Lucky Lar

In this highly entertaining and thought-provoking second episode of 'Loser Talk with Lar', you'll love hearing about Larry's unique take on the role of luck in life, the importance of gratitude, and the concept of embracing life as it happens for us, not to us. Using personal anecdotes from his quirky and charming family as examples, Larry beautifully illustrates these universal concepts in a way that is both light-hearted and deeply impactful. You'll hear how Larry's life lessons transpired from things like his grandma's superstitions, to three-wheelers and fairs, to his mother's mantra of willpower, and his own experiences as a music college student in Boston. This episode persuasively invites listeners to reconsider their perceptions of luck and encourages them to cultivate gratitude as a powerful and transformative practice. Larry emphasizes the empowering notion that life happens for us and that by embracing this, we can shape our own "luck". This episode is equally entertaining and enlightening, instilling messages of self-empowerment, positivity, and gratitude, sprinkled with humor and wit, Larry's signature style. As usual, Larry welcomes engagement with the 'Loser Talk' community on his social media channels - Instagram's LarrysLosers22 and Facebook's The Evolution of Larry. And, for those eager for more exclusive content and community engagement, there's an invitation to join the private 'Larry's Losers VIP' group on Facebook. Larry extends his heartfelt appreciation for the support he has received from his listeners, inviting those who enjoy the show to consider supporting it with a donation via the provided Venmo link. Tune in to this episode of 'Loser Talk with Lar' for an inspiring and lively discussion about luck and the empowering concept of life happening for us.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Music.

(01:04):
Wow. Listen to that Larry's Losers Orchestra.
They've been practicing so hard out in my garage day and night.
I've been yelling from the top just because I like saying that over and over

(01:25):
again and watching their faces as they curse me under their breath. Anywho, it worked.
Listen to them. I am delightful. I'm so excited that you're here for me for
the second episode of Loser Talk with Lair.
Losing a lot more than just... Wait, listen to that crowd!

(01:50):
Music.
Oh my God! Thank you so much.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. you.
Last week's inaugural episode debut was a huge success, and I'm just blown away
by all the support and love.
Thank you for your feedback, your downloads and follows.

(02:13):
You are all finding me on social media too, so keep all that love coming.
Speaking of social media, I am Larry's LarrysLosers22 on Instagram,
The Evolution of Larry on Facebook.
And on there, you can ask to join our exclusive,
private LarrysLosers VIP group, where there are all sorts of fun ways to connect

(02:39):
with me and our loser family as we all work together to become healthier.
Don't forget, get. If you're liking the lair vibe, you know the lair vibe of this podcast,
and you want to support the work with a donation or gift, there is a link posted
here and on Facebook for my Venmo, and above all, thank you for listening.

(03:04):
You have no idea what this means to me.
Do you feel lucky, punk? Well, do ya?
Now listen, I know you recognize that automatically, dramatically because my
acting talent just oozes, right?
Of course, I was Clint Eastwood in that movie. You know the one where he had

(03:27):
a gun and he spoke in extremely short sentences.
Oh, and it was out west somewhere. You know the movie.
Anywho, of course, this is transitioning into me asking you what you think about luck.
See how all this fits together? other.
How do you feel about luck? Do you feel some people are just naturally lucky and others aren't?

(03:52):
What category would you fit into?
I remember when I was younger, probably 8 to 10 years old, and my stepfather,
who was my dad my whole life, took me to the Park County Fair.
We had just moved from our farm into town, but he still had his huge garden

(04:13):
and was always very interested in livestock.
Livestock so we were touring the barns and
in one of them there was a raffle for a brand new
beautiful red three-wheeler so
shiny and beautiful so we stopped to fill out tickets and he made a little game
out of it so i would be interested too he had me fill out some of some of them

(04:38):
out and we put all the family's names each of us had a ticket there were eight
of us kids he had five and mom had us three.
And then he and mom made 10. So we had 10 chances to win.
And guess what? You'll never believe it. We were the lucky draw.
And guess whose lucky name was drawn?

(05:01):
Mine. Well, I wasn't so lucky because I was too young to drive.
And so mom wouldn't let me drive it much,
but we all shared it until my middle stepsister got on at the top of our hill
and throttled it down the hill into our neighbor's crab apple tree,

(05:21):
and old miss whatever name was was not happy.
So here's this older lady standing out yelling at my stepsister as she lied there.
I'm not happy because my three-wheeler is ruined. Meanwhile,
oh yeah, my stepsitter's sister needs medical attention.
She had to be drug off in an ambulance. She was fine, blah.

