On perspective: How you can improve your luck in life

Do you feel lucky?

Here’s the good news. It’s simple. You can be more lucky in your own life straight away. Right after reading this blog post. You’ll need to get to grips with two points. Let me explain. First you need to accept that luck is all relative. Once you’ve mentally digested that your mind will be free to make your own luck. You can ramp up the mental dial to good fortune and prosperity. The world will be yours and everything in it.

The second and equally important point is that you will need to be active. Happiness and luck are often linked with each other. This is for a good reason. Human survival and success traits correlate with positive outlooks and enthusiasm. Luck is also associated with hard work. For many, there is a notion that you make your own luck in this world. Persistence generates luck. Optimism generates luck. Does this sound like you? If so, great. If not, have no fear. It’s all relative anyway.

Luck is relative

There is actually no such thing as ‘luck’. No tangible force. No measurable quantity. Nothing like that. There is only perspective and relative positions. Take this fable for illustration:

A long time ago a man in a village wins a high quality horse in an auction.
“What good luck” his neighbours remark.
“We’ll see” the man says.
The next day the horse bolts and runs far away from the man’s village.
“What bad luck” his neighbours remark.
“We’ll see” the man says.
That week the horse returns with a brood of healthy mares which the man can sell at a profit.
“What good luck” his neighbours remark.
“We’ll see” the man says.
The next day the man’s son goes riding on one of the horses and falls and breaks his arm.
“What bad luck” his neighbours remark.
“We’ll see” the man says.
That week a war breaks out and the army come to town conscripting able bodied young people but don’t take the man’s son due to his broken arm.
“What good luck” his neighbours remark.
“We’ll see” the man says.

Chinese Fable

On a long enough timeline the importance of any event is highlighted or diminished. This happens due to the ever-changing nature of the present. More good news here. You alone can decide how you interpret the happenings in your life. You can let things wash over you or let them motivate you.

There are an uncountable amount of things outside your zone of control. The weather, the current wars, the state of the nation, and a million historical factors that contribute to how you feel day-to-day. All uncontrollable events with an impact on the small bubble of reality you experience. There are however a few things inside your zone of control. Your attitude is one of them.

Take a deep breath and appraise your attitude to life. Are you a glass half empty or half full person? Are you all smiles or all doom and gloom? It doesn’t matter in the final analysis what type of person you are. You just need to be able to appreciate the importance of perspective.

For example, my house, my beloved first home, has filled up with clutter which is hard to dispense of. The junk in at least three rooms is getting overwhelming. They are full of plastic crap and soft toys. The plastic will one day be sold at a car-boot or garage sale, but the soft toys may have more permanence due to their sentimental significance.

Luck is change

Dinosaurs. Monsters. Pandas. Lions. Disney characters. Sea life. Think of a genre, there’s now a soft toy in our house related to it. Not so many bears though, times have moved on from traditional products. Today I learned that the commonly used phrase ‘Teddy Bear’ comes from the 26th President of the United States. It was Theodore Roosevelt’s nickname. Apparently he gave his blessing for stuffed animal makers to refer to their bears as ‘Teddys’ over one hundred years ago.

Although there’s this association with toys, Roosevelt was no soft-touch. Physically frail and asthmatic as a child he grew up to be fit and healthy. He overcame his initial ailments to be strong, active and preoccupied with the great outdoors. He became an advocate of physical athleticism and combat sports. One of his lasting contributions to the human psyche came when he was post-presidency and touring Europe. In 1910 he gave a speech that still resonates with entrepreneurs, athletes, and anyone facing impossible odds. He declared:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

Theodore Roosevelt

Luck is action

It is this knowing victory or defeat which brings colour to our endeavours. The point of life is to be in the arena. Not sniping from the sidelines. My contention here is that if one wants to be lucky, one needs to take action. Take action towards that which you believe in and remember to keep things in context. I have perspective on a cluttered house as it provides comfort and amusement to my infant children. I have perspective on the kids challenging medical conditions as there are examples of people who grew out of them.

When it all seems too much, I consider that luck is relative and with the passing of time comes perspective. Perspective is the key then to luck. Focus on the positives. Forget the naysayers, and persist with your causes. Put simply, continuously improve your perspective on life and you will become lucky.