I thought I might write about Friday the 13th today. I did a quick bit of research but in the end, the topic didn’t catch my fancy. What did amuse me, however, was to discover two funky new words:
Friggatriskaidekaphobia: the fear of Friday the 13th
And codswallop, as used in the headline ‘The utter codswallop of Friday the 13th’. Apparently codswallop is a British term for complete nonsense. What a cool word. Only in the UK…
Anyway, the whole hurrah about Friday the 13th got me thinking about the concept of luck. I tend to think of luck as a good thing, but my friend Merriam-Webster pointed out that luck can be ‘a force that brings good fortune or adversity’. So I guess that’s why we differentiate between good and back luck.
Personally, I favour the attitude that you make your own luck. Today and every other day. After all, what you focus on tends to come into being, so why not focus on the good stuff? I actually have a bit of a radar that goes into alert mode when I hear people say stuff like: ‘I worry it won’t work’ or worse ‘It’ll probably be a nightmare’. I know we all get caught in that trap sometimes, but wouldn’t it be much better if we didn’t doom something before it even had a chance to happen?
A mentor of mine actually advocates enjoying things before they happen. I’m all for it. After all, rather than focussing on all that could go wrong, how much more fun would it be to divert all that energy into focussing on what could go right?
Or take the words of the immortal Dr. Seuss: “Just tell yourself, Duckie, you’re really quite lucky!”
So, Friggatriskaidekaphobia. Try saying that 10 times fast. Then again, don’t.
Quack Quack.
Love it – that last little bit had me laghing out loud!