NO LUCK MAKING LUCK, TRY FAKING LUCK
Friday, May 13, 2022
Luck isn’t made or found or real.
And Friday the 13th is neither luck nor the absence of luck, and black cats are animals that would be better reincarnated as dogs, but they have nothing to do with luck.
Sometimes we feel lucky – not many people win the lottery; when they do, it’s only because they bought a ticket. People who never buy a ticket never win. It’s not about luck; it’s about buying a ticket combined with rare odds.
We meet people who impact our lives – random chance, plus what we make of it, not luck.
Irish people have the same luck as anyone – being green or imagining Leprechauns has nothing to do with it. Besides, who could ever conflate a potato famine with luck?
Seriously though, how do we make luck?
The phrase, make your own luck, is as common as table salt, but are those four words helpful? I don’t think that statement alone is helpful to anyone feeling luckless or down on their luck. I say that not as a comment on luck but as a recognition that what we can see or take advantage of is not limited by our imagination, hearing or vision – but by our attitude.
Good things come, good things are observed, and opportunities worth our energy/effort appear when we have our head up, our wits about us, and are willing to take chances – sometimes by making a call, stretching out to shake a hand in a crowd, or writing an unsolicited note to suggest getting together, recommend exploring an idea, collaborating on solving a problem or making something into something better …
But most people who cannot find luck are looking at their shoes, afraid, lacking confidence and lacking anyone to believe in them. Money helps. Food, clothing and shelter help – always, but most important is having two people who believe in you. Someone, anyone, who supports you in any way, and another person essential to luck, success, and thriving is ourselves.
Success in any measure at anything is self-inflicted, self-injected, self-possessed and self-promoted. If you don’t have that believer/cheerleader in your corner yet, then you are alone doing what you do. That’s a good temporary state, but nobody wants to live their life that way, do they?
Reader feedback:
One of the most frustrating things in media are the limited truths. “There has been a blank% increase in whatever” but that doesn’t tell us whether it means from three to four or from thirty to forty. Too much reporting is couched in words that create drama without facts, GB, Calgary, AB