| How to Make Your Own Luck Sep 17th 2012, 08:00 Here "making your own" means doing smarter work on good ideas to take you where you want or need to be… You have every opportunity to create your own luck, even if you don't feel it's possible right now. And this isn't talking about the random or fall-upon/trip-over kind of chance or improving your chances at getting or winning something. This is about being ready to seize opportunities when they present themselves. And it's up to you to learn and work toward being ready––it's not a paranormal occurrence. The luck focused upon in this article is about creating opportunities that lay the path for future progress and events, set in motion by your own effort, influence and input over a period of time, with patience. Most of all, you can feel and be truly "lucky" in part by fulfilling creative, innovative goals through the result of taking better, more effective actions. So, if you're not feeling lucky, why not make it instead of holding out for it? You should be able to fix your lack of luck in a particular area or perhaps in your life generally. If you feel you're somewhat "out of the flow", here's how to restore your creativity, improve your luck and take control of where you're headed. -
In or out of luck: Don't just gamble, not "going all-in" on a mere hunch. - Avoid taking useless, purposeless risks. No, you can't control chance events, but you can take action to improve your situation. And you can believe that things happen because of how you approach work and leisure at any level of age or talent.
- Believe in a tentative or definite long term goal (to follow) that needs luck shaped by you. Write it down: make your luck "blueprint". Use the proverbial back of a napkin or scrap of paper (even with the usual coffee stains), whatever is available right now––who needs an organizer, a notebook or planner when inspiration takes hold? When preparing your blueprint, consider the following:
- Title your blueprint 'Make Luck for ______' (one of your areas of interest). If it is messy, that's fine as it'll take shape in time.
- List ideas for your chosen goal, in five minutes (or take as long as it takes but don't take too long), and write down every big thing you can think of on that topic. By doing a little now, you get things started and later you can take the time to polish it. These ideas can seem like ordinary things, or things that will be time consuming and difficult but that apply to your future "luck" needs in that area.
- Later, copy your blueprint over to something more substantial if you're using scrap paper.
- Continue to set goals with timelines to actually do them by. Deadlines make daily progress more likely, as "luck is, always making some progress". Make progress in little goals or short term goals, be they hourly, daily or weekly ones. Make your own action plan, and follow through on it. Polish your plans on the go––by remaining flexible and ready to take up opportunities as they arise before you: you'll be making your luck (at various levels and intersections).
- Think of prerequisites. This means the required order of your goals, such as doing 101A before 102B, if it matters. This may require placing a number of your goals in a logical sequence.
- Write descriptions of the categories of your goals, such as: 1. Training in ___, learning to do___, purchasing and making the jigs and guides, storing bits and pieces of knowledge and physical "tools" for this goal. 2. Keep up homework: clean-up boo-boos; redesign/fix the things that fail, retake a course to get basics (such as needed math to build up your competence and confidence); repeat it (if you barely got a passing grade on a curve, for example). Categories can work better than writing thousands of short term goals that don't seem to be linked; categories allow for links and reduce the sense of how much you need to achieve to complete each goal, as the tiny steps within each goal are all linked to the major goal. Only add in smaller steps within each goal, if it matters to your plans; leave out anything that isn't going to add value or that will simply trip you up.
- Expect great lucky ideas to occur to you, but don't worry if you're not inspired right now. Work through your doubts. Muse and meditate about related matters. Be ready to write it out when a new idea flashes. If you don't record it, later you'll probably wonder what that great idea was...
- Raise your expectations enthusiastically to do more than just "make do". No matter where you are (or where you'd rather be), no matter what you have (or want to get yet), you can move beyond simply existing or putting up with things the way that they are. Pump up your goals any way that you can. Realize that lucky people focus on getting it done, moving beyond the idea of making do. Start somewhere and keep going; go where you believe that you need to go to get things done. And don't wait without good reason––recognize that procrastination and killing time until something better comes along are excuses and won't create luck.
- Play and work smarter. Use connections with other people, between goals, within your chores and tasks. Go beyond making an effort and shift into innovating and trying new ways to get things done, to inspire yourself and others. Bear in mind that to make luck, focusing on your methods of doing things will bear fruit rather than hoping things will change around you. You are the person building your tree of influence, creating branches of new lines and crosscurrents through networking and daring to try something different from the usual.
- Create and/or fulfill a need for new things or experiences. When you know what will improve your life or the lives of others around you, you create your own direction and a point to strive toward, rather than letting yourself be caught, directed and buffeted by the stream (in someone else's flow, currents). With this sense of direction in place, you can now seek and find what you're looking for, pursuing your blueprint goals, able to focus on what is in your plan, path or way.
