I should be so lucky!

18th September 2021

Dedicated to my Amity Team Ella, Madeleine, Sarah, and Katie who took a chance on me and Amity

It is time. It was 6pm and the family was sitting around the table having dinner. Pixie, a five-year-old Chihuahua could smell the pot roast being served. He salivated and licked his chops. He had his evening meal already but it was not pot roast. He knew he was not allowed to beg at the dinner table and his guardians were usually very strict about this. However, he felt lucky tonight. “Who shall I approach?”, he thought. “The adult female is usually very strict and runs the house, the teenagers have been given strict instructions not to give treats by the adult female. That’s right, let’s go for the adult male. He is the kindest to me!”

He crept towards the father and gave out the slightest whimper that only he could hear. He expressed his best ‘I’m starving! Please feed me as I am cute!’ eyes. Nothing happened. He could hear cutlery scraping on plates as the family dined. Suddenly, a piece of delicious morsel flew from the table and he caught it deftly without dropping any. There was a flurry of excitement as the female adult chastise the wonderful male adult for feeding the dog at the table. Pixie simply ran with his prize in his mouth to enjoy it elsewhere in peace. He tried his luck and got lucky!

How often in life do you take a chance? You make decisions daily, something small, like what to eat or what to wear (could be huge for some!) or something bigger like choosing a career or a partner. How do you make decisions? Do you analyse each one? Do you attempt to understand each option to the maximum before making a decision? Are all your decisions safe and secure, devoid of any unexpected factors or outcomes? Have you met someone who always seems lucky? Things just keep happening for them in their career, relationships and life. They just seem to ‘hit the jackpot’ every time. Maybe you know someone like that, maybe it is you.

Do you believe in luck? Is it real? I believe in making your own luck. There are opportunities everywhere and in your everyday life. The difference between someone who is lucky and someone who is seemingly not lies in their level of preparation, mentally and emotionally. Chance favours the prepared mind. With a positive expectancy and active faith, you view the world differently from someone with a negative expectancy and no faith. Both parties can look at the same situation and perceive it differently, hence yielding different outcomes. It is important to train your mind to look for opportunities so when one shows up, you are ready. If not, the opportunity could stare at you right in front of your face and not only will you not see it, you would also moan about the lack of opportunity! Actively seek for luck and you will find it.

Secondly, you have to take action. You are not likely to get lucky sitting on your couch watching Netflix thinking that luck will befall you that way. Nor will you be likely to get lucky doing the same old routine day in and day out. You may have luck thrown upon you very occasionally but you can increase your chances by changing your approach from time to time. This is not referring to being inconsistent or ‘flaking out’ in your discipline. Sometimes, fresh approaches open to fresh opportunities. Maybe it is that business conference you keep avoiding or that someone whom you would usually not meet up with. Perhaps it is the path less travelled or the decision you usually say ‘no’ to. Doing something and putting yourself out there in the universe will certainly increase the chance of opportunity or ‘luck’ befalling you than sitting at home (or in your office) doing nothing. (The amount of business I have received just by taking a walk has been immeasurable. Some of them only show up years later!) You really never know!

Lastly, it is simply taking a chance. Sometimes (not all the time!), taking a chance at (what you feel is) the least probable option can yield rewards. Most of the time, you may obtain the expected (unwanted) outcomes and you get to learn (or reinforce your initial thoughts) but sometimes, life may just throw you a bone! Taking a chance on people and allow them to reveal their potential. Taking a chance on obscure situations and you may be surprised at the outcome. Sometimes, we simply do not know everything (we certainly do not know what we do not know) and only safe bets will usually result in safe results. Some wild unimaginable results require wild unimaginable decisions to be made. Remember when you were a child when you tried different things and received unexpected results that delighted you or made you cry?

Know this, you were created out of luck. Had your parents not took a chance to get together and create a life, you would not be here. Had their parents not survived the wars, natural calamities, disasters and took a chance to create life, you would not be here. You were certainly not a certainty but a product of luck and chance. To say that Luck is literally in our DNA is not an overstatement. We are born lucky. You are born lucky. You do not need Harry Potter’s Felix Felicis to be lucky. You simply need to see how you are surrounded and bathed in luck. You simply need to allow luck to befall you by not resisting it.

Practising gratitude can greatly increase your perception of luck as well. Being thankful or grateful naturally puts you in a mind of positive expectancy and active faith. So know that you are lucky (to be alive) and that luck is awaiting to befall you (if you allow it) and be sure to try your luck (legally, morally and ethically!) daily. The reality is you could be walking around lucky and not know it!

Pixie tries his luck from time to time and gets rewarded. Are you trying your luck enough? Why not?

‘You should always try your luck at least once daily as you could be walking around lucky and not know it!’ – Anon

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