“Just go up there and feel lucky,” he said. 

I was at a really big tournament, the World Ranking Masters. My first. And there I was, feeling as lost as ever. That wasn’t a very familiar feeling for me.

I was the only American girl, and I didn’t know what to do. There are so many factors to consider. The lane pattern, the oil on the lane. But I just wasn’t understanding what was happening. I had all these bowling balls with me, and I couldn’t find a look with any of them? I was feeling overwhelmed and confused. And I just wasn’t doing well.

So, I was just standing there, looking for guidance and help.

My ball rep, Rick Benoit, was there with me and he represented all these bowling balls I was throwing. He was there to decode it for me, to help me make good decisions. Decisions that were important. That centered around which ball to throw, when, and where. So I looked over at him, desperately searching for some clarity. That’s when he said something that shook me to my core. With despair in my eyes, I looked at him and heard, “just go up there and feel lucky.”

I thought, “wait, what?! It sounded like you just said JUST FEEL LUCKY.”

I was seeking high-end information, not some wishful thinking. He supposedly knew everything about bowling balls, bowling ball technology and lane play. And yet, with a straight face, he stood there and told me to just be lucky. Whaaat?

So with nothing else to go on, I took his advice. I went up there, got on the approach and just focused on feeling lucky. I switched my focus entirely and began throwing from a totally different perspective.  And the craziest thing happened. It worked… and I ended up winning that event.

In the middle of the event, I had still been feeling completely confused and lost, but by the end of it, I had risen to the top spot. I turned my day and event around.

I didn’t know that then, but that advice, given to me by my bowling ball rep, would be one of the most important lessons that I’d learn in my career.

That advice changed my perspective, not just that one day. After that, instead of trying to feel like I needed to be perfect every moment on the lane, and understand everything perfectly, I gave myself space to feel a bit of luck and positive energy instead. I began to use this simple trick often, especially in high-pressure situations. Something kind of switches in your brain when you do that. By feeling lucky, you attract more of that really good energy. If you feel like you’re getting bad breaks, you’ll just continue to get them. To win, you don’t have to be perfect, but you do need a good share of positive energy.

Since that event, I have done a lot of reading around energy and how it affects everything that we do. I think in important moments, if you just trust it and trust yourself, you’ll find your way. It really does make sense that what you focus on is what you attract, and if you feel like you’re lacking something, you’ll attract circumstances that make you feel more of that as well. We all know those people who carry a black cloud over them all the time, complaining that they never have any good luck or they always get bad breaks. It’s not coincidental that that is exactly what they attract in your life. You become what you think about.

That brings me to a golden nugget that is forever etched into my soul from one of my first Team USA coaches, the great Fred Borden. He once told me,  “be careful what you think about, it might come true.” Back then, in my late teens, I didn’t fully understand what he was trying to teach me. Now I have lived it several times.

When I am positive, I attract positive things. When I’m more negative, that is what I’ll start attracting. That’s a really powerful realization in life. 

What are you attracting?