From Issue 90 — Get Lucky

While watching Luke Skywalker successfully deflect the blasters from a training exercise in Star Wars with his lightsaber, Han Solo remarked:  “I call it luck”.  Teacher—and Jedi master—Obi Wan Kenobi, in turn, responded with a wry grin: “In my experience, there’s no such thing as luck”.  To which Han says: “Look, good against remotes is one thing.  Good against the living?  That’s something else”.  

Luck takes many shapes and forms.  Luck has taken on a ubiquitous description that gets thrown around from mostly visual assessments of how we judge other’s lives.  Some people will label those who are doing well financially in life lucky.  Others will call those with attractive spouses lucky.  Some will refer to those who travel to exotic destinations lucky.

It may have a light intention, but the undertone of calling others lucky infers that they are chosen ones; they have had a much clearer and easier path to all the gifts that life has to offer.  Its overly oft use suggests that those who do not get these benefits are powerless in their pursuit of attaining them.  The luck moniker becomes a crutch for those that feel that the people who are excelling in life have had all the breaks.  It seems to be consigned to the category of “those who were born into an advantaged life”. 

To me, luck is a very relative term.  As the above debate between Han and Obi-Wan above suggests, it’s a matter of perspective.  It usually has a pejorative connotation for those who have succeeded in something most others don’t believe could have been done by those same people; ergo we dismiss it as luck.  It helps to rationalize a situation that others don’t believe they can do it themselves.  So say the naysayers and armchair quarterbacks.    

Certainly being born into better opportunity bears more possibilities and resources, but it’s what is done with those opportunities and connections that matters.  In truth, all it takes is one very strong and powerful connection that leads down the yellow brick road.  One “yes” will counter one thousand “no’s” when the yes is a very big yes.  Especially when that yes is shrouded in fear and doubt.  

The old Roman philosopher Seneca quipped: “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity”.  The preparation part is pretty simple in theory.  It’s quite hard, however, to see through and accomplish.  It takes dedication and time.  And time is our most precious resource.  It can never be made up or re-taken back.  

Ultimately, it’s a belief in oneself to create opportunities that make our lives better.  But the result of getting to the pinnacle of your craft, profession or journey is rooted in hard work and lots and lots of practice.  Practice + hard work = Preparation.  And the more prepared you are, the more knowledge and experience you attain.

And that, as Obi-Wan alluded to, is not luck.  And as corny and clichéd as it seems, it as true today as it was 50 years ago and even 500 years ago.  

When it comes to health, nutrition, fitness and longevity it’s usually about getting started and staked to a plan of action.  Once you can begin a program, lowering expectations and immediate outcomes is foremost in integrating the course of action to simply be.  The process can take over.  And the process of seeing a plan through is predicated on preparation and seizing the opportunity of now. 

We get one go around with these mechanisms we live in called our bodies.  We do not get to turn the clock back to be healthier when we were younger.  It gets harder as we get older and our muscles, bones, tissues and cells require the hard work and practice to work as efficiently as they can as we age.  Father Time takes can only be acquiesced slowly and he’ll return the favor with compassion.  

So while there are many out there who are intimidated by the lucky ones who are in good health and move well, know that this all didn’t happen by chance.  Yes genetics are involved when it comes to appearance and many biomarkers.  But that’s mostly what we observe.  It can’t be shared as a feeling of health, strength, vitality and mobility.   

All that being said, it’s about optimizing what we are born with and currently have.  The name of the game is maximizing what we have and making an exemplary creation of what our archetype is.  If we can excel with what we have, our bodies and minds will return the favor with the intangibility of happiness and satisfaction.  And that is not luck.  

We nearly always get what we ask for in life.  What we put out in the world comes back to us.  I do not believe that is luck.  I believe that is aggrandizing what gifts we already have.

In your experience, will you believe that others who do well only have luck on their side?  

Will you allow luck to take over or will you take over luck? -CT