Creating Your Own Luck Philosophy
How I Shifted My View of Luck
I have lived much of my life with the belief and certainty that you must work hard. And if you work hard, you might have some luck. Throughout my life, I’ve worked really hard in order to create more luck and more success.
What I’ve discovered is that the big problem with this view is that it isn’t necessarily true. Plenty of people have worked their ass off and the future hasn’t turned out for them.
The Nobel Prize winning behavioral economist Daniel Kahneman tells us that human beings dramatically underestimate the impact of luck in their lives. He tells us that cognitively we are wired to either locate ourselves as the hero (or some version thereof) or a victim (or some version thereof), and as a result we often miss how “lucky” (or unlucky) we are.
The LinkedIN Message That Changed My View
My view on luck shifted a few years ago when my wife Gail had an experience that left me reflecting on this phenomenon. One day, she opened up her inbox to find a seemingly crummy LinkedIN marketing message waiting for her. Normally, she ignored most of these messages since they were usually spam. On this day, for some reason, she clicked on the message. (To this day, she still says, “I have no idea why I clicked on the message that day.”) The message turned out to be a recruiter who was offering her the position of her dreams. Out of nowhere someone was recruiting her, and she hadn’t been working hard trying to find this opportunity – it seemingly fell into her lap.
What if she hadn’t clicked on that message? It was so lucky. I started to examine my own view about luck. What if being lucky has everything to do with seeing that there could be an opportunity in a seemingly small, won’t-make-a-difference action?
I realized that there are so many things I say no to, assuming in advance they won’t amount to anything. I saw how much I cut off an opportunity without even considering that it could be an opportunity.
I used to believe that hard work was THE answer. I used to believe that if you didn’t work hard for it, you didn’t deserve it, leaving me in a space of guilt when things happened that I didn’t work hard for. Now, I have a whole new view about luck and creating luck that has changed my life.
A New Luck Philosophy
If you want more luck, you need to be willing to see the myriad of opportunities before you. These often don’t involve hard work at all. Very often, we have opportunities in front of us and we don’t see the opportunity. Or very often, one small, simple action – responding to an email that at first appears a waste of time because we are in the ether of “normal” – opens a surprising connection that yields an incredible opportunity.
So, yes… persistence, discipline, being optimistic, operating with integrity, and other practices and ways of being are all important and matter…. and intervening in the ether of normal, in our subtle resignation, so that we can see the myriad of opportunities in front of us opens us up to being “lucky.” We become someone who is frequently saying to friends and colleagues “the most amazing thing happened today…”
One of the “Declarations of the Future” (a distinction from our BluPrint Workshop) for our company is: “We stand for individuals and organizations being uncompromising in Living True. In fact, we say there’s a direct relationship between being uncompromising in Living True and the universe providing unforeseen and extraordinary opportunities.”
Consider that there are so many things we say no to, and we close the door on unforeseen and extraordinary opportunities. We make decisions and kill off possibilities. However, if you can combine the principle of Living True, taking consistent small actions, and opening yourself up to surprising new opportunities, you’ll be amazed by the results.
Now, one of the pitfalls of living this way, is to make grinding and working hard wrong – it’s a necessary skill. The grit you need to get something launched in a noisy market takes something, and it's not for everyone. It requires an “I'm not going to give up” attitude coupled with constant creating.
In my new philosophy on luck, I propose that the more you're living in alignment, the more "luck" shows up. The more unpredictable results can happen.
If you’d like to create your own luck philosophy you can start by asking yourself and reflecting on the following questions:
Where am I operating inside of the ether of “normal” and thereby missing opportunities?
Where am I assuming the result in advance and thereby closing myself off from opportunities?
Just starting this inquiry can open you up to seeing something new. Good luck!