- Seek and find expertise and build up your experience, no matter how. For example, gain the experience or expertise yourself through effort (including studies) and observation. Or, to speed things up, hire experience in business (get a mentor or a tutor for a class for the knowledge), sharing time, costs and the profits (if any), possibly by taking a limited partner as an investor, someone with less power and responsibility, or a general partner who has full authority and responsibility. Both Bill Gates (beginning Microsoft) and Steve Jobs (starting Apple), had a technical expert as a startup-partner. Partnering with someone who is able in areas where you are not relieves you of your own limitations and makes more room for your strengths to shine. Don't ever presume you need to create your luck alone––others can be great support as you seek your luck. (Just be sure to reciprocate in kind––this isn't a one-way sense of support.)
- Snoopervise (sneakily supervise) as efficiently but nicely as possible when you're learning from others. Creative people need some latitude and time to get ideas together and to get going. Be a good listener, rely on using good humor, and make time for relaxation together. Arguing with people who have as strong a vision or set of goals as you is inevitable, so make room for agreement too and never be unreasonable in insisting on your own way. Flex but be sure to push for your worthy innovations and improvements.
- Tool up! Invest in your future progress by working through the excitement, pain and irritations (get clarity). Realize that your toolkit (of luckiness) may take months, years, or even a decade of your study, training and building your luck and readiness to make it. This is the real secret behind making the most of luck––people spend a lot of time preparing themselves rather than simply sitting about hoping, and it can take a lot of time initially.
- Be a self-made "genius". For example, to play several musical instruments, realize that you must practice every day, for years, and never stop, for thousands of hours. The same is true for academic talents: studying––yeah, really.
- Be positive. Make great talent; learn it. Believe. Don't say, "I never had talent". People who think like that usually are wishful, but didn't really try enough things, or keep at them for long enough. Partying is not the way. Fun is inside; you don't need silly stuff or chemicals to have fun or to be fulfilled, and happy in any circumstances. Happiness and joy are choices. Choose joy. Happiness can come by choosing to be inspired and investing and using your time wisely. Have fun by doing your work. Smile some more, avoid the fake or pasted-on grin.
- Learn to love "hateful" things: Love your work; practice, study, keep records of your business/or notes on your learning. Get prepared for loving your "work/luck":
- Learn to do public speaking; even if you don't stand before a crowd, it can help you to become persuasive and get in shape in all areas that matter.
- Be persistent and industrious. You need a little natural talent, too. But some popular singers made luck with a poor voice, some celebrities make it without being the most beautiful, the most talented or the most connected. Instead, they are persistent and they believe in what they're doing, through and through. Ultimately, the key to seizing luck is to finish what you start or to work it into a new way to try again.
- Making your luck is like "growing a pot of 'never ending stew' " from scratch, heating it up daily and adding stuff. Share it; keep it fresh; continue it everyday. That stock pot/or luck can continue until you dump it or let your dream be spoiled, or fail to adapt to changes in tech, knowledge/skills, styles or in your marketplace. Don't give up on new ways to grow business/ideas. You make it successful your way.
- Occasionally read over your goals and use them as a checklist. Rate your progress to help you realize what luck you are making.
- You can't force yourself to think creatively. If you can't think of anything new at this time, just put the paper/notebook away.
- Believe and realize that this may also depend on things beyond your control, but not for our fundamental purpose, to be prepared to achieve more.
- If you're starting your own business, use other people's money to achieve something big for your community or idea, whether it is profit or non-profit. If possible, get donations, buyers, renters, customer deposits/down-payment, or borrow a small loan; get an investor. You may not need a lot of money to start small, do a prototype/sample of what you want to show investors. Specialize, possibly in an especially high level of (prize-winning) quality, or quicker, smaller product, or more powerful version at a price, better art, or craftsmanship, etc. Combine stuff: Steve Jobs of Apple redid the old computer and phone and personal mobile data and player devices for use with the Internet through the means of the iMac, iPhone, iPad and iPod. Old became new by combining concepts.
- Have faith and belief about learning. Appreciate and study your subject "faithfully" and "believe", and you have faith for/in that activity. Faith in purposeful learning, assignments, in that mode of operation, that exciting, historic drama or in educational authority to be real, involving and engaging you with or even into knowing the persons, things, places, or concepts (ideas), such as a subject matter in school. In order to have a basis for feeling, accepting and believing, you need information, and then being able to really understand, be involved, engage it and hold onto it. See further:
Edit Warnings - Never entertain (think of) quitting, even when you are old, gray, and disabled. There is always luck to be made.
- This is not exactly "bootstrapping" (pulling yourself up by your boot straps). Actually, this may be more like "standing on the shoulders of the previous generation". Learn and takeoff from others; use other people's old ideas in new ways (new for your purposes).
Edit Things You'll Need - Paper and pen or pencil
- Blueprint, goal list, with progress noted regularly
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