The Wagging Tail

Do you believe some people are luckier than others?

According to John D. Krumboltz and Al S. Levin, there’s no such thing as luck. In fact, they shirk the use of the word in their book Luck Is No Accident: Making the Most of Happenstance in Your Life and Career, opting instead to use “happenstance”, a term with less baggage. Krumboltz and Levin argue that happenstance isn’t something that randomly effects us — it’s something that we create out of the chance situations and encounters that run through our lives:
Have you ever noticed that unplanned events — chance occurrences — more often determine your life and career choices than all the careful planning you do? A chance meeting, a broken appointment, a spontaneous vacation trip, a “fill-in” job, a newly discovered hobby — these are the kinds of experiences — happenstances — that lead to unexpected life directions and career choices.

The key is to recognize these opportunities and to act on them. Here are some techniques the authors suggest we can use to turn happenstance to our advantage.

1. Make the most of unplanned events. Most of the time, we dodge unplanned events in order to return to our normal lives. We fear the spontaneous. But if you can open your mind, and roll with the unplanned, new opportunities unfold.
2. Share your interests and experiences with people you meet. Learn to strike up conversations with people you meet. Ask them about their lives. They’ll ask you about yours. In this way, you may sometimes turn a random encounter into a possible “lucky break”.
3. Keep your options open. Goals are good, but devotion to a goal may blind you to other opportunities. It’s a mistake to cling to one path out of a sense of obligation. Pursue goals, but reassess your progress and your priorities at regular intervals to prevent yourself from becoming trapped in a miserable reality.
4. Try it — even without knowing the outcome. Two of the best ways to “be lucky” are to be willing to take calculated risks and to embrace unexpected opportunities. Try new things. Go new places. Don’t just do the things for which the outcome is certain.
5. It’s OK to fail. It’s trite, but it’s true: those who never try, never fail. And those who never fail, never learn. “First ask yourself: What is the worst that can happen?” Dale Carnegie once advised. “Then prepare to accept it. Then proceed to improve on the worst.”
6. Take action to create your own luck. The authors offer a number of useful tips for creating your own luck:
   • Act now. Don’t procrastinate. Begin pursuing your goals today.
   • Avoid the “sunk cost fallacy”. Just because you’ve spent time and money on something doesn’t mean you can or should continue doing so.
   • Take advantage of timely opportunities. Don’t be afraid to say “yes” when a favorable circumstance arises.
   • Always do your best work, even when you think the task is unimportant.
   • Ask for what you want. If you do not ask, you cannot receive.
   • Be persistent. Don’t give up. Work hard.
   • Become a lifelong learner. In 50 Success Classics, Tom Butler-Bowdon notes that most successful men and women have made a habit of reading, and of constant self-improvement.
7. Enjoy yourself — the good life is a balanced life. Here’s advice I sometimes forget. A person who leads a balanced life is happier, more relaxed, more open to new experiences. If you maintain good relationships, explore satisfying hobbies, prioritize physical fitness, go out of your way to help others, and continue to pursue personal growth, you will become a well-rounded person, just the sort that “luck” favors.
8. Overcome self-sabotage. Finally, in order to make the most of “luck” and happenstance, you must learn to face down your greatest enemy: your self. Each of us is capable of thwarting good fortune through negative self-talk. We beat ourselves up over our pasts. We tell ourselves that we “can’t” do something before we even try.

Dale Carnegie once said, “Happiness doesn’t depend on ay external conditions — it is governed by your mental attitude.” And research bears it out. Don’t worry about circumstances beyond your control. Learn to control the things you can, including your reaction to the world around you. How you respond to an unfortunate event is often more important than the event itself.