My grandmother smoked a pipe, and it was my favorite thing when I was a young child. When she died, it was the one thing I took of hers and carry it with me at all times. Not only does it remind me of her every time I look at it or touch it, but I also consider it my lucky charm. To this day, 40 years later, I still carry it in my purse and take it with me wherever I go. There have been times over the years when I have been in a serious car accident or my breaks went out in my car and I couldn’t stop at the stop light, but I was unharmed both times. Was that luck?
St. Patrick’s Day was this week and it had me thinking about luck – is there such a thing as luck or is our life predestined to happen in the way it happens? When a person wins the lottery, are they lucky? Does it mean that everyone who doesn’t win the lottery is unlucky? What about all the people who have extreme talent in singing, acting, or sports, but never make it to the “big stage”. Are they just unlucky? How much significance does luck have in our lives? When I was younger I was always told by my mother that as long as I worked hard, I could do and be anything. But I’m not sure if that’s true. I know people who have worked hard but never reached their ultimate goal or dream. Was it due to not ever receiving that lucky break?
Luck is defined as the events or circumstances that operate for or against an individual or to prosper or succeed, especially through chance or good fortune. Leon Ho with Lifehack says that while chance events certainly occur, they are purely random in nature. He says good luck and bad luck don’t exist in the way that people believe. And even if random negative events happen, our perspective and reaction can turn them into positive things. I tend to agree with his assessment. In life, bad things will happen – it’s inevitable. However, how we respond tells a lot about our future success. We can have a fatalistic attitude, believing that we can do nothing to change our fate in life and constantly complain, or we can look for a way to make things better and be proactive.
I believe at times the energy we expend is what we will receive. If we focus on what we think is bad luck in our lives, then that is what will grow in our minds and soon we will drown in our own negative energy and maybe even stop trying. Early on in my career, I repeatedly applied for promotions and higher positions, yet was always denied. I saw others receiving positions I had applied to that didn’t have my experience. Being told no so many times, I began feeling frustrated and unlucky. For a period of time, I stopped applying for new positions, convinced I would fail, or “bad luck” would ruin any prospects of success. Ho calls this being a “passive victim”. What I soon realized is that I had to focus on the positive and look at my situation objectively. Were there things I could improve – more education, better interviewing skills, etc.? When I let go of the negative energy and focused on improving myself and my skills, my “luck” suddenly changed.
A positive attitude can actually change our luck. Research suggests that people who think of themselves as lucky actually are lucky because they are more willing to take advantage of opportunities (BBC News). Additionally, when we think good luck happens, we tend to want to control it. I am a huge Chiefs football fan, and I have been known to carry out superstitious rituals in the middle of a winning streak, thinking my team will continue to win if only I continue to wear that same shirt. I even took my “lucky” Chiefs shirt to the beach with me while on vacation – believing that I had to have it with me in order for the Chiefs to win (and yes, the Chiefs won that game, and it was a nail-biter). And for those of you who may think I am crazy for going to such lengths for a football game, psychologists say that believing in luck can serve a useful function. It may help us with coping with chance events, as it helps people feel more optimistic when circumstances are beyond their control.
And although luck may be a state of mind, there are those who don’t believe in luck because of the view that our lives are predestined. But as I mentioned in a previous blog, I don’t believe we have a concrete, unchanging destiny. I believe destiny is not an endpoint, it’s a moving target. And just because bad things happen in our lives, it doesn’t derail our destiny. Our purpose is bigger than any obstacles. Nothing can change the fact that each of us has a reason for existing, and a bout of bad luck doesn’t change that reason. It’s the hard work and action we put in on our journey and the lessons we learn along the way that determine our destiny. What I have come to realize is that we do not become successful simply through luck. Coleman Cox once said, “I am a great believer in luck. The harder I work, the more of it I seem to have”. For me, although chance events sometimes happen, it’s all about our attitude and exuding positive energy. There are so many things that happen to us that are out of our control. But the things we can control are our attitudes, our reactions, and how we treat others. I am a believer in what you think, you become. What you feel, you attract. And what you imagine, you create. Seneca famously said, “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity”. And that is true, right? We have to make plans, prepare, keep learning, and never quit. And when we do those things, we won’t need any lucky charms, because opportunities will arise, and luck will find you.