(05:44):
That was the end of my three-wheeler look.
This whole time, my Grandma Garrett was teaching me about love,
too. She was so superstitious.
I loved it and her so much. We used to find ladybugs and add them to her terrarium in the kitchen.
We fed them breadcrumbs. Not sure that's what they eat, but it made me feel

(06:10):
like I was keeping them alive.
And we had to have them around.
They brought good luck. luck. She always had me painting wishbones with fingernail polish.
She would hang them over doorways along with horseshoes for luck.
Gourds were everywhere, of course, for luck. At one point, two-dollar bills
were lucky, but then she got sick with heart problems, and those had to be cleared

(06:35):
out. Bad juju, of course.
She was in the hospital once with her heart, and she had received this a styrofoam
angel thing with crosses and religious stuff made with toothpicks.
And of course, I thought it was the greatest thing on earth.
And she thought I was the greatest thing on earth.
So she let me have it, but her health worsened.

(06:57):
So she made me promise to tear that up because it was bringing us bad luck.
She was so witchy and cool. She was the best.
She left us on Christmas Day. Horrible luck.
That was my introduction to luck. Luck had to happen to me.

(07:18):
Life had to happen to me. And then I would have to react.
That's how I always felt and thought. I think a lot of us feel that way.
We react to everything that comes our way.
We get caught up in every little dramatic detail tail, and let it carry us until

(07:39):
we are drained of every ounce of energy we have. Nothing left.
And then we wonder why we turn to food or alcohol or drugs or whatever our choice of comfort is.
As life went on, mom had a different theme for me.

(08:00):
Her mantra always was, if there's a will, there's a way.
Now, don't get me wrong. She always went to the negative. She helped me hone
my professional anxiety skills.
She could go to worst case scenario in an instant, expect the worst,
but pray for the best type situation.
But in all those mixed signals, all those years of seeing her sending me both

(08:26):
directions of expecting the worst.
But if there's a will, there's a way. It wasn't until after she left me recently
that I realized she left me with a gift.
She left me with many gifts.
She was incredible. But this gift was, what if life happens for you and not to you?

(08:46):
What if you don't have to respond to everything? thing.
What if you accept the things you can't control and be grateful for it?
Maybe that is where luck lives.
Life happening for us instead of to us.
Now that I look back, those lessons from mom were starting to seep in when I

(09:09):
didn't even know what that meant yet.
When I was accepted into Berklee College of Music in Boston,
it was the only school I wanted to go to.
So naturally, Naturally, it's the only college I applied to.
All my friends were being accepted to their schools, and no word from mine until
spring break, right before graduation.

(09:30):
And I heard mom thundering up the driveway, window down, yelling,
Larry, I thought, great.
She has groceries to carry in.
She comes running in with the newspaper, and there it is, headlines.
Garrett accepted to Berkeley. Both of us crying. How lucky, and if there's a will, there's a way.

(09:52):
Those days in Boston when I was homesick, missing her so much,
I used to sit down at Boston Harbor and stare out at the water and dream,
ponder, and realize how lucky I was.
But I also didn't know is that I was starting to understand what gratitude is
and what it was going to do for me and how it would guide me.

(10:16):
When we really get into this and look deep, Studies show that actual fingers
crossed, lucky coin holding, etc.
Has been shown to work. When we have a lucky something, we hold on to a lucky
star we wish upon, a lucky troll we take to bingo.
It actually does up our chances of being successful because the truth is we keep trying.

(10:40):
We are happier and more excited to keep going.
There's lots of psychology behind this.
I definitely saw it with mom as
she was diagnosed with lung cancer She didn't
sit in misery and feel sorry for her situation at all
She remained positive and was laughing until

(11:00):
the very end Even while struggling to grab a breath She was grateful for her
life Actually grateful for her upcoming death And even though that was the worst
case scenario for me It wasn't about me It was about her not reacting,
but accepting what she couldn't change and living fully each moment,

(11:28):
each lucky moment we had.
So, if you could wake up every day and start out with a gratitude list,
just a short list of things that bring joy to your soul.
If you could start your day like that, when you go to bed at night,
review your list and add to it the things that popped up that sparked happiness for you.

(11:53):
What if you could be flexible in your thinking, in your routine, not so rigid?
At this moment in time, you stopped putting your expectations on life and started
living free, letting it happen, accepting and knowing you're okay.
You are exactly where you need to be right now, celebrating this moment of life,

(12:19):
realizing how lucky you are, and always knowing if there's a will, there's a way.
Life happens for us. It works with us, not against us.
How would things change for you? How would your health and happiness change?

(12:41):
Please let me know your thoughts and comments, of course. Reach out to me at LarrysLosers22.
On Instagram, The Evolution of Larry on Facebook.
And don't forget to ask on there how to access our exclusive private Larry's

(13:02):
Losers VIP group on Facebook, where our loser family gathers with fun and exciting
ways to interact with me and each other.
If you're liking the loser vibe and you want to donate to keep this podcast's
work on air, I have provided my Venmo link here and on Facebook. book.
I appreciate all of you.

(13:23):
Now, before I leave you, here are some words of wisdom.
It's hard to detect good luck. It looks so much like something you've earned.
Look for it. It's happening for you right now. Let it happen.

(13:46):
So happy you've been with me. See you next time. Thanks for listening. Love you all.
Music.