January 26, 2024

Hello friends,

I have mixed feelings about a quote often attributed to the roman philosopher Seneca, “Luck is where opportunity meets preparation.”

The opportunities that we have available to us are greatly dependent on the resources available to us. To attribute our success to luck does not acknowledge how our background, class, race, gender, etc. factor into what opportunities are available to us in the first place. Of course, attributing our success to nothing but hard work also runs into the same problem with the added insult of suggesting that those who aren’t as successful should just try harder.

I think we do ourselves a disservice though by ignoring luck entirely or by believing we are unlucky. In an article for Forbes, Paul Glover suggests that luck is a skill with three components: (1) recognizing unexpected opportunity or anomaly, (2) determining if it is the right opportunity for you, and (3) a willingness to take risk and leave our comfort zone.

Believing we are lucky helps us recognize the unexpected opportunities. Our cognitive bias affects so much about how we perceive the world. If we wake up every day believing that we are unlucky and that our day will be hard and stressful, we are much less likely to notice the positive and the opportunities that we encounter over the course of the day. If I believe I am lucky, I’m much more likely to take risks that open up more opportunities and to notice the positive. I think this is similar to a gratitude practice. The more often I remind myself that life is wonderful and give myself concrete evidence to support that belief, the easier it is to rebalance the scale when I’m feeling dispirited.

Take 5-15 minutes and write about

Do you consider yourself a lucky person? Why or why not? How can you prepare and position yourself for good luck?

The writer, political scientist, and humorist Stephen Leacock said, “I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.”

Your friend,
Laura