How seven got born lucky
Seven things you should know about seven.
When my daughters were little, one of them would whisper “seven” and they would both giggle, sometimes uncontrollably. I always thought it was some dirty joke they didn’t want to tell me — and maybe it was — but they SAY it’s just because they found the number seven funny.
I’ve always found seven to be lucky. And interesting. And arty. Maybe even sexy.
Honestly, I just LOVE SEVEN. Is that weird?
When I make my daily to-do lists, I cluster it into seven things. I always have. It just seems right. Seven seems like the perfect manageable, respectable number. Not too many, not to few.
And if you ask me to pick a number between one and ten, of COURSE I’m saying seven.
You know I’m the girl who talks way too much about starting, but it wasn’t until I was researching the science of starting and finishing that I learned that seven is the spiritual number of completion.
It comes from the Bible. In God’s big stARTistic week 1, God took six days to create the heavens and the earth. Then, on the 7th day, God rested – but also made a whole ‘nother day, for a nice round 7-day week.
(There’s more bizarre stuff about the Bible’s relationship with the number 7, which you can read when you’re in an open minded mood.)
I love seven and I can use all the help I can get with completion, so I’m glad you’re here to celebrate 7 with me!
Seven random things about the number seven:
Seven is the most favorite of favorite numbers. That’s why magicians use it in their magic tricks.
Seven is a ‘prime’ number, and is in fact considered by some to be the most ‘prime’ number, making it a kind of optimal-prime. It’s the only number among those we can count on our hands (1-10) that cannot be divided or multiplied within the group.
In case you’ve forgotten, the seven wonders of the world are: the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, the Colossus of Rhodes, and the Lighthouse of Alexandria.
Our short-term memory has been shown to perform best when remembering up to, and no more than, seven things. (That’s why phone numbers worldwide tend to have seven digits – at least they used to).
Seven makes big statements in nature: the seven seas, the seven continents, the seven colors of the rainbow. There are seven notes in the musical scale and seven colors in the visible spectrum of light.
Seven is a basis of religions and spiritual teachings: Hinduism teaches seven chakras; the Jewish sabbath is on the 7th day, and the Bible says God created the world in seven days.
Seven is the number with the highest probability of occurring when rolling two dice. How lucky is THAT?!
Monday, the 7th, is a great day to START SOMETHING. But so is any day in a 7-day week.
What got me thinking about the number seven this week is that on April 17 I’m producing my SEVENTH Ladies Laugh Lounge – a comedy show in my home city, Kansas City. It’s been a shockingly fun, successful stARTistic project that I never saw coming.
I started the first show during a “Year of Yes,” because I had to. I had committed to say ‘yes’ to all ideas that fit a certain criteria while I was writing my book Start More Than You Can Finish. But each show after that first one I started because it was just so easy. Female comedians loved doing it and got funnier with each show, and comedy-curious women came by the tableful and sold out every show. Why wouldn’t I keep starting over and over again?
If you’re in Kansas City, I hope you’ll come to the Ladies Laugh Lounge — it’s going to be lucky…and spiritual…and maybe an 8th wonder of the world!
7th show: April 17th. Starting time: 7 p.m. (crazy, right?!) Finishing time: 8:30-ish p.m. You can buy tickets here.
I can’t believe a thing I started on a lark is something I’m doing a seventh time, and something that has become such a big joy for me.
That’s what happens when we act on our ideas. We don’t know how they will finish, but we know they will change us.
When we say “yes” to more ideas, we finish more and get more lucky. Rolling a seven starts with a first roll!