National Blog Posting Month – December 2012 – Work
Prompt – Do you think this thought by Samuel Goldwyn is true? “The harder I work, the luckier I get.”
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When a person says they are ‘lucky,’ that means that fortunate events seem to happen to them. But luck isn’t some supernatural phenomenon. Luck comes from two sources, and maybe more.
First, how lucky you feel depends to a great degree upon how you relate and react to your world and events around you. If you are a naturally negative person, nothing good ever seems to happen to you (that you are aware of), and you consider yourself unlucky. If you’re a naturally positive person, then almost everything that happens can be seen in a positive light and you see yourself as lucky.
The other part of luck is putting yourself in a position where beneficial events can happen to you. When you work hard to promote yourself (directly) or your work, you increase the likelihood that someone might take notice and present you with an opportunity. If you tend to prefer to be hidden in your office or lab (or den), feverishly working on things that you’ll never share outside of your immediate family or work environment, it’s hard for ‘lucky’ things to happen to you.
This is why, over the last year, I’ve stuck my neck way out by using Twitter more and by posting frequently on and promoting my blog. And people have started to take notice. I don’t expect a book deal tomorrow. I hope maybe to get a book contract within the next few years, perhaps. But I don’t think any of that would be possible if I wasn’t out doing the cyber-legwork.
So, luck is what you make of it, I guess. But lucky situations seldom arise if we just sit back and wait for them. If I keep working hard, I think my luck will improve.
For 12-20-12
Penny Higgins - Storyteller • Artist • Scientist 
Keep in mind that one person’s definition of luck is quite different from another’s. I might be perfectly happy to work on things in my office or lab or den, and not have the world beat a path to my door. But the concept you’re presenting is still true. For me, luck comes from doing what I love, among other people who love it too, and recognizing opportunities to do more of it. That’s how I got into my current career, which pays very very well for the smattering of education I have. That’s also how I met my fiancee. Some people would consider me unlucky because I met her on a support forum for widows and widowers, but I look at even the sad and unpleasant moments of my life as 1) normal and 2) temporary. Remembering that “this, too, shall pass” helps keep your eyes open for opportunities for positive changes.
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