Good Choices You Are Lucky

Twenty-five centuries ago, the great Greek thinker Aristotle was

known for his uncommon common sense. His wisdom helps us
understand our own lives, our real world, and our society. His great
insights and understanding are not at all common. Aristotle
understood
that our success in living the good life depends on moral virtue or
excellence due to our good, wise choices, the right choices we make
every
day that are aimed at what is good for us.
But that’s not enough. We can make a great effort to live a good
life, but if we have bad luck, we will not be able to have all the
external
good we’ll need to live a good life. We didn’t have any control over the
circumstances of our birth, our parents, or where and how we were
raised.
We cannot will good luck by making wise choices.
Think of the earthquake that spawned the tsunami, or of recent
hurricanes of horror and unbearable destruction. Even when we try to
take good care of our body, there is no guarantee we will maintain our
health and vitality. Disease happens to us, our family and our friends,
not
by choice. Health and prosperity, to some extent, are due to luck
smiling
on us. Some people are extremely blessed with good luck, while
others
are unfortunate, having to endure one misfortune after another. The
real
goods we need to live a good life, then, are not entirely within our
power
to obtain by our wise choices.
Carl Brandt told me over a memorable lunch meeting that I have been
blessed with good luck. He recognizes that I work hard, but many
others
do also, and don’t feel happy or meet with success. He’s absolutely
right.
Fortuitous circumstances have brought me great good luck. I’ve been
extremely fortunate all of my life. If I’d been born male, chances are I
would not have been taken around the world by my aunt, Betty Johns.
She wisely chose to take her three oldest nieces, not her nephews. My
father didn’t believe women should receive the same education as
men,
but this world trip profoundly changed me in a far more dramatic and
meaningful way than could be imagined in a school setting.
While we can’t make good luck, we can take notice of it when we are
blessed by good fortune. Good luck is a gift. Chance, the
unpredictable
element of existence, does play a major role in all of our lives, for
good
and for bad. We should recognize the need for good luck as well as
wise
choices when we’re pursuing happiness. Take heart. Your
determination
to make good choices, in the good and bad circumstances of your life,
will
fortify your inner resolve, mobilize your resources, and help you to
grow
through, not merely go through, misfortune. Our habits of choice help
us in good and bad times. Saint Catherine of Siena said, “To a brave
man,
good and bad luck are like his right and left hand. He uses both.”
Aristotle believed that trying to live a good life is worth all the
trouble and effort it takes. He freely admited it is not easy to live up to
his high principles. But every time we make the right choice and
follow
it through, we move toward our ultimate goal of living a happy life.
The
nineteenth-century French chemist Louis Pasteur, who founded
modern
microbiology and invented pasteurization, believed, “Chance favors
the
prepared mind.” Someone once said that the harder you work, the
more
luck you have.
Do not feel the aim and goal of happiness is selfish, only for your own
good life. No one succeeds in achieving happiness without considering
the well-being and happiness of others. Through our love of life, our
love
of ourselves, and our love of others, we’ll want to play our part to add
to
the universal intelligence, order, and wisdom.
We should look at our life as a whole. The big picture requires that
we take whatever pains are required to live a good life. We need to
stretch
our intellectual capacities in order to achieve excellence. Acquiring
knowledge and developing our skills can be painful, but it is what’s
good
for us and others in the long run.
We’re extremely fortunate to have freedom of choice. If we ever doubt
this, we just need to look around us. We alone choose. As we know,
choices aren’t always sweet. If we have bad fortune, we have to make
the wisest choice under awful circumstances. But whenever we’re
willing
to face each choice with integrity and conviction, we will be exercising
our fundamental responsibility as the highest species, as thinking
human
beings. As humans, we have a hunger and thirst to know, to learn, and
to challenge ourselves, to make real use of our abilities by developing
our
innate potential, our unique gifts.
We have free will to shape and mold ourselves into a superior life. We
can’t afford to be afraid to carve out a real life for ourselves, not one
that
others choose for us. We are the embodiment of our choices. We
should
try to take the high road. Happiness and the good life are possible
when
we strive for excellence, when we try to be reasonable and fair, when
we exercise our higher powers, when we try to live in the
transcendent
consciousness of love.
Your unique personality, temperament, disposition, and outlook on
life will guide you. You have everything you will need right now, right
where you are. Remember that the pleasures of the mind are
unlimited.
You’re always better off the more knowledge you have. You now have
a solid plan for the good life. There are no certainties, no promises;
only
possibilities and probabilities. You can’t control what happens to you
by
chance, but you can increase your chances of good luck when you are
prepared. Take full advantage of all the good things that come to you.
When you face bad fortune, try to lessen the impact of the blow, to
bring your life back into balance. Fortitude is an essential ingredient in
a successful life. When we have the ability to endure through strength
of mind, this character trait allows us to suffer pain and adversity with
strength, courage, and perseverance.
I hope these fifty ways to live the good life help guide your course.
Always know that you have access to the wisdom of the universe
inside
you, available whenever you tap into this deep resource. You are pure
potential and are endowed with the ability to handle situations well.
The
good life is boundless in opportunities, in excitement, fun, pleasure,
and
excellence. When you commit yourself to living on this right path, the
universe and its fundamental laws will support and uplift you.
You are truly on your way. Choice by choice, you will be directing all
your energies toward an extraordinarily rich and meaningful life.
Choose
to live the good life with your whole heart. Wisdom will support you
every step of the way. I wish you great happiness and good luck.