Sometimes it happens. Everything in your daily life just goes crazy. Every little thing you try simply drifts off. You’re passed over for an important assignment. Your back aches. Your zipper breaks. Your dog keeps throwing up. You’re freaking out and wonder if your life is always taking a turn for the worse. You aren’t superstitious, but these knock outs push you to troubleshoot—“Am I just an unlucky person? Why is it that I can never catch a break?”
I myself have felt this way at one time. While reclaiming my beliefs I learned to understand ‘why we believe in luck’; ‘how can I rein in my belief and make real changes in my attitude toward life that will help me feel less “unlucky.”
Not everybody would buy this thought though. For many luck is the most useful yet vulnerable idea that makes sense of random chance and the ‘unexplainable’ acceptable. If you stumble upon a $100 bill on the ground, you will think you have good luck. But if a gust of wind blows away your $ 100 bill just as you pull it out of your wallet, you’ll think of it as you’re having bad luck!
Is Luck chance or happenstance?
Some of us are born lucky; they say. Everything they touch turns to gold. Others are incessantly stalked by misfortune. But it’s not only just the people who get to be lucky or otherwise; it can be an action as well. The ball hits the post in soccer and everybody jump to lament- ‘the striker was unlucky’. Luck or not, I’d say the pool shot was lucky but did not rely on skill. It was unexpected or even improbable and happened possibly due to a series of fortunate bounces!
Does any of this make sense? Is there really such a thing as ‘luck’? Do some have more of it than others?
I guess there is a perfectly reasonable way to draw some sense when we talk about luck. In fact I think there is no such thing as luck. It’s only a matter of cause and effect where the outcome is the result of certain actions and circumstances, not some random chance. So rather to talk about luck isn’t it better to talk about how to make things happen easily?
Does this mean that no-one has luck? Not for sure, but we can’t truly say of someone to be lucky except that they are the kind of person to whom lucky things happen.
It’s complicated but you can do it
In hopes of brightening my perspective on ‘luck’ over time I have uncovered three main characteristics that people who consider themselves lucky have in common. They ‘listen to their intuition, ‘create reality through self-belief’ and ‘have a resilient attitude’ that transforms ‘bad luck’ into a good one.
Surprisingly, it is the psychological behavior that determines the luck a person could think of experiencing. People who believe lucky things happen to them all the time, tend to fare better than people who feel unlucky. They know how to bounce back while the unlucky ones are inclined to give up easily to failures.
So if luck is based on psychological behavior, can you change yours?
It’s hard to believe but ‘You absolutely can!’
Make it happen in real life
Start by making small changes in your everyday routine. Trivial pursuits like penning a thank-you note and how you felt lucky at the end of a day is a smart move. You can also change something as simple as taking a different route to work or while running errands. Even the shows you watch on TV, once dropped or changed can create new mindset. To all intents and purposes luck is what happens when arrangement meets opportunity.
Another simple way is to be a flexible thinker and evolve an equally flexible approach to life. Once disposed, you’ll be more open to opportunities when they come along. Simple but impactful, these small things know how to make change happen for the better. Your World will become bigger and larger and you’ll get more breaks. You’ll know where you’re headed and be ready to change the course depending on how the wind blows.
Expect good fortune for you’ll be able to turn an awful experience to a good one. It’s highly unlikely that bad things will come your way. If for some reason you do hit a roadblock, comfort yourself, “Okay, this could have been worse,” rather than “It could have been better”.
Oddly enough this may affect your future luck as well. If you feel better about an event, then you’re likely to have better expectations about future experiences and maybe your luck will change.
Meanwhile you can shift your focus toward the positives. Each night before you hit the sack spend at least 30 seconds writing down a positive thing that’s happened in your day; a sense of gratitude for friend or family or perhaps a health issue. Even a negative thing that’s no longer happening should not go unnoticed.
You also need to take the long view. Breaking your leg might be a setback for now, but if you happen to meet your prospective beau in the hospital, it could end up as a very fortuitous event.
What’s more, don’t let yourself be stalled by a stereotyped behavior. Take a different route when walking, when watching TV or when talking to different people. Even petty changes have a knack for upturns.
And then keep your eyes open. Stay alive. Be prepared to grab whatever opportunities come your way.
Nonetheless, what you can’t expect is for good fortune to magically come your way without effort. Luck is a very big part of our personality. It isn’t easily influenced and malleable until you do something quite concrete about it.
To be “in luck” you need to have a broader focus. Following that you’re more likely to encounter chance opportunities before good things start happening.
Despite everything if you still don’t consider yourself lucky enough, ‘You’re in luck because you have it in your power to change‘.
The Maverick#59: Inspiring and empowering, for the best is possible. 