I am preparing for a training session in March about luck, so I have decided to blog about it and get your thoughts as well. First though, let me say that many people attribute being lucky or unlucky to whether or not they are successful.
Have you ever been told “You were just lucky!” If so, it is usually a line you hear from someone you know when you have obtained something that appeared to outsiders to be unmerited. Or maybe you actually believe in luck? Have you ever felt like luck or the lack of it has determined your fate?
The dictionary defines luck as ‘believing that whatever happens, either good or bad, to a person in the course of events is due to chance, fate or fortune’.
What did the 3rd American President, Thomas Jefferson think about luck? He coined the phrase, “I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.”
Going back in history further, Seneca, a mid 1st century Roman philosopher, wrote that “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity”.
Here is what I think: Luck has nothing to do with anything operating for or against you, neither is it a matter of chance. In truth we make our own luck. We do that by being open to new experiences, using perseverance, and hard work. It is a question of attitude.
Richard Wiseman is a psychologist in London who wrote a book years ago entitled “The Luck Factor”. In it, he describes four principles of good fortune or lucky people. They are skilled at creating and noticing chance opportunities, they make lucky decisions by listening to their intuition, they create self-fulfilling prophesies via positive expectations, and they adopt a resilient attitude that transforms bad luck into good.
Additionally, unlucky people seem to be creatures of habit that always follow the same routines. They very seldom use their intuition or their gut feelings to evaluate a decision that they are about to make.
Lucky people tend to have a great attitude that allows them to see the positive side of their ill fortune. They imagine how things could have been worse rather than complain about what hand they have been dealt.
We have all heard of rags to riches stories: Consider the career of Shia LaBoeuf, the famous actor:
He was born in Los Angeles, California to an artist/ballerina mother and a Vietnam Veteran father who never held a steady job. He has had a stellar career since 2008 and has also retired his parents along the way to fame and fortune. Was he lucky? That depends upon what you believe.
But, how’d he do it?
At the age of 10, he realized he could make good money as an actor. So he found an agent in the yellow pages, called her up, and pretended to be his own manager, speaking about himself in the third person. He must’ve been charming, because she took him on as a client—and he later charmed Steven Spielberg as well, who cast him in the blockbusters Disturbia, Transformers, and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
He had the courage at 10 years old to do something that very few people could ever do, no matter what age they are. And he turned his luck into a lasting career.
So, don’t live a life filled with laziness, fear, regret or bitterness. Have courage, be aware of the things around you, change things up, capture a great outlook and think big thoughts. If you do those things consistently, you will be lucky too.