advance for it.) So while I have been blessed by the Fates, you can also see that my own action played into this. Luck = Opportunity + Preparedness.

Where can you shape your luck today?