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Can luck be provoked? We can’t force fate, but we can all put ourselves in a positive frame of mind that attracts opportunities, as long as we know how to recognize and seize them. Even when you feel stuck in an inextricable situation, a change of attitude can change everything, sometimes miraculously. I personally tried it out a few years ago, and I think about it every time I need to bring luck back into my life…
Some awakenings are more pleasant than others. But that day, as I awoke with a start in a hotel in Medellín, Colombia, I have to say that the prospect of the race against the clock that lay ahead was not a happy one. My phone showed 11:27, while my flight to Bogotá was at 12:35. I then had to connect to Mexico City and San Francisco to continue my vacation in California the next day… Taking my chances, I hurriedly gathered my belongings, jumped into a cab and ran into the airport check-in hall… With a big smile, the stewardess stole my last hope by telling me that boarding was over and that there was no point in insisting. The plane was still on the tarmac, but I was coming to terms with the fact that I’d missed not only my flight, but also the next two, taken on different low-cost airlines… After trying again to get on another plane, unfortunately overbooked, I just had to accept the consequences of my alarm clock failure: I’d just lost a large sum of money and my dream of a Californian vacation was gone with this plane I wasn’t on…
Alone among the throngs of departing passengers, I felt my fatigue creep up on me, and memories of the previous evening flooded back.Medellín is a vibrant city and I had let the night slip away, convinced that I’d still be able to sleep on the plane to recuperate… Instead, I felt as if the world had just come crashing down on me, I was useless, exhausted, not really knowing where to go.
Then a miracle occurred that would change the course of events once and for all, making this trip a wonderful surprise. Now that I had all the time in the world, I’d buy myself a fresh fruit juice and drink it outside in the sun to regain my composure. Between sips, a phrase came to me, in Spanish, like a subliminal message from my foggy subconscious: “Tienes suerte”, you’re lucky.
What do you mean, you’re lucky? Are you kidding? You’ve just lost your flights, the value of all your tickets! You call that luck? If I’d been lucky, it would have been that there was less traffic, and that you arrived 5 minutes earlier, or that the flight was delayed by 10 minutes! And then I realized that yes, I was lucky. I had no one to blame but myself for my alarm failure, the money I’d lost wasn’t vital, and I was now free to go wherever I wanted. Looking around me, I also saw how lucky I was to be able to afford such a vacation, which was an unaffordable luxury for many people. What was waiting for me next? I couldn’t wait to find out, and went back to the airport to get a new ticket.
From that moment on, everything smiled on me. Absolutely everything. The ticket to Bogotá cost only $50 extra, and I was upgraded to Business for free. I had no batteries or chargers left to charge my phone, but this enabled me to make contact with a Colombian man who not only lent me his charger, but also kept me company throughout the flight. After a long chat, I greeted him and soon after met one of his compatriots, who, after asking me for a light, accompanied me to the various airport counters to help me with the various formalities. She too eventually left, but these two beautiful encounters had brightened my day. Everything followed naturally, as if I’d been given a special charm, or rather a new energy, that helped make positive things happen to me.
On my way out of the airport, I had the idea of calling an acquaintance in Medellin to check up on him. When I told him about my misadventure, he said he was in Bogotá with a friend and asked me to join them. A magical scenario, all I had to do was hop into a yellow cab to drop my bag off at the hotel room he’d booked for me, before joining them in a club for an absolutely wonderful evening… One magnificent weekend later, I was finally off to San Franciso, with a head full of memories and a smile on my face. In the end, I’d been lucky, very lucky, and not only was the rest of my vacation fabulous, it had even cost me less than I’d expected…
But would I have been so lucky if I hadn’t decided to have it? If I’d stayed moody, closed-minded and negative, I wouldn’t have had such wonderful encounters, I wouldn’t have been outclassed and I wouldn’t have seen events unfold with such ease and fluidity. So the next time you feel like the world is falling apart and you’ve reached a dead end, try going outside for a juice and try saying to yourself “Tienes suerte”, in the language of your choice. I hope it’s as magical as it was for me!
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