Happiness Quotient Headquarters

February 5, 2008 2 Comments

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“Go and wake up your luck.” (Persian saying)

Did you know the Year of the Rat is almost here? According to my calendar, Chinese New Year is just around the corner on February 7th. While we are more likely to associate luck with the Irish, the Chinese culture has many traditions associated with luck at this time of year.

For example, one tradition is to start cleaning house before the holiday to sweep out the bad luck and prepare for good luck. According to wikipedia.com, brooms and dustpans are put away the first day of the holiday so that luck is not swept away. Food is usually cooked the day before, as lighting fires and using knives are considered bad luck on New Year’s Day. Money is given in red packets because the color red is thought to bring luck. The amounts are usually in even amounts (considered luckier) and would typically be $4 or $8 as these even numbers are particularly lucky. Opening windows and doors is considered lucky. Conversely, buying shoes or pants is bad luck as is wearing clothing in the colors black or white. (It would follow, I think, that black and white shoes and pants would be a very unfortunate thing.)

We all want to be lucky, yet how much of luck is what we make of it?

Positive psychologists have found that your happiness is comprised of about 50% temperament (our happiness “set-point,”) and 40% attitude. Only about 10% is attributable to the life circumstances we try so hard to orchestrate. It would appear that changing your attitude could have a considerable effect on your experience of being lucky. For example, I can think “What bad luck to have to experience a Pap Smear first thing on a Monday” or I could think, “How lucky am I to have insurance, to get this over with so early in the week, and that I have a great doctor. I could choose to focus on the fact that an instrument of torture that resembles duck lips is coming ever closer to some of my most treasured parts or I could consider myself fortunate that my doctor responds to my wisecrack about duck lips by making the duck lips move and mischievously squawking “Aflac!” Now that’s a great tension reliever if your feet are in stirrups and you are in a horribly unflattering position. (If you are a guy and are thinking right now I really wish she wasn’t talking about Pap Smears, you could choose to think instead, Geez I’m lucky I don’t have to have those. Aren’t you feeling luckier already?)

I know, in my own life, many of the events that I thought were bad luck turned out to be good luck later on when viewed from a different perspective. There is a tale from ancient China which reminds us that bad luck often turns out to be good and vice versa.

“An old man was living with his son at the top of a hill. One day, he lost a horse. The neighbors all came to express their sympathy at his bad luck, but the old man said, “How do you know this isn’t good luck?” A little later the horse came back and with it were some superior wild horses. The neighbors all congratulated the old man on his good fortune, but he said, “How do you know this isn’t bad luck?” With so many horses, the son began riding, and one day he fell off and broke his leg. The injury left him with a bad limp. Again the neighbors came to sympathize, but the old man said, “You never know—this may be good luck.” Another year passed, and a war came. All the able-bodied men had to go to war, and many died. The son, because of his bad leg, was saved. In this way, what seems to be good luck may really be bad, and what seems to be bad luck, good.” (From Li Zi, adapted by Lin Yutang)

Next time you are feeling unlucky, it may be helpful to ask yourself if there is a way to look at the situation in a more positive light. Even if you can’t think of one, perhaps it may be comforting to consider, “You never know if something is good luck or bad luck” like the wise old man in the story. As the Dalai Lama has pointed out, “Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.”

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