Career Advice: Create your Own Luck

Price Pritchett talks about how luck is like a butterfly. It’s hard to know when it will float by or land. You can’t make it happen, but you can for sure encourage its positive force in your life.

In a workshop I ran a few weeks ago in Indiana, I discussed 5 ways to increase the possibility and probability of seeing your goals come to life, a.k.a. creating "luck."

I will dive into what I believe are 5 important drivers in the work therapy newsletter this week.

1. Know what you Want…Really!!

   Did you know that writing down your goals increases your chance of achieving them by 42%? Resources gravitate towards a defined destination. Take a sheet of paper and write the goals you want to achieve in as much detail as you can. Then place that goal somewhere you can see it every day. I have my goals on a huge post-it note in my office. You can’t miss it.

2. Relationships Matter

   Be someone who helps open doors for others. Stay in touch with your friends. Be a good and kind human. This will naturally increase your chances of a lucky break coming because of a relationship.

3. Look through the Lens of Possibilities in Setbacks

   When things don’t go the way I would choose, I remind myself that it is happening FOR me, not TO me. Failure is on the path to reaching your goals. There is no avoiding it. A question I like to ask myself is, “What is possible now?”

4. Make Requests

   Most acts of generosity are initiated by a request. “Direct requests account for 50% of all charitable donations in the United States.” And to be clear, you aren’t a charity, but don’t expect people to randomly show you acts of generosity without first making a request. Reaching your goals takes some guts. You’ve got this.

5. Don’t Give Up

   Ahh, now this one. This is GOLD. The road to growth is not linear. Life isn’t linear. You will have times where it seems nothing is going your way, and you will want to give up. This is when you lean into fortitude and take one step after another. Check out Abraham Lincoln’s journey!

TL; DR: We can’t control the butterfly, a.k.a luck, and make it land on our shoulders, but we can do things to increase our chances of getting lucky. Know what you want, be a good human who is generous with others, make requests when needed, and don’t give up!