Luck Is What You Make It

by Kenrick Cleveland

“Luck? I don’t know anything about luck. I’ve never banked on it, and I’m afraid of people who do. Luck to me is something else: Hard work — and realizing what is opportunity and what isn’t.” –Lucille Ball

Are you lucky? Did you get to where you are in life because you’ve had a streak of good luck? If you’re one of the 400 richest people in the world, or anything like them at all, luck had nothing to do with where you are. According to Forbes Magazine, this poll stated that of these affluent people, none believed luck was responsible for their wealth though a few of them believed it to be a minor factor.

I suppose you could win the lottery and that’s incredibly lucky. Maybe you’ve received an inheritance from a wealthy relative who you didn’t know. That would be lucky. Odds are, however, that if you’re a student of mine you have worked incredibly diligently to get to where you are. You’ve put intention, energy and thought into your place in life.

I believe in the power of attracting what you what, however and in that respect, I believe I am lucky. My accomplishments in life are by no means a result of luck alone but as a result of giving my lucky side attention, I have noticed an increase. It’s like anything else, the more we flex a muscle, the more we give power to something, the more of it we will receive.

After thousands of interviews and experiments, Richard Wiseman, head of the psychology department at the University of Hertfordshire in England, believes he has figured out what it is that makes some people lucky and other people not. It comes as no surprise to me that the same underlying theory behind the law of attraction comes into play with luck.

At their very essence, lucky people think and behave in ways that create good fortune and more luck in their lives in the same way that people who consider themselves money magnets (on the positive side) or freak magnets (on the less positive side) are also attracting what they put out into the world (consciously or subconsciously).

Playwright Tennessee Williams said it best, “Luck is believing you’re lucky.”

The bible says, as you sow, so shall you reap. In other words, your thoughts, feelings, intentions, deeds, and expectations, whether they be good or bad, will repay you in kind. Have you ever heard anyone say, “I’ve never won anything. I’m simply not lucky”? This will remain the case because this person has made this state of mind their expectation.

I find it interesting when I hear someone say, ‘I’m unlucky in love’. If only they knew. . . they’ll never be lucky in love if they continue to chant that mantra. If luck in love is what they want, they have to repeat to themselves that they are lucky from here on out.

I cam across a great blog while I was doing some research on luck — “How to Be Lucky” at http://www.problogger.net/archives/2006/03/14/how-to-be-lucky/. There’s some really valuable pointers on how to increase your luck (ironically or not given as a list of 13 factors).

If you’ve never considered yourself lucky, it’s time to reorient your thoughts to draw that to your life.

About the Author:

Kenrick Cleveland teaches strategies to earn the business of wealthy clients using persuasion. He runs public and private seminars and offers home study courses and coaching programs in persuasion strategies.