Count
Your
Lucky
Pennies

16. My dad gave me the nickname “Eagle Eye” for my lucky-penny spotting as a kid. So, naturally, I believed I was lucky. Good things kept happening to me. Mostly because I was not paying as much attention to the bad things. When I broke both wrists at the same time when I was thirteen (playing football), I said I was lucky it wasn’t worse.

Years later, my husband, Keith, said we needed to do something about my overflowing collection of pennies. We packed them into the back of our Volvo station wagon (all eight thousand of them), and I brought them to the Bare warehouse, where we carefully placed every one into a lip-gloss kit we called “Change Is Good.” Why not spread the luck? We sold out.

If you’re not already catching on, the secret is: I choose to be lucky. This is the best trick you can play on yourself. It’s like magic. I’ve been saying I am lucky for so many decades now that my luck has taken on an almost mystical quality. Really. I win raffles. All the time.

So, right here, right now, I am giving you a tip that can change your life:

Step No1 (there is only one step): Tell yourself and others you are a lucky person. Do that and you will become one.

If you are a parent tell your kids early on that they’re lucky. Will shit* happen? Sure, maybe, I don’t know. But maybe you and your kids will pay more attention to the lucky stuff.**

* I tried really hard to keep the language clean. Couldn’t do it.

** The other day someone told me that putting shoes on your bed was bad luck and I said, “It’s only bad luck if you believe in that shit.”