Do you feel lucky?

art of encore living personal development tga Sep 07, 2022

What is luck?

It helps to start with what luck is not.

What I notice is that luck is often confused with fate.

Fate is what is happening now. A moment predetermined by destiny (what's going to happen).*

Maybe luck is simply a story—a narrative we make up and tell ourselves about a fated moment.

Stories are how humans have always made sense of our situation, ourselves, and other people.

Narratives are emotionally freighted and quickly lead to value judgments.

Someone in line in front of us purchases the last cinnamon roll we really wanted. We get pulled over and ticketed for an out-of-date inspection sticker on our car. The client we were sure would pick us picks a competitor.

And with frustration, anger, and disappointment, we silently exclaim, "Oh, woe is me! Why doth fate so perniciously conspire against me? I'm destined to rot and ruin."

Okay, maybe I'm the only one whose internal dialogue sounds like it's spoken by a genteel middle-English lord in a Shakespearean play...

My point is, that while destiny may have bestowed fated moments upon us, we still have a role to play in our lives.

Could we not have planned to arrive at the pastry shop sooner? Did we really need that cinnamon roll, or were we engaging in unhealthy emotional eating? This moment may be an opportunity to practice acceptance or restraint.

Choose your story, choose your future.

What if, just for today, you stopped acting like luck was something that happened for or against you and instead accepted what is and planned and executed what's next with more integrity and intention? How might that change your luck?

* More on fate and destiny here.


Scott Perry, Encore Life Coach at The Art of Encore Living

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