How to get lucky?
Luck is by definition that which escapes the will, the causality. As such, ask the question “How to get lucky?” Is a paradox. Luck would by definition be that which cannot be provoked by any particular action. However, over the long term, that of a lifetime, for example, we observe:
• That there are recurring lucky and recurring unfortunate ones,
• That there are life attitudes that promote luck and life attitudes that conversely promote bad luck.
• That the recurrent lucky are indeed those who adopt life attitudes favorable to luck and that the recurrent unlucky ones are indeed those who have the opposite attitudes.
By this pragmatic approach, we could say phenomenological, recurring luck becomes a subject of observation on the one hand, of knowledge and taming on the other. We can know — in the sense of being born with — luck, appropriate it and practice it. At this point, the question is “How to be lucky? »Sheds its paradox to become a question of method. If one can choose between luck and bad luck — even if one has to choose by one’s attitude in life — the hesitation is short.
Decoding of these attitudes of life which favor the visit of this Lady Fortune who by a spring morning will come to color our time.
1) Attention
Alberto Moravia’s novel The Attention tells in a skillful construction the story of a man who decides one day to pay attention to what is happening around him, to his family in particular. He will also have some surprises with his wife and daughter whose life — not even hidden — is not revealed exactly as he imagined. This new attention allows him to discover, to see in reality, what was under his nose and which he did not see. Lack of attention.
The world is certainly rich and vast, saturated with opportunities and potential chances. But a lot of times we don’t see these opportunities because — like the hero of Moravia who ignores the essentials he should know about his family — we may not be paying enough attention to what’s around us, to those around us and the wider world.
To move forward, to succeed in our projects, we have to be focused, we have to be “focused” as we say today. Of course, there is no success without persistence in strategy and concentration in execution. Certainly. But this propitiatory concentration risks closing us off from our attention, causing us to miss out on luck. To make us miss the fortune which, as everyone knows, is grabbed by the hair. But fortune is not ready to be bald. In this vast world where information and people circulate more than ever before, the potential opportunities that sadly await our attention are more numerous than ever.
2) Connecting with others
Have you ever seen an isolated person have opportunities? It’s impossible. Because opportunities flow from person to person. It is the connection with others that gives the lucky one the possibility of encountering opportunities.
But be careful, it is not a question of passively waiting at your window for the opportunity to arrive. The magic sentence is rather: “What can I do for you?” “Or” How can I help you? Because the first concern of others is not that we achieve our goals, it is to achieve theirs. It is therefore not initially a question of having opportunities but of being an opportunity for others. The late Pierre Doré.
founder of the European Leadership Institute — said that the best way to achieve your goals is to help others achieve theirs. Because the social game is a systemic game in which the exchange of information is of help, service, and benevolence.
3) Recycling
“In life, there is no failure, there are only results”, it is often said. Certainly. What this point emphasizes is that failure and success are ways of looking at what happens to us. Certainly the blows of fate, fatality, it happens. It is not just luck, some events are objective bad luck and it would be ironic or indecent to pretend to be positive.
The event is what happens from the outside. What we do with it remains. Because bad luck can be big with delayed luck if you know how to seize it. “Of course I would have preferred it not to happen to me, but now that it has happened, what do I do with it?” The lucky recurring people are not immune to the blows of fate, but they live in compost mode, they know how to make life from the waste of life. The unlucky event is recycled to the opportunity turbine.
4) Intent
If I do not want anything, it is likely that I will achieve this goal. Intention, the pursuit of a goal, makes us aware of what is happening in the world. Better yet, intention alters the cognitive system. From the moment I take an interest in a subject, it seems to me that the world is rustling about this subject, that it keeps sending me signals. “Since I chose my thesis topic,” said the student, “I keep receiving information on this topic that I had never heard of before.
Intention drives luck. “Man is only happy to want and invent”, said the philosopher Alain. He is lucky only for his intentions, for his perennial desire that he takes in the world. A will that lights up opportunities like a flashlight in the night suddenly gives life to an indistinct object.
5) Boldness
“The day you decide to act, that day will undoubtedly be your lucky day”, says a Korean proverb. The lucky one takes action, dares, tries. He knows the worst bad luck is luck that has been missed.
We live in a zone of comfort, of psychological stability which, moreover, is sometimes uncomfortable. Outside the comfort zone, we feel that a risk zone is opening up where we do not spontaneously venture. The daring zone is between the comfort zone where there is no risk and the risk zone where there is no comfort. Putting a foot or two in this zone allows you to live in open mode, to avoid closing for simple comfort.
So what, luck wouldn’t love comfort? Well, it might not be that simple. Luck doesn’t like closing and opening doesn’t like a lot of comforts. It is therefore a question of finding by a reasonable daring the narrow door between comfort and openness. The lucky ones live in open mode, opening up to others mainly. They are wary of mistrust, they fear their fear, they know how to abandon plans that are too rigid.
There are five criteria that distinguish the lucky from the unlucky, they all start with C, for luck.
1 — Consciousness
A lucky person is aware of his luck and he knows that he has some responsibility for his luck. He sees the subtlety in his daily life and when he sees this subtlety, he becomes aware of his lucky moments.
2 — Clarity
The second criterion is clarity. If you ask someone if they are lucky or not, that person will make a subjective judgment. Luck in our daily life is a judgment that we make on an event or events in our lives and therefore the terms “lucky / luck” being rather positive terms, it is to look positively on our life or on our daily life. We can say “to all things misfortune is good”, we must see the glass half full and not half empty.
3 — The Connection
The third C is the Connections. These are the people who are lucky because they know how to use networks, connections, relationships. Whether it is family or professional or even social.
Sometimes all it takes is small things within the reach of a shy person like me, an introvert who can be treated without violence.
When I went to a party, I would sit in a corner and wait for someone to come up to me and speak to me. An effective method to lead nowhere. Today, I am doing the opposite. I’m speaking to someone. If it doesn’t come to anything — a possible scenario — I continue, I will see other people. Exchange of business cards or information. It is not forbidden to start at the beginning, finally.
4 — Curiosity
The fourth C is Curiosity. Curious, right?
When you ask people if they are curious, 90% of people say yes. This is curious because are they in fact?
Curiosity supposes going beyond preconceptions and asking questions. Just to find out what other people think and see how they approach things. Ask yourself the right questions. Ask several, just to bounce back and seek to understand, to dig and go to the end.
5 — Construction
The last C is Construction. Someone who is lucky is on the move for the long haul. Every day you have to do something to be lucky. A chance to seize or create. In both cases, it is up to us.
6 — Luck is provoked
We can provoke luck by our actions on a daily basis. Personally, I start by writing each day “I expect three good news”, so we are ready to welcome and discover luck. At the end of the day, when I look at my To-Do List which I crossed off as the day slips into the tempo of the hours, I ask myself the question “what were the three good news?”
We should get into the habit of saying yes when an opportunity presents itself and then look at how we’re going to do it, even if we don’t know at the time.
