If I had to keep only one belief for the rest of my life, this would be it.
I’ve decided to see myself as lucky.
Whether there’s a God, a higher self, a guardian angel, or we’re all living inside some giant simulation, I honestly don’t know.
What I do know is this: I’ve chosen to believe that everything somehow works out in my favor—even when it doesn’t look like it.
Your Reality Tunnel Shapes Everything
Robert Anton Wilson called this a reality tunnel—the mental filter through which you experience reality. Your beliefs, experiences, expectations, and assumptions shape what you notice and how you interpret it.
You don’t experience reality exactly as it is. You experience your interpretation of it.
Once I understood that, I realized something:
If I get to choose my interpretation anyway, why wouldn’t I choose the one that makes me stronger?
The Day I Lost My Jeep
Years ago, I owned a Jeep Cherokee XJ, and I absolutely loved that thing. It wasn’t expensive, but it was my pride and joy.
Then someone crashed into me.
The Jeep was totaled. I ended up with severe whiplash that left me lying on the couch for weeks. I couldn’t work, so I moved back in with my parents. My girlfriend dumped me. And because my parents lived about an hour away from any decent job opportunities, I suddenly had way too much time on my hands.
At the time, it felt like my life was falling apart. If you’d asked me then whether I was lucky, I would’ve thought you were out of your fucking mind.
But because I had nothing else to do, I started teaching myself how to build WordPress websites.
One skill led to another, and more than a decade later, those same skills helped make Excel & Compel possible.
If I hadn’t lost the Jeep, been stuck on the couch, and moved back in with my parents, there’s a very good chance you wouldn’t be reading this article right now.
One of the worst things that ever happened to me eventually became one of the best.
Why Would You Choose to See Yourself as Unlucky?
That experience permanently changed the way I think.
Some people walk around telling themselves:
“Nothing ever works out for me.”
“The universe is against me.”
“Every time I get ahead, something knocks me back down.”
Keep telling yourself that story and every setback becomes more evidence. The rejection. The failed business. The breakup. The plan that fell apart.
Eventually, you stop taking chances because you’ve already decided how the story ends.
If you think the cards are stacked against you, why bother playing your hand?
That’s why I decided to believe the opposite.
“How Is This Helping Me?”
After the Jeep, I gradually stopped asking:
“Why is this happening to me?”
and started asking:
“How is this helping me?”
Business doesn’t work?
I learned something.
Relationship ends?
I gained clarity.
Plans fall apart?
Time to adapt.
I don’t need to know why something happened.
I just need to find a way to use it.
That doesn’t mean pretending bad things are good. Sometimes something happens and it fucking sucks.
You lose money. Someone leaves. You fail. You get hurt. Your plans collapse.
Feel however you’re going to feel about it.
But eventually, you still have to decide what you’re going to do with it.
That’s the part you control.
Maybe there isn’t a higher power. Maybe there isn’t a grand plan. Maybe everything is completely random.
I don’t know.
And honestly, I don’t think it matters.
Seeing myself as lucky has made me more grateful, calmer, more resilient, and more willing to take risks because I trust that, one way or another, I’ll figure something out.
Most importantly, it keeps me from seeing myself as a victim.
You Might Be in Your Jeep Moment
Maybe something is going wrong in your life right now. Maybe the business isn’t working. Maybe a relationship just ended. Maybe some plan you spent years building just blew up in your face.
Maybe it really is bad.
But you don’t know what happens next.
I certainly didn’t.
When that Jeep was totaled, I couldn’t see Excel & Compel waiting on the other side of it.
I just saw a wrecked Jeep, a fucked-up neck, no job, no girlfriend, and my parents’ couch.
I couldn’t see what the experience was building yet.
That’s why I continue to see myself as lucky.
Not because I believe nothing bad will ever happen to me.
Bad shit happens.
I believe I can use whatever happens to me.
Maybe you’re living through your own Jeep moment right now. Something that feels like it’s ruining your life.
Maybe it is.
Or maybe ten years from now, you’ll look back and realize it quietly changed everything.
You just don’t know yet.
So when life knocks something over, don’t be too quick to decide what the event means.
Give it time. Pay attention. Find a way to use it.
You might be luckier than you think.
Until next time.
Your man,
Uncle Blayde