1. Find something to get lucky about
2. Find something to appreciate
3. Find something to criticize
4. Figure out an investment (no matter how small)
5. Plan the result of that investment – however modest
6. Invest money and/or in it
7. Make sure that your investment yields results
8. Find ways to enhance them
9. Start looking for other investments that could strengthen this one
10. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Simple as this sounds, this is the mantra to follow for no matter how small or large the luck you want.

Try it on something simple first. As long as you take the rules no 7,8 and 9 seriously, there is no way you can be unlucky. Fate will conspire to make things happen.

And no, this is not something esoteric, it is simply the perspective shift that happens with involvement in something.

What use is a webmaster who makes a site and sits passive? He is not a webmaster – he is a designer and the poor site is an orphan. What use is a climber who doesn’t practice?

It is a fantasy that we will be able to “maintain” our current success. Performance and results like everything in life are ever changing. You can’t maintain them, because they are not snapshots to be frozen. What you can do is make efforts that bring a sense of the results being sustained. The sustaining is a new challenge.

Many people don’t understand this, or maybe they don’t want to understand. Because, if they do, they will have to actively make efforts and bear their responsibility infinitely.

It is not as bad as it sounds. Its worse!

The thing with getting that zing out of life is not “maintaining” and “sustaining” and such insipid words. It is exploring! Going beyond boundaries, current abilities and all that we know, to know new things.

It is a shift in our attitudes from passively suffering what life doles out to actively pursuing what we want. Once that shift is made, you will never find yourself worried about sustaining performance, because you will know what you did today is going to be insignificant before what you are going to do tomorrow. No doubts, no uncertainties.

If you are certain of your commitment to excellence, you will find yourself completely accepting that each new moment brings a learning and development curve.

He has left behind a wife, a two year old daughter and aged parents. He was the sole bread-winner of their family, and they lived comfortably as he earned very well.

The family, now is in deep financial circumstances, as to add to their emotional loss, they now have no source of livelihood. My friend, while earning a good income, had failed to provide adequate income, and had also taken a big loan for their ner home.

I look at their situation and learn my lesson. No one here comes with a guaranteed life-span. I am going to start saving, plan insurance, minimise outstanding credit, avoid expensive loans, and in general be well planned in my finances so that if an unforeseen disaster strikes, my family may at least be secure in an economical sense.

This is something outdoor professionals rarely consider. Leading hand to mouth lives becomes a way of life. The little extra money they have goes on something or the other they want.

The sad truth is that outdoor adventure instructors have very few guarantees in life. Their interests make very few non menial careers suitable for them in case of an accident that limits their abilities. Accidents are entirely possible in this profession and pay scales are low.

What is needed with our community is the interest in managing life, money, relationships and then using up what spare resources they have.