Friday, August 8, 2008

You Gotta Ask Yourself, "Do I Feel Lucky Today?"

Clint Eastwood, in his Dirty Harry movie, had the famous line about whether you feel lucky, ..."you've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? " Luck is, of course, relative. What's lucky for you may have a bad effect for someone else. Many people believe that you make your own luck and that luck is a result of preparation and effort. It's also interesting how some people have the attitude that all they have is bad luck, while others expect to have good luck. The reality probably matches the expectation.

Today's date, besides being an interesting combination of numbers, 08-08-08, is considered a very lucky day in China. Is it an accident that the Olympics begins on a lucky day or was the Chinese Olympic Committee making their own luck? I guess we'll know the answer in about two weeks.

Evidently, many Chinese believe that they can also make their lives luckier by getting married on August 8, 2008. There was a extraordinary number of marriage ceremonies scheduled for today. Maybe we should have tried that in the U.S.

Actually, there are probably a lot of things that can be done to improve your chances of success in marriage. Good communication, respect and maturity go a long way to establishing and maintaining a good marital relationship. Willingness to work hard to maintain the relationship is essential.

Many things can come into the relationship to cause problems, though, so the parties must be willing to work out solutions. Sometimes issues come up which can't be satisfactorily resolved. In those cases, the best option may be divorce, but it should not be a quick decision to leave a marriage. Aside from the good aspects of marriage that are lost, the costs of divorce can be enormous emotionally, financially and physically.

It's fine to pick a "lucky day" to get married, but it takes more than luck to stay married. Any decision to end a marriage should be made carefully and after a great deal of consideration, and it's not unusual to have second thoughts. Unless there is an emergency or safety issue, I recommend that you take time to consider your options and think about whether there are other possibilities for saving the marriage.

To a large extent, I agree that you make your own luck and you can make or break your own marriage. If you work continuously to preserve and improve your marriage, you will have a better chance of success. Of course, it take two to make a marriage, so if your spouse isn't interested in staying married, you need to change course and get ready to move on.

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