My wife hates parking. The only thing she might hate more is my love of parking and how obnoxious I am about letting her know every time I get the most premium of spots. I can’t help myself! I have to let the universe know I appreciate the assist in what was another high pressure, log jammed school parking lot. I am blessed with what I like to call “parking karma.” The belief system is about as simple as I can make it. Almost 100% of the time when I am in no rush, or going some place of little consequence (i.e. grocery store, Starbucks) I park far away. I’m not a half mile away, but far enough away to bank good karma, yet not so far I have to break a sweat to get to my destination. When life happens or I’m running late, the karma stars align for me and that premium parking spot materializes out of thin air.
I’ll never forget when my wife and I were racing to the hospital hoping to avoid having our first kid on the side of the highway. I parked all crooked in front of the ER, ran her in, got her in a wheelchair and then the security guard not so politely told me to go find a parking spot in the garage. As you can probably guess where the story is headed, I pulled in and literally, the very first spot, closest to the hospital entrance, was wide open and waiting for me. I may be mistaken, but this spot might have even been closer than the handicap spots. Boom, parking karma 🙂
This post has been intentionally boastful thus far yet I want to assure you, there is nothing special about my cosmic good parking fortune. I don’t call it “parking luck” or “parking magic.” I like to believe that the alchemy of putting in the time/work mixed with unbridled optimism results in one of two things: either truly good fortune or the perception of good fortune, and I am fine with either.
In your financial house, if you don’t put in the work and rely only on chance to solve the next crisis, you will inevitably find yourself in a pinch. The time to save money is before you need it. The time to start planning for retirement is when you’re young enough to not have to think about it. The discipline of saving for the rainy day when the sun is shining can bring more “good luck” than you hoped. For me, the last two years have been a reminder that life is anything but predictable. Even the best preparation and well thought out plans get put to the test. When the world doesn’t seem to be cooperating, a plan to fall back on, a positive attitude and oh yeah, a great parking spot are enough to help get you through.
Happy Friday!
“I’m a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.”
― Thomas Jefferson