Do You Believe In Luck?

I have just realised that I still believe in luck!

For a while now I often try to stop myself from wishing other people “good luck” because of how it might be perceived. I mean, most self-development materials tell us that there is no such thing as luck. How disappointing!

Others say that, “luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity”. That’s nice, I like that.

I believe that we mostly create our own luck, don’t we? But as believers in a great God and a benevolent universe surely not everything successful is down to our own doing, is it? Whatever happened to divine protection?

I think it’s great and noble to set out to do whatever is necessary to become successful, whether it be in life, business, or wealth. But it is also nice to feel that our efforts are being supported to propel us to heights far greater than we can even perceive for ourselves.

One of the most liberating things I learnt that made such a big impact on me was – “The Best Way To Create The Future Is To Invent It” and for a long time I used this as my signature phrase.

Maybe the confusion is in the semantics and the word we are looking for is not exactly what we call ‘luck’ today. Maybe we need a more modern definition of luck. Because most people think that luck is when something happens to you without you exerting any inertia at all.

I agree with the notion that when it comes to luck, it is a person’s approach to life that matters more than intelligence or anything else.

One thing I know for sure is, it is far better to expect the best than to expect the worst. Like an old friend used to say about her boyfriend a long time ago, “I know he’s lying to me but I’d rather focus on the fact that he is telling me what I want to hear than be miserable!” This may be the extreme optimistic approach to life and more of a self-imposed denial, but do you think my friend had a good time, or not? She never wasted anytime expecting the worst.

I couldn’t do that. I am simply too factual and pragmatic to enjoy any transient illusion. Forgive me, but I may have somehow deviated from the main discussion here. We were talking about luck, weren’t we?

All said and done, I think the following phrase more describes what I believe in about luck, which is often described as ‘a combination of circumstances, events, etc., operating by chance to bring good or ill to a person’. Even so, the last part is somewhat adapted.

Prepare for the worst (It’s good to plan)
Expect the best (Believe in luck)
And take what comes (Now, this is the part I might have trouble with because it encourages people to accept anything that comes their way. But I have learnt that so long as we persist, the best will always turn up. In other words, and also quoted as the shortest speech ever made by Winston Churchill, ‘Never give up; Never give up; Never give up!’)

Thomas Edison said,

"Our greatest weakness lies in giving up.
The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time."

So what do you think?

Do you think we make our own luck?
Or is it simply something that comes our way?
Do you consider yourself lucky or unlucky?

Comments

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Believing in luck is an interesting thought that I've never really given much thought to before, that sounds odd but just here me out. I don't really believe in luck, but somehow I seem to be very lucky. Its and interesting thing.