Why We Get Lucky
Living Happy(er)
When I was at a writing industry event after my second or third book in the NEED series and was sitting at a table next to Snoop Dog’s table, and saw the line that was snaking out the door, I thought for sure it was Snoop’s line.
“No,” my editor told me, “that’s for you.”
“Oh.” I paused. “This is it, isn’t it? My pinnacle. All down from here.”
She smiled that sort of smile that doesn’t show your teeth. “Probably.”
Luck.
Right then I tried to pause and remember how I’d gotten so lucky to be right there in that moment with a big line of people waiting for me to sign their books rather than four people waiting for me to sign my book, which has happened before and since.
“I am so lucky,” I breathed out.
“You are,” my editor said, “but you worked hard, too. Don’t forget that.”
HOW DO YOU MAKE LUCK?
Oprah Winfrey famously said, “I believe luck is preparation meeting opportunity. If you hadn’t been prepared when the opportunity came along, you wouldn’t have been lucky.”
I believed that for a long time and I don’t not believe that now, but there’s a little more to it than that, I think.
Psychologist Richard Wiseman’s book “The Luck Factor” looks at what makes people lucky. And Tim Denning breaks Wiseman’s work down to five sentences.
When you are lucky, you see the opportunities “hiding in plain sight.”
It’s not about waiting for stuff to happen. It’s about looking for opportunities. All. The. Time.
Your mind is open to new things and new people who might bring those opportunities.
You don’t care about fixed identities and fate
If you believe that you cannot change, if you believe that your fate is so predetermined by circumstance or genes, then you hold yourself back.
Denning writes, “I’ve found disadvantages are a superpower. They place a chip on your shoulder that provides relentless motivation that forces you *not* to take no for an answer. Fate is false."
What you think you are often becomes all that you are.
When terrible things happen you bounce back
If you want to be lucky, you can’t let your failures become you. You have to be stubborn. You have to work on resiliency.
Lucky people tend to think in that stoic way of “I may not control my circumstance or this chaos around me, but I can control my response to it.”
And they usually choose to respond to get up and keep on keeping on.
Lucky people trust their instincts
Denning writes, “Richard’s research found that 90% of lucky people trusted their intuition. They followed their gut feeling. They backed themselves.
“What’s often forgotten is our subconscious mind is recording reality in the background. It sees patterns and then lets the conscious mind become aware of them. This process creates our intuition.
“That’s why it’s so important to notice stuff and write it down. It’s also why rest and boring tasks like doing the dishes are important. Boredom is how the subconscious mind joins the dots and forms patterns.
“Let intuition help guide your big decisions.”
You’ll noticed I quoted a lot there. I basically quoted Denning’s entire section. That’s because this is something I really need to work on. Lately, I haven’t let my subconscious have those moments to connect the dots.
The lucky tend to be a little bit more optimistic.
“An optimistic attitude is closely linked to a higher quality of life, and the burgeoning field of positive psychology specializes in identifying and analyzing the distinctions between optimists and pessimists that seem to make this so,” Better Help writes.
Or as Winston Churchill said, "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
HOW DO YOU CULTIVATE LUCK?
Well, the first step would be to work on your optimism, trusting your instincts, work on your resiliency, and don’t be afraid of change, and especially don’t be afraid to believe in yourself.
But there’s also a great post on Psychology Today (link is right here) that works on cultivating that lucky mindset.
So true !! Wise words. Great post. I am a lucky person , and recently wrote a post about it 🍀🍀🍀