Considering my life is all sorts of wacky these days, I hope you can all appreciate that this St. Patrick’s Day inspired post is coming to you in belated-fashion. Better late than never, right? (But never late is better.)

Let me preface my upcoming point by saying that over the past six years or so I have worked diligently to shape my own way of thinking. I have honestly trained myself to think optimistically and to be very self-aware of both my thoughts and my actions in order to find a lesson in any given situation. A lot of people call me crazy for this. But at the end of the day, I’m just a glass-half-full kind of girl and it has proven to be extremely beneficial in my life.

I’ve never been a believer in luck — good or bad. To me, luck is based on factors that are out of my control. While I have certainly learned that there are some instances in life I will never have control over, I would much rather put my energy into the parts of my life that I can be held accountable for.

Luck just isn’t for me. I believe if you want something, you simply have to bust your ass and work hard to get it.

I’m not the first person to ever put those words down on paper or have them grace the pages of the Internet. This isn’t some genius concept that will change your life. But perhaps it will open your eyes to a different way of thinking. 

Yes, often times the good things in our lives require patience. But patience does not mean sitting around being inactive with your fingers crossed waiting for luck to strike.

Patience means constantly working toward what it is that you want with the understanding that the best things in our lives are rarely placed in front of us for immediate gratification. Rather, the most worthwhile parts of our lives are built up over time, a result of triumphs, failures, embarrassments and joy all wrapped into one messy life. These pinnacle points of our lives are presented to us only when we are ready to appreciate their true beauty and value. The best part about it? They sneak up on us, and more often than not appear right when we need them the most.