Luck...

Jack worked hard through school. He studied every night, did his assignments on time, and did extra credit assignments when possible. He applied to 14 of the top colleges and was accepted to two of them. Jack chose Yale where he worked feverishly for another four years. During that time he applied for dozens of internships and made many connections in the business world. Upon graduation, he interviewed for almost 50 jobs and out of his four job offers, he accepted a very attractive position as a high-level manager for a respectable company. When Jack's friends learned of his success, they would say, "Boy, is he lucky!"

How much of success is actually luck? Is the reason that you are not successful because you tend to have bad luck whereas others who are successful only have good luck? What is luck anyway? I am not going to say, "I don't believe in luck" or "luck is for losers". Luck is very real. However, I believe luck is something over which we all have a strong influence.

Luck is defined as, "the chance happening of fortunate or adverse events". The keyword here is "chance". This is important because to improve our luck, all we need to do is improve our chances. Luck is nothing more than the application of the law of probability. The person who is most likely to be "lucky" at winning the lottery is the person who buys more tickets. Of course, there are those one-in-a-billion chances we hear about where one-time ticket buyers win the jackpot, but not only is that extremely rare, it is also NOT success. By now you should realize that success cannot be achieved by one fortunate chance in life, or even several. Success is achieved within us and is a result of our own continual personal development.

Each of us has the ability to create our own good luck - or bad luck for that matter. First of all, you must BELIEVE that you control your destiny. The luck you have experienced in your life and the luck you will experience has much to do with you. Although we cannot have good luck all the time, using the laws of averages and probability, we can certainly tip the scale of good luck and fortune on our side. You can have more doors opened for you, and experience more of the things that everybody refers to as “luck.”

Here are some suggestions on how you can make your own good luck.

• Be in the right place at the right time. Although most people see this is as pure chance, it is vision, proper planning, and calculated risk taking that puts most successful people in the right place at the right time.
• Create the circumstances in your life that lead you to good luck. This can also be referred to as sowing and reaping. In our opening example, Jack was "lucky" to get such a great job because of everything he did in his life up to that point. He chose to work hard and apply for so many jobs. Had he not created these circumstances, his luck would no doubt be different.
• Increase your probabilities. The more chances you have at good luck, the more likely you are to experience good luck. Too many people go about their normal, uneventful lives just waiting for something great to happen to them without doing anything to increase their chances. Some excellent ways to increase your probability for fortunate chances are by working on your personal development, making more contacts or networking, and becoming involved in new opportunities, just to name a few.
• Take more calculated risks. Those who avoid risk are almost always doomed to a life of failure and bad luck. The more you can limit your chance of loss and increase your chance of gain, the better off you will be.
• Apply the principles of success and personal achievement. There are thousands of these, most of which are revealed in this course. Being successful, you will not be able to stop good luck and good fortune from coming your way even if you wanted to!

Then there is the law of attraction. As you start to create good luck in your life, you will experience even more good luck as a result of your existing good luck. The door of opportunity and good fortune usually opens to several more doors.

Unfortunate events or chance will come your way from time to time and despite all your efforts they cannot be avoided. However, you CAN control your response to this "bad luck". As a positive thinker and one who looks for opportunity in problems, each instance of "bad luck" will be replaced with "minor set backs" or even "new opportunities". Luck, as we know it, is all about perception.

When you understand that you create your own luck, you no longer live with insecurity--thinking that some unfortunate chance will take away your success. It is true that some unfortunate chance may take away your money or your business, but it can only take away your success if you let it.

Good luck does exist, and it is something each of us has the power to influence. What most people refer to as bad luck is generally referred to as "minor setbacks" or "new opportunities" by successful individuals. Follow the suggestions above for creating your own good luck and you too will find yourself becoming increasingly "lucky".

...extract from "Year To Success"