Good Luck Is for the Doer

For the last two weeks, I have enjoyed reading St. Patrick’s Day children’s books with my three-year-old about finding four leaf clovers, rainbows,  pots of gold, catching leprechauns, trapping leprechauns, and parades. St. Patrick’s Day is  one of my favorite holidays. It’s festive with everyone in green, the heavenly sound of bagpipes, and delicious Irish soda bread covered in butter. We decorate ourselves with green beads and temporary shamrock tattoos. We celebrate how Irish we are and wish our American accents were as brilliant sounding as the Irish. All this celebrating and books about finding lucky four-leaf clovers bring the luck of the Irish to mind. We can have fun daydreaming about luck, but ultimately, luck is for the doer.

The Idea of Luck

Luck is the idea of something good or bad happening due to chance rather than by our own actions. When something good happens, we can say we got lucky, and when something bad happens, we can blame it on bad luck. It’s fun to think about getting lucky as it gives us hope that good things will come our way.

As kids, we played games of luck like Candy Land or Chutes and Ladders. When playing by the rules, these games have no strategy involved, so it comes down to who is the luckiest. Regardless of our actions in these games, the outcome is up to chance.

Then when we are older, we may dip our toes into gambling, the adult version of a game of luck. We may buy a lottery ticket or scratch off and hope we get lucky. We can strategize a little with what lottery tickets to buy and find the game with better odds. Or maybe we buy multiple lottery tickets to increase our chance of winning. However, whether we choose to use a coin or our finger to scratch off a ticket, our chances of winning are precisely the same. We can choose the numbers on the lottery ticket or we can have them picked at random, but it doesn’t matter. It comes down to luck.

Luck Is for the Doer

If luck is just left up to chance, then why not sit back and relax and hope that luck comes our way? Well, because luck is for the doer. If you sit back and relax and never buy a lottery ticket, I assure you, you will never win the lottery. You will also never win a dream vacation if you never enter a contest. And that concept goes for the big stuff too.

Luck is for the doer. It is for the person who puts themselves out there. You must create opportunities for yourself to attract the tiniest bit of luck. No one is going to walk up to you and offer you your dream job if you are doing absolutely nothing about it. You will never win a marathon if you don’t ever enter a race.

While there is a great deal in life we cannot control and is out of our hands, there is a lot we can control about our own actions. We can put ourselves in situations that allow us to obtain what we want.

If we are looking to find love, we can find ways to meet people. If we are looking to start a career, we can work on building new skills. By putting ourselves in these new situations, we are putting ourselves in a position to find a little bit of luck.

We Have to Keep It Up Too

So, you put yourself in the situation to find a little bit of luck. Now we wait? No.

While we can believe in luck, we can’t rely on it. Thomas Jefferson said, “I’m a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.” If we want something, we must go after it, and we have to be persistent and dedicated. We can’t expect to take only one exercise class and magically meet our fitness goals. We can’t expect to cook one new exotic dish at home and become an award winning chef overnight. It is very doubtful that one act will let us reach our goals.

We must commit to what we want and be ready to persist regardless of adversity. With persistence, we might find a little bit of luck to help us along. As an example, we can commit to going to the gym regularly to improve our health. If we continue to work at it, maybe we produce a little luck, and our fitness goals will be reached just an ounce easier than we thought they would be.

When you put yourself out there, you will be met by forces we can’t control, such as life. It may come in the form of good luck or bad luck. But regardless of what kind of luck hits you first, you must keep striving.

If you are stuck in your groundhog grind, it is unlikely that luck will fix it. But if you work to get yourself out and allow yourself to be in new situations and give yourself new opportunities, we can hope that a little Irish luck will come your way.

Thank You for Reading

Now I want to hear from you! Do you believe in luck? Was it hard work or luck that brought you to where you are in life?

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