How to improve your luck: Why successful people are often regarded as "lucky"

Improve your luck? YES it is possible! In my opinion, random luck might exist to a minor extent, but for the main part that makes up your "luck factor" I believe it is determined by editable factors, meaning you are in charge of your own "luck" if you can still call it that then... People who are successful are often regarded as "lucky", because it is a simplified answer to a complex process, at least in most cases and as we all know we as humans love to simplify things. In this post however I don't want to go further into working hard VS. being lucky, but mainly give you my opinion on the components of luck and how I believe you can make yourself more lucky!

1. PERSISTANCE & MATHS 

2. RECOGNIZING & TAKING OPPORTUNITIES 

3. NETWORKS

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1. PERSISTANCE & MATHS

When you see someone succeed with something, you see that one success, but what you don't see is all the failures, all the mistakes, the lessons learned, the struggles and the downs. You see the end result and that's what people will judge. On one side that means you should be able to easily eliminate the fear of failure, because it is not permanent and won't affect your success in any negative way, it is actually an essential tool for success, but that's a different topic.. on the other side "the iceberg illusion" also means that persistence in combination with willpower, not giving up after failing several times... came first, before the reach of "luck", the maybe 6th or 13th business idea that actually worked! I believe everyone in theory could decide to become successful, decide to not give up and continue until the "lucky number" is reached which means success. I think of it as a large bowl of maybe 100 balls. Let's say 95% are red and only 5 are golden. If you would take out a ball each day for 96, 97, 98, 99, or 100 days what are the chances that you find 1 golden ball? Right... 100%

Yes this is an optimistic theory, but that's what I believe luck means..maths. If you keep trying and trying you will eventually become lucky. When you see the final success of a person you might be quick to think he was "simply lucky" when he really created his own luck through persistence.

2. RECOGNIZING & TAKING OPPORTUNITIES

A lot of times when asked what lucky people get, the answer you will get it is: opportunities. Great opportunities that lead to success.. But the why do some people never get the chance to succeed even though they bump into some good opportunities? In order to succeed you don't just have to be lucky to get great opportunities but you have to be also prepared to take advantage of them, because if you don't know how to deal with or don't even recognize an opportunity in the first place, your "luck" is worth nothing. Sometimes you need a skill to be able to take a job offer, sometimes you need experience to be able to guide a project in the right direction. 

Opportunities I believe do not determine final success in any way. You could give a lazy person the same opportunity as a clear minded, awake person and the results would differ. The best example that comes to my mind in this second is the following.. Just think about school exams, every student gets the same material to prepare for a test, same time, conditions, same test and yet the results are always different, because some students didn't pay attention in class, study, did their homework and prepare, whilst the successful A-students differ in their work ethic (yes at this point we could go into genetics and talk about how some people are born with different abilities) but that is not the point. The point is if you don't prepare, recognize and take advantage of opportunities your luck factor will decrease. So the second element of luck I believe is being prepared to take advantage of an opportunity when it comes. If you want to be lucky you just have to keep trying (element 1) until you get the right chance and in the meantime work on being prepared to take advantage of this chance when it appears.

3. NETWORKS

Just recently I went to the library and picked up some new "food for thought". The networking book (that's the name) by Simone Anderson is a quick and easy read. Already the third point struck me. She called it "Networking-In Your Personal Life" and it is about the theory of luck. She makes some very relevant points, which she supports by examples of "The Luck Factor". The following is an excerpt of the book, enjoy.

Richard Wiseman has written one of my favorite books "The Luck Factor" and here are these are his interesting main conclusions:  

• People with relevant networks feel lucky to a much greater extent than people with limited or no networks at all.
• Lucky people seem to get attractive jobs, longer partnerships and live satisfying lives. People with limited networks find life more difficult, and generally, there are no easy solutions offered to them.
• Wiseman’s research shows that 50% of people feel both lucky and unlucky in their daily lives; 25% feel distinctly unlucky and never fortunate, while the remaining 25% feel fortunate and satisfied.
• A related question Wiseman addresses is whether we are born lucky or unlucky. His conclusion is that luck is a state of mind. People who said they felt lucky were often exposed to incidents that were a lot worse than those experienced by people who felt unlucky.
• People who feel lucky and successful seem to share a common characteristic: they have expense, efficient networks. Despite facing serious difficulties they have turned their challenges into something positive.

So what does luck has to do with success? In fact that answer will depend on your understanding of luck. The concept of the three elements I mentioned in this post for me sum up the myth of luck in respect to success and made me realize that the problem doesn't lay in the question, but more in the understanding of luck itself.

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I hope you enjoyed this read and maybe work on improving your lucky factor. Let me know what you think, as always feel free to comment and extend the thread. 

Much love & luck

- Mrs.Steemit