Don’t Wait For Luck… Make It
I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase – “People Make their own Luck“. It may be a way you describe someone who’s worked their ass off over the years and finally reached that Big Moment, but more likely you’re using it much more frequently in reference to that old friend/colleague/peer whose series of poor self-damaging decisions have lead them down the slippery slope of continuous bad situations. It always seems to be easily accessible from our cranial file cabinet of cliches, ready for that peer critiquing moment, or a rare opportunity for gossip.
But how many times have you asked yourself this very question about luck? Have you Made it for yourself, or do you keep blindly crossing your fingers, hoping that next scratch-off will be the one that changes everything?
Most definitions of Luck promote the same theme – success or failure brought by chance rather than through one’s own actions. But how do we distinguish what happens by pure chance opposed to the culmination of years of compounding work, hustle and grind. The simple answer is – It depends! Primarily on the point-of-view, but the only one that should really matter is Yours.
If you’re spending time pondering other peoples fortunes (which we’ve all done) you’re simply playing the wrong game. It’s your own story you should be focusing on, and in it, your relationship with Luck can be an invaluable tool or the shovel that ultimately digs the hole for your hopes and dreams to rest. I find it valuable to think in terms of – “It doesn’t happen by Luck” – It’s a mindset, not an ultimate truth, because quite frankly a lot of shit can happen by luck, it has its place, but if you hold luck as an expectation, you’re setting yourself up for many disappointments to come.
I find expectations to be quite valuable, they are a way of holding ourselves accountable and a good tool to help drive towards a goal. It’s holding expectations of things you have no control over (i.e other peoples actions) or expecting something to happen “Just Because” where they become dangerous. A simple way to look at it is by breaking expectations into the following two categories – Blind & Calculated. To have the latter, you need to put in the work. I’ll explain, when you build an expectation for something to happen out of thin air (Just Because), it’s like building a pyramid from a deck of cards, at the beach, in the sand, on a windy day, a slight gust and you’re starting from scratch. But building a calculated expectations, off of the weeks, months, or years of doing the work and putting yourself in a position to win is equivalent to backing up the cement truck. A calculated expectation is the mindset that doing the work will get you where you’re going, not being 100% certain how, or when, but knowing it will happen. It’s optimism and expectation backed with cold hard data. The only problem ….It’s Hard
It’s Hard Work to Work Hard, but we have been biologically built to endure this daily grind for the chance of glory. Humans have this ultra unique, distinct power to choose delayed gratification over instant reward. As pointed out in neuroscientist Robert M. Sapolsky book Behave: We have the ability to harness the dopaminergic power of the “happiness of pursuit” to motivate us to keep striving for that reward in the somewhat unknown future. As one die-hard Mud Dogs football fan would put it…
You just have to.. well, GO DO IT. And understand that whatever you’re striving for doesn’t happen over night, it could take months, years and even decades, but as time continues to pass and you keep doing the work you’ll have the power of compounding interest on your side. It may happen by Luck, Luck may be a factor, but don’t count on it, don’t expect it, accept it as a pleasant surprise. DO the Work, put yourself in a position to maximize any luck that crosses your path, or better yet, make your own luck. It starts by making it important, because when it’s important….
It Gets Done
