Is It Luck?

Have you ever heard someone look at a person who was successful in an area (money, marriage, fitness, etc.) and say that they were lucky?

I’ll be honest. I used to think that when I was younger. Some kids are just lucky and are born into rich families or some people are just born with good genes that make them more fit.

I now realize this is faulty thinking.

While there are definitely things that are outside of our control, most people end up right about where they expect or even could be expected by others.

Let’s take finances for example. I realize that people who do well financially have specific habits which cause them to have financial freedom. Here are some of the things they do:

Decide they are going to be rich
Work really hard
Stay positive even through the bumps
Focus on work while they are working
Spend less than they make
Invest
Stay away from debt

You see, these are all skills that can be learned. Someone can do this for 2 or 3 decades and someone will call them lucky. It really had very little to do with luck.

You see, everything is a probability and most people stack the deck against themselves.

If you were to consistently do the things above for a long time, there is a really good chance you’d wind up rich.

Let’s say on the other hand you:

Never really thought about where you wanted to wind up financially
Were lazy and mostly watched netflix and chilled
Were pessimistic
Rather than put your head down and worked, played with your phone
Borrowed money to live a lifestyle you really couldn’t afford

What do you think your chances of becoming rich would be then?

There will always be things that aren’t completely within our control like tax laws, the stock market, etc.

Rather than use that as an excuse, focus on what you can control.

When we assume someone is successful because of luck, it causes a negative cycle. Since we assume they are only successful because they’re lucky, we don’t implement the habits that will help us. Then we get poor results. Then we assume it’s because we’re unlucky. It’s a self fulfilling prophecy.

Rather than assume someone is lucky, try this instead. Within reason (becoming rich is within reason), whatever someone else can accomplish you can too if you want it bad enough.