Once in a lifetime.... may be, twice....?

Recently, I read this story about how some folks made tons of frequent flyer miles without really spending any money at all.....

But first I have to tell you the Pudding Guy story from 2000.

David Phillips, a California engineer, took advantage of overlapping frequent flyer promotions to earn 1.2 million miles by purchasing 12,000 cups of Healthy Choice pudding, for $3,000. At the time, someone put the value of those miles, redeemable for 48 free domestic tickets, at about $20,000. Not bad for a $3,000 investment. (In case you're wondering, he gave most of the pudding away to charities, soup kitchens, and the like.)

And quite recently, the U.S. Mint has been selling $1 coins in bulk, at face value, with no shipping or handling charges. Canny consumers have been buying the coins and charging the purchase to a mileage- or points-generating credit card. When the coins are delivered, the buyer simply takes them to the bank and deposits them, using the money to pay for the purchase when the credit card statement arrives.

Here is the original Wall Street Journal story

I should credit this story too...

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Anyways, reading this story made me think about "Being Lucky" and "Being Smart".

I have had this feeling before that every person will get the opportunity of his/her lifetime at least once..... It does not matter what you have been doing till that date... but IF you capture the moment and make use of the opportunity, things will never be the same again.....

And that most of the time, people are not even aware of such an opportunity going by.... And they spend their lifetime ruing/ lamenting about their ill-fortune....

Studies have shown that people that are optimistic have a huge probability of catching the 'right' moment... In fact, I remember a detailed research that conducted many live studies where hundreds of people were given a newspaper to read and answer some questions.... There were a couple of places on the paper where a message was inserted saying something to the effect "If you see this, just turn in the newspaper and we will give you $200".... And as you could have guessed by now, the optimists and the folks that considered themselves lucky collected the $200 many times over those that did NOT consider themselves lucky....!!

Moral of the story: consider yourself lucky and you will be!!

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But there is a catch... if you have been considering yourself "NOT Lucky" or "Unlucky", how can you overturn your thoughts overnight??

That is a bigger story.... but here is the gist of it -

I have had many such 'lucky' instances in the early years of my life.... And suddenly one day, things changed.... and I thought I turned unlucky.... That was followed by a series of undesirable events and over time, it reiterated my feeling of unluckiness. That left me totally helpless. Well, what can "I" do? the God of luck is not in my favor!! That was a total wretched feeling and left me feeling miserable and unhappy. Oh boy, those were the dark days..

And one day, after months and years of trying to change my luck, I realized that "I" am the culprit!! I realized that it was "I" that was saying that I am unlucky. Like I said, there have been instances of both scenarios in my life. But I was saying that I was unlucky (at that period in life), choosing to ignore the positives that were present.

I can say I am lucky... or I can say I am unlucky. Whatever I say, my life goes exactly the way I say.

When I started taking responsibility for "my life" and what I say about it, I started feeling a lot of freedom and gracefulness back in my life. With the new found grace, I was "free" to start seeing the positives again, and not turn a blind eye to the positives. Life started to look rosy again - show shades of luck. Only this time, I know "I" am seeing it!!!

You may ask - "so what are you saying, finally?"

For one, consider today your lucky day!! What you have read just now is the secret to unravelling your own luck, if you choose to. [Yes, only if you choose to - that is another Zen]

For another, this is the story behind my blog name... "I Say. So I am."

- Bhaskar

PS: Some say it as "I Think. Therefore I am." - but if you are only thinking, how will I know?! Anyways, another Zen for another day!