I had a difficult childhood. I suffer from chronic health problems. My mom died when I was nineteen. I don’t fit in easily with many groups. I attract people to me who take advantage of my over-niceness/over-empathy. Sometimes people have treated me very poorly. There have been many times in my life when I’ve been forced to make hard choices. I’m a little bit accident prone. I’ve had dreams and aspirations that haven’t come true and never will in the future. I get rejected a lot. Sometimes people don’t listen to what I have to say. I have often felt very isolated.
I am a very lucky person:
I gain immense personal satisfaction from my creative work. None of my medical issues thus far have been life-threatening or impacted my quality of life permanently. Also I have health insurance. I take a great deal of joy from life, both from the small things and the large ones. I have traveled all over the world. I have been able to spend the majority of my life pursuing interests and careers that I deeply care about. I had access to a good education. People have gone out of their way to be helpful and kind to me. I am able to change. My empathy allows me to connect with people on a deeper level. I have a lot to look forward to. I have plenty of resources and opportunities. I have been able to help and inspire people. I have people (and dogs) who I love deeply.
These are both stories I can tell about myself and my life. Both of them contain statements of truth; both of them contain some statements that have nothing whatsoever to do with luck (and some that do).
I had trouble writing the unlucky one. Not because I was making things up, but because that is not the predominate story I tell myself. It’s the one that creeps up on me when I’m tired or discouraged or in pain. It’s the one that makes me doubt myself. It’s the one that makes me want to choose the easiest way.
The lucky story is what I tell myself every day. It is where I find much of my happiness.
In which story do you spend most of your time?
The Practical Free Spirit 
Interesting post. Makes you think about how you see your life, half empty or half full – all a matter of perspective.
It really does, doesn’t it? I think most of us do both at certain times, but I was heartened to find that for myself, the good luck list was so much easier to write.
Interesting post. Much of life is really how we perceive it. I’m convinced two people could live identical lives and one perceive or dwell on how lucky they are and one on how unlucky they are.
I’d like to think myself in the “good luck” camp. I don’t really believe in “luck” but I also don’t have a better word for when things tend to break in my favor rather than against.
“These are both stories I can tell about myself and my life.” <- I like this line. After all we all are the protagonist in our own lives.
Yeah, luck is a problematic term, all told. We were having a discussion about that over on Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/106050778312080321769/posts/35Ucyk2aV4L
I totally agree that you could put two different people through the same circumstances and get two completely different reactions. I see it all the time.
I like to remind myself that I am a protagonist. It makes my life sound so exciting!
I’ll check out the discussion over there. I added you on G+ (I’m Paul)
glass half empty? not really – the other half is filled with air. 🙂
Love that thought!
someone told me that not long ago and i’ve totally embraced it!
I’m a very unlucky person:
I was mercilessly picked on through most of grade school. My eyesight is terrible. My mother is dead, I haven’t been on speaking terms with my father for more than half a decade, and the rest of my biological family is small and I’ve never been especially close to any of them. I drifted through high school and community college with a GPA below my intellectual talents, crashed and burned at university, spent years functional (holding down a full time job with no problems) yet largely aimless. Several of the great passions in my life have ended badly, in no small part because of disdain for the kinds of people who tend to share my interests. I find my belief system at odds with much of the world and both sides of most dichotomous debates. I’ve wasted lots of time. I’m a social awkward terminally single 30 year old and I’ve probably battled with some form of minor depression.
I’m a very lucky person:
I have some great caring friends and know many older adults who treat me like a son/grandson despite not being biologically related. I’m intelligent and back in college finishing up a degree in a subject I have a passion for (History). I’ve done or will do several public presentations, which I’ve enjoyed and seem to have a knack for (I research, make a PPT outline, and extemporize without notes). I’ve made significant social progress in the last decade and become much better about keeping people in or out of my life depending on whether I want them there. I feel better about my life nowadays than every before. I’ve traveled more in the last couple years than most of the rest of my life combined. I’ve never quit trying to improve myself and never turned to substance abuse or similar crutches to deal with my life difficulties. I’m not in debt. I’ve had good stable jobs with good bosses.
In which story do you spend most of your time?
I was caught in the Unlucky story for a long time. I think I’m shifting into the Lucky one more as time goes by, but some of the Unlucky one is hard to escape. My self-perception is still kind of skewed and I’m still cynical and distrustful of human nature. There is still a perpetual battle – especially when exhauted – not to let the negatives creep back into my mind and pull me down.
Yeah, I know what you mean. It is always when I am at my most vulnerable that my bad luck story lunges into action.