Mimosa Mama

Saturday

Success in life does not come from holding a good hand, it comes from playing a bad hand well.  – Dennis Waitley

I am lucky.  People hate me for it.

As a race human beings are hard wired to resent a winner.

There are a couple of good reasons why I win with a considerable amount of frequency.

First, I play the odds.

I’m often asked to sell tickets of all kinds for fundraisers.  I’m quite good at it.  It’s really a skill born of a double whammy – I’m a pushy witch and unafraid of your rejection so I find it quite easy to lay on a little pressure.  And, having been raised Catholic, I’m a super-star guilt thrower.  After all, I am always raising money for a good cause, so not to buy my tickets would be akin to sin, or so I sell it.

One of the lines I get all the time from people who are trying to resist my “charms” is, “Oh, I never win anything.”  The answer to that is obvious.  The only way to be sure you don’t win is not to play, right?  Besides, as I mentioned, it’s for a good cause, so it’s not about winning at all (I don’t personally buy that – it’s always about winning for me – but it’s a great line to guilt you into your purchase).  It’s about raising money for the children (I generally don’t like children).  Or the Chamber of Commerce.  Or United Way.  Or the Lions Club.  You get my drift.  Make it about the cause, not the prize, and they fall for it every time.

I rarely miss an opportunity myownself to buy my chance at glory.  The numbers are just with me that I will win some of the time, and so I do.

Secondly, I expect to win.  Brian Tracy, a motivational speaker, often talks of the “superconscious” capabilities of the human brain.  This superconscious is like a connective energy hovering over the planet, and if you tap into it things just happen for you.

He says that to the exact degree that you believe something is going to happen, it will.

If you expect that there will be a good parking spot at WalMart, hold that spot in your mind’s eye.  Create a crystal clear vision of someone coming out and loading their bags into the trunk, shutting the trunk, getting into their car, and pulling out at the exact moment you are pulling in.  They are holding your spot for you.

If you believe that this will work with a 60% confidence level then it will play out in your favor 60% of the time.

I expect to win with about a 50% confidence level.  Each time I lose something, anything, I rejoice that one of my losing moments is out of the way and I am that much closer to my next score.  I will actually envision myself losing some drawings or contests just to get one out of the way, throw a bone to the regular losers.  That’s when it’s your chance at long last.

And so I win.  Often.  And the collective moan from any crowd when this happens is terribly predictable.  And understandable.

I do, after all, relate to your resentment.  I tend to share it with you on my off days.