Luck doesn’t come into it
Published by on January 9th, 2008
I don’t get much in the way of luck. Don’t get me wrong here, I do not feel I am unlucky per se, it’s just the entirely random and I do not share a man-hug and a cold beer - ever.
The luck I’m talking about here is not the life-changing, opportunity-knocks kind of luck, but the entirely random, uninfluencable (it should be a word, so shush), die-throwing, coin-tossing kind of luck that only butterflies on the other side of the world have the ability to instigate.
This is why I tend not to play games of chance - particularly if there is money involved. Despite having been to the races and dogs once or twice (and thoroughly enjoyed the experience) I have bet on a horse just once (£10), and won enough to buy a 2nd generation ipod. I very rarely win any game with dice - Monopoly for me is all about living in the gutter while everyone gets rich at my expense. When it comes down to real world luck, the biggest moments of “luck” I have had - and they are not particularly big compared to many - have been as a result of hard work, application, and that most critical of methodologies: recognising opportunity and getting off one’s butt and grabbing it.
Which is why whenever anyone - as earlier today - wishes me luck, I nearly always retort with “Luck doesn’t come into it“. I do not believe there is such a thing - merely random events that are sometimes synchronous, most times not. Luck cannot be influenced - for then it would not be “luck” - but synchronicity most certainly can. Increased awareness and recognition of synchronous events bring them to light more often, and that cannot be a bad thing, providing you have aligned your life to enable you to grasp the opportunities. But that is a whole other post.
5 Responses to “Luck doesn’t come into it”
January 9th, 2008 at 10:56 pm
You’re right- luck, itself, isn’t really a player in life. Synchronicity, on the other hand, isn’t something to ignore (and oh, how we know about that). I do admire your drive and ambition even though it sometimes means I don’t see much of you (which includes your time working from home), but I know you have your eye on the prize and make your own ‘luck’ with hard work and determination.
I am, however, pleased that you don’t have any desire to attend a dog race these days, as I find the spectacle an entirely despicable act.
January 10th, 2008 at 5:01 pm
I am proof that bad luck exists
January 13th, 2008 at 1:13 am
When I analyze the “bad luck” I have had in my life, it really boils down to having made bad choices. Good choices = “good luck”. The rest is accident, chance, or happenstance.
January 23rd, 2008 at 8:38 am
[...] recently wrote about how I have little actual “luck”. This often manifests itself in games of chance - which I try to avoid like a celery and Marmite [...]
January 23rd, 2008 at 3:30 pm
Louis Pasteur once said, “Chance favors the prepared mind.”
Often times I think that synchronicity is nothing more than our reticular activator — the part of the brain that filters or notices things, ie. looking to buy a hybrid automobile? hmmm … everyone seems to be driving a hybrid automobile these days — working than some ‘unseen force’ in our lives.