One of life's big challenges is figuring out what you really want, and not looking for it in the wrong places. To create luck, you must know what gives you joy and fills your life with meaning and purpose. What one of us may consider lucky, would be another's nemesis. Contrary to my husband, a country kind of guy, I would not consider myself lucky to be living in the boonies. To my husband, the less people around the better! Who's luckier, the city dweller, suburban resident, or the farmer? Well, that all depends on what you want -- there is no objective answer to that question. Shel Horowitz, http://www.frugalfun.com ,Author of "The Penny-Pinching Hedonist: How to Live Like Royalty with a Peasant's Pocketbook" has created an abundant life for himself and his wife and two children, in Northampton, Massachusetts. Shel lives in a rural area of Massachusetts ( his idea of heaven!) where he enjoys working from home with a gorgeous view of the scenery, his wife who works at home as well as a writer, and his two talented and beautiful children. Shel knew what he wanted and he wasn't afraid to go after it. He shared this story in my creating luck newsletter: "November 5, 1999, I read with horror on page one of the Hampshire Gazette of a plan to put 40-60 trophy homes on the north side of the Mt. Holyoke Range--visible from the summit of the adjoining state park (THE place to bring out of town guests, year after year in the Valley Advocate reader poll). The article interviewed a number of conservation types wringing their hands and saying, oh, this is terrible, there's nothing we can do. Well, I read the article and said "of course there's something we can do!" I caucused with a couple of local friends (I'd only lived in this town for 14 months at the time, having relocated form Northampton across the river). We set a meeting date of Nov. 22 at my house. I sent out press releases announcing the formation of "Save the Mountain" and took advantage of some good-weather days to flyer the neighborhood by bicycle. 70 people jammed themselves into my dining room (I was as shocked as anyone else), we formed several committees, and off we went. Over the next 13 months, we collected thousands of signatures on a petition, brought 475 opponents to a planning board hearing (the board normally meets in a room with 20 seats), raised close to $20,000 in contributions of $1 $200, passed two laws at Town Meeting that will make this sort of thing much harder for future developers, plastered the valley with lawn signs and bumper stickers, did outreach tables at various public events, received tons of media coverage, put together a website at http://www.savemtholyokerange.com (though the site is currently down--we'll get it straightened out soon, I'm sure), got the Range and its sister across the river named one of 10 Last Chance Landscapes by a national group called Scenic America...in short, we organized our butts off. "Two weeks ago, we learned that a local woman had donated money for the state to buy the land. In her press statement, she cited our work as her inspiration. About an hour before the start of Chanukah, the transfer of ownership was completed. Every night as we lit the candles, I thought "a great miracle happened *here.*" Ah, yes, a miracle for sure -- who knew about this donor in the wings? But she came forward after being inspired by Shel and his friends, and their efforts started with them being really clear about what they wanted in their living environment -- and what they didn't want! It's easy to get your wants confused with what your mother wants for you, or your teachers told you that you should want, or your kids want you to provide for them, or the media brainwashes you into believing you should want, or what you thought you wanted ten years ago, but now that you have it, it's not what you really want. I am raising three small children who have the nasty occasional habit of whining for what they want. Sometimes, they don't have a clue about what they really want, and every attempt to calm them results in further whining. "NO, that's NOT what I wanted, Mommy!," they glare at me, indignant that I misinterpreted their plaintive grunts and wails. Sometimes I imagine God playing the same game with me. I'm changing my mind every few minutes about what I want, whining about what I don't have, expressing this vague sense of, "I need something, God, but I'm not exactly sure what that is," and God is patiently waiting for me to figure out what I really want, so that he or she can help me get it. When you are clear about what you want, if it's in the higher good and for your best interest to get it, blessings will start pouring in to help you get what you want. If you don't know what you want, it's hard for the help to come. Luck-building strategy: want what you have. Although we're discussing creating luck by asking for what you want, ironically, one of the fastest ways to create luck is to want less. Not because you are pathologically unable to receive the gifts of the universe because of your low self esteem, or because it isn't "spiritual" to want material comfort and luxury in your life. This is a different kind of wanting less. The secret to happiness is figuring out that it's fine to ask for what you want, and, simultaneously, loving and appreciating what you have. The universe likes to give to people who are grateful for what they already cherish.
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