There’s no real mystery about why some people are lucky and get the opportunities.
It’s also not that hard to get some for yourself.
What is luck, anyway?
Is luck some kind of cosmic gift – something you’re either given or denied? Or is it something you generate yourself?
I’m not talking about the £100k bag of banknotes that falls into your garden from a passing plane. Nor the plane that falls onto your house. Those are just too rare to be considered (except by the airline, perhaps…).
No. I’ve watched a great many people in action, in my various (but overlapping) roles as strategist, project manager and shoulder/therapist/coach, and I am absolutely certain that it is self-created or – just as frequently – self-destroyed. For me, luck is opportunity, and opportunity is something you can create for yourself, if you know how.
Usually it’s the knowing how that’s the problem, since neither lucky nor unlucky people really know what they’re doing right or wrong, and if asked will give you clichés for answers.
What luck looks like
(in case it’s been so long you’ve forgotten…)
Someone ringing you out of the blue saying “we need your services, today”; meeting the partner of your dreams at that dry-cleaners you don’t usually use; having that ‘eureka’ moment for an idea as you gaze at a pile of printer cables; discovering your partner is a con-artist just before you sign the contract (rather than just after!); hearing before anyone else about some amazing offices that are about to go on sale for a song; discovering that the plan that just collapsed has opened the way to something far more interesting.
A quick guide to opportunity
Here’s an outline of the things that are vital for luck. Where are you on the scale?
Goals and Plans: these don’t have to be Uber-Goals, where your life is devoted entirely to achieving them; they can simply be a clear direction. Enough to mean that your antennae (see Creativity) have something to report back to.
If you don’t know where you’re going and how to get there, then you have no way of identifying an opportunity, even if it lands by your feet. You know how when you’re looking for something in the cupboard and you just can’t see it – until you remember that it’s blue and flat, not red and boxy? It’s the same thing.
Connections: very good things can come from an extended and nurtured network. If you sit on your sofa all day and shun human contact, you can probably see that the chances of that out-of-the-blue offer are low.
Further, connections are not just lists of names: how well do you understand your connections’ offerings and needs? Do they really know yours? If they are to recommend you to others, they need to be able to articulate exactly what it is you are selling.
Creativity: this is the ability to spot opportunity amongst apparently unconnected information, and see the new opportunity created by disaster (some people manage to get rich in a credit crunch…). It’s also the habit of constantly exploring new zones and new information, with your antennae pricked for relevance to your goals. If you keep your mind firmly on the one track, all you’ll see is more track.
Emotional stability: this underpins everything else, so that your mind is free to perform and attract, instead of self-sabotaging and repelling. Part of this, of course, is attitude: seeing the positive in events and the new opportunities, instead of relentlessly seeing only the negative. You’ve all met people who are their own worst enemies: alienating everyone they meet, ignoring big red warning flags and avoiding responsibility for their lives and decisions. They’re not opportunity-generators, they’re bad-luckniks.
Back to you
When it’s written down like this, it all looks a bit obvious; but consider your own efforts in each area – how are you actually doing? An imbalance in any of these areas could be hindering you quite seriously, but it’s easily changed. All of these have training available for them in one form or another. This time next year you could be the luckiest person you know.
