 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Lucky You
By Nina Baruch
Are you lucky? If your answer
is "No", you may have an attitude
that is reinforcing bad luck
For many years my friends regarded me as a very unlucky person: I got married much too young, and became a mother by the age of twenty-one, before I had managed to graduate from college. Three
years later, with the help of my parents, I managed to go back to school and graduate, but just as I started working as a public school teacher, I got pregnant again, had to stop working for another year, and right after I got back to work, my husband, who always had a hard time keeping a steady job - left me.
From than on I was struggling on my own. My humble parents couldn't help much and my ex-husband got married again, and never supported our two kids. Since my salary as a teacher was very modest, I was always looking for ways to increase my income. Eventually I became a successful editor in a daily paper, but
had to work from morning till late at night, so that I could sustain myself and my children. Fifteen years later, when my kids left home, I thought I would be getting a well deserved break
but then my editor in chief left. Unfortunately, the woman who replaced him didn't care much for me (and the feelings were mutual), and soon enough she got rid of me.
For the first time in my life I had to agree with my friends: I obviously had plenty of bad luck... And I was devastated. I cried my eyes out almost every night. Many times I wished I was dead. I was constantly cursing my bad luck, and praying for a miracle. Meanwhile I was exhausting my savings, and going bankrupt.
All this time, my best friend Hanna was having a ball. As an only child of elderly and well off parents, she went to the best schools and college, and when she graduated she took a job as a secretary in a public office. Her salary wasn't high, but it didn't bother her, because she lived on her own, and didn't have a family to support. Her parents were always there for her, so she never worried about her future. The only thing that did worry Hanna was the fact she hadn't gotten married yet, so all her energy was aimed toward this goal but to no avail. So, while I had always thought she was a very lucky woman, and wished I had half her luck - Hanna felt very unlucky.
When Hanna was forty-two, her parents died. They left her a steady but modest income that would last her for the rest of her life. Hanna, who hated her job, decided to quit, and live off her inheritance from then on. A year later, Hanna got pregnant by her boyfriend. He refused to marry her, and took off. Hanna decided to have the child anyway. She thought she could afford to, with the house she owned, and the money her parents had left her. She didn't go back to work after her child was born.
But soon enough she found out the money she had was not enough to support herself and her child. For a while she tried going back to work, but at the age of forty-eight no one would hire her. So she stayed at home raising her child with the little she had, and regarded herself even less lucky than before. When we meet she complains, and tells me she wishes she had half my luck. "It's bad enough that I never got married - now I have to live on the edge of poverty", she tells me.
The reason she thinks I'm luckier than she is, is because two years ago I pulled myself together, started a new and successful business on the internet, and now I make more money monthly, than I used to earn in an entire year working for others. I no longer have to work long and tedious hours, or to put up with abusive bosses. Now everyone, including myself, regards me as a very lucky woman.
Hell, sometimes when counting my blessings I think back to that wonderful moment when I was brutally fired. I imagine what would have happened had my last boss kept me at my job. I probably would have still been there, and like Hanna and many other folks I know, I would have still been feeling very unlucky.
<back ....1/2/next
By Nina Baruch
Are you lucky? If your answer
is "No", you may have an attitude
that is reinforcing bad luck
For many years my friends regarded me as a very unlucky person: I got married much too young, and became a mother by the age of twenty-one, before I had managed to graduate from college. Three
years later, with the help of my parents, I managed to go back to school and graduate, but just as I started working as a public school teacher, I got pregnant again, had to stop working for another year, and right after I got back to work, my husband, who always had a hard time keeping a steady job - left me.
From than on I was struggling on my own. My humble parents couldn't help much and my ex-husband got married again, and never supported our two kids. Since my salary as a teacher was very modest, I was always looking for ways to increase my income. Eventually I became a successful editor in a daily paper, but
had to work from morning till late at night, so that I could sustain myself and my children. Fifteen years later, when my kids left home, I thought I would be getting a well deserved break
but then my editor in chief left. Unfortunately, the woman who replaced him didn't care much for me (and the feelings were mutual), and soon enough she got rid of me.
For the first time in my life I had to agree with my friends: I obviously had plenty of bad luck... And I was devastated. I cried my eyes out almost every night. Many times I wished I was dead. I was constantly cursing my bad luck, and praying for a miracle. Meanwhile I was exhausting my savings, and going bankrupt.
All this time, my best friend Hanna was having a ball. As an only child of elderly and well off parents, she went to the best schools and college, and when she graduated she took a job as a secretary in a public office. Her salary wasn't high, but it didn't bother her, because she lived on her own, and didn't have a family to support. Her parents were always there for her, so she never worried about her future. The only thing that did worry Hanna was the fact she hadn't gotten married yet, so all her energy was aimed toward this goal but to no avail. So, while I had always thought she was a very lucky woman, and wished I had half her luck - Hanna felt very unlucky.
When Hanna was forty-two, her parents died. They left her a steady but modest income that would last her for the rest of her life. Hanna, who hated her job, decided to quit, and live off her inheritance from then on. A year later, Hanna got pregnant by her boyfriend. He refused to marry her, and took off. Hanna decided to have the child anyway. She thought she could afford to, with the house she owned, and the money her parents had left her. She didn't go back to work after her child was born.
But soon enough she found out the money she had was not enough to support herself and her child. For a while she tried going back to work, but at the age of forty-eight no one would hire her. So she stayed at home raising her child with the little she had, and regarded herself even less lucky than before. When we meet she complains, and tells me she wishes she had half my luck. "It's bad enough that I never got married - now I have to live on the edge of poverty", she tells me.
The reason she thinks I'm luckier than she is, is because two years ago I pulled myself together, started a new and successful business on the internet, and now I make more money monthly, than I used to earn in an entire year working for others. I no longer have to work long and tedious hours, or to put up with abusive bosses. Now everyone, including myself, regards me as a very lucky woman.
Hell, sometimes when counting my blessings I think back to that wonderful moment when I was brutally fired. I imagine what would have happened had my last boss kept me at my job. I probably would have still been there, and like Hanna and many other folks I know, I would have still been feeling very unlucky.
<back ....1/2/next
"An optimist sees an opportunity in every calamity; a pessimist sees a calamity in every opportunity"
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill (1874-1965) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. He was a noted statesman, orator and strategist, and won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1953 for his historical writings. During the Second World War Churchill led the British war effort against the Axis powers. His speeches were a great inspiration to the Allied forces.
"Lucky people
increase their
chance opportunities by being open to intuition and
listen to their
hunches; they
are able to see
the positive side
of bad fortune
and are better
able to deal
with it"
increase their
chance opportunities by being open to intuition and
listen to their
hunches; they
are able to see
the positive side
of bad fortune
and are better
able to deal
with it"
Winston Cherchill
