I’m sure all of us can think of at least one person who just seems so lucky and has everything working out great for them. Luck can often seem supernatural and completely out of our hands. That logic is thankfully not the reality. Sometimes luck just seems to hit randomly but in the long-term you can actually create luck within your own life. The people who you think are so lucky have likely learned to just put themselves out there and take risks, embrace opportunities and work hard. Luck exists everywhere and there is plenty of luck to go around. Below are some amazing ways to create your own luck in your life.
1. Appreciate how lucky you are right now. Your thoughts have incredible power over how lucky you feel right now. You can either see the glass as half full or as half empty. Take time each day to count your blessings and appreciate the luck you do have. Even when a situation didn’t go as well as you hoped, keep remembering how lucky you are. You were one of the finalists at a recent writing competition but not the winner. Focusing on the fact that you didn’t win, prevents you from appreciating how amazing it is that you were a finalist. Luck appears in your life even in the smallest ways. You are lucky to be alive. You are lucky to be healthy. You are lucky to have people who love you and care for you. You are lucky to go to work today. Count your blessings because you do have many.
2. Broaden your social circle. Be open to meeting new people, especially people who share your passions and interests. When you make connections with new people, you increase the odds for luck to happen. You never know who you might meet and how that specific person will play a part on your journey through life.
3. Strengthen connections with your loved ones. Although you should be open to meeting new friends, appreciate and nurture the people in your life who genuinely love and care about you. Don’t neglect those people because these are the people who will be there for you and support you. Your relationships with loved ones is very powerful and should never be disregarded. Feel free to invite your new friends into your support network as well. Allowing those circles to overlap can create opportunities in unexpected ways.
4. Remove toxic people from your life or limit contact with them. Sometimes the thing that repels luck is being surrounded by people who don’t care about you and want you to fail. Toxic people may not always be so obvious. Be wary of people who tend to encourage you to partake in activities and situations that are harmful or seem jealous of your successes in your career, love life and so on. Toxic people will often try to sabotage you having luck just so that you can both be miserable together. These are people who do not really care about you and are more concerned with themselves, but again, toxic people may not be so obvious and can be manipulative. They often use their unhappiness to manipulate you. Remove negative people from your life or at the very least, keep your contact with them to the bare minimum.
5. Help others. Being kind to others can help us keep perspective and realize how lucky our lives are. Even your ability to help and support others can help you realize how much you already have in your life. You have an abundance of resources to give to others whether that’s your talent, skill, time, knowledge, money or your empathetic personality. Helping others provides you with an opportunity to develop a strong relationship with that person. Often times these people may be there for you whenever you need it, however try to not give with that in mind. Give without expecting anything in return.
6. Take chances. Step outside your comfort zone. Take a risk. The people who tend to be the luckiest are not afraid of taking reasonable risks. You don’t have to take a risk that could have a major negative repercussion on your life, but instead start small. Take small chances, so even if you lose, it’s a small loss and something that will not inhibit you from moving forward. As you get more comfortable taking chances, you’ll be able to continue to take risks and realize you’ll learn something and grow even if the outcome is not what you expected. Your life will essentially stay at a standstill when you don’t take chances. Take action and do something.
7. Surprise yourself. Do something completely random, something you may actually think you may not even like or something that is a bit out of the norm. Do something that when you think back to the experience, you are genuinely surprised that you did that activity. Say yes, even when you normally say no. Decide to do something that feels really scary whether that is jumping out of an airplane, public speaking or signing up to run a race. Surprising yourself can also involve ditching a routine, just for a little bit. Instead of always going out to the same place with your friends, go somewhere different. Try on a different outfit today instead of wearing the same clothes. Talk to someone new instead of gravitating towards the same people. Stepping into something completely new and different opens up more opportunities for luck.
8. Be resilient when bad things happen. Life is not easy for anyone. The best things in life often take hard work, perseverance and dedication. Keep pushing through even when life feels like it’s pushing against you. Keep a positive attitude and believe that you will get through this tough phase of life. When you push through the bad times, you realize you have control over luck. You can create luck, even from a bad situation. You can learn something from a negative experience. And even when the immediate outcome isn’t positive, down the line you might be surprised at how this negative experience led to something more positive then you could ever imagine.
9. Keep learning. Luck can often arise from preparation. Brush up on your skills, learn something completely new and different, or make an effort to learn something from successful people in your life. Lucky people often have skills and knowledge that they can share with you. Be open to learning from these people. Be open to taking classes, reading a book and empowering yourself to continue learning no matter the stage you are at in your life.
10. Use life lessons to make better decisions. Albert Einstein said, “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Everything in life offers us an opportunity to learn and make better choices. Recognize when you are not adopting the lesson and falling into the same patterns, same negative thinking and making the same mistakes. Learning and applying life lessons allows you to have good luck in your life. Sure you may get sad or upset when something unexpected happens but there is always a life lesson from that experience that can be applied in the future.
11. Be authentic. Live authentically and listen to your heart. Denying what you truly want in your life can repel luck. You might be chasing after someone else’s dream or sabotaging what you truly want just because you are not being authentic with yourself. Be calm, relax and be honest with yourself. Follow your intuition and your passions, and you are more likely to attract luck within your life.
12. Be aware of opportunities. Listen, be open and aware of your surroundings. Ask people if they have heard of any new opportunities. Sometimes luck happens when you make yourself aware of opportunities, small or large. This week I found out something great about applying for my permanent residency in Australia. I would not have found out about this opportunity if I had not asked someone going through a similar process. Luck might actually be right in your grasp, but making yourself aware of opportunities will increase the likelihood that you will realize it.
13. Be flexible. If you have a full calendar that has very little leeway, then you might be taking too much control over your life. If you read through some of these points and thought, “that all sounds great, but I have no time” then your life lacks flexibility. Having a flexible schedule allows room for luck because you are creating room to build new connections, strengthen existing relationships, learn something new and take on a fun hobby. Being flexible may not be easy at first, but it is necessary to allow luck into your life.
14. Treat people kindly and with respect. Keep a positive and kind attitude towards everybody. Try an exercise and see what happens. For a full week, treat everyone with love, kindness and respect. You will likely be surprised at how much positive your interactions are with those people and that respect can often make a huge difference between success and failure. When you approach situations with kindness and respect, you create a bigger circle of people who are your supporters.
15. There is never a final destination. Luck is never in short supply. Whatever dreams you achieve, there will always be new opportunities for growth and learning. Thankfully there doesn’t have to be an end to luck. You can keep creating luck, even when things are going wonderfully.
Luck is really up to you. Luck doesn’t just have to fall into your lap. Go forth and create your own luck!