On Living A Successful And Interesting Life

(Today's photos have little to do with the text. They're snapshots from my forest hikes, mementos of some beautiful experiences.)

I am inspired to write this post after a few weeks of thinking about a "book review" written by my friend, Tien. You can read it HERE.

The book is called "The Click Moment: Seizing Opportunity in an Unpredictable World" by Frans Johansson and I'll be getting a copy when I'm in the city in a couple of weeks. This post is a reflection on some things that Tien's review brought up for me.

People constantly tell me that I'm very lucky to live such an unusual life. Yes, I am and I'm grateful for the opportunities that I have to modify my life more and more to my liking every day.

But there's more to it than luck. I resonate strongly with the idea that I have a strong "chaos field" that creates the random situations that form the background of my life. From these strange situations, which I wholeheartedly invite, I choose micro-steps that lead my life in the direction of my choosing.

One habit of mine is to spend much time in nature and in meditation. The subject of my thoughts is often the state of my life, my business, my spiritual practice, or my community. I often imagine what the next steps might be for the million projects that I have incubating at any one time.

This habit keeps my questions and my desires near the top of my mind. When a random occurrence points out a situation which fits a desire or fills a need, I often manifest my above average luck by making the connection and diving into that situation.

And this is how I define luck: recognizing an opportunity when it is presented and ACTING ON IT, even if it's not perfect. Lucky people, at least this lucky person, don't wait for everything to be line up perfectly.

Yes, each step is a little gamble. And lots of the gambles don't pay off. Some of them send me back a notch or two. But, while I'm sliding back a notch, I'm taking more little gambles. The net result is movement. It's usually a slow, but somewhat steady movement in the direction that I want to go.

Thinking about these things has special meaning for me right now because I'm engaged in some of the biggest gambles I've ever made. I'll definitely be writing about them as the pieces fall into place, but let's just suffice it I say that my life will look VERY different by the time this Autumn rolls around. Different for me, unusual by most people's standards, and much, much closer to how I want to live.