Leave Luck

Once people start discussing luck, I shut up and leave.

image: cashartblog.com

Not that I don't believe in luck. Not that I don't sometimes wish that I get lucky. The truth is: every time I check my blog subscribers count, I'm always hoping some luck will hit my blog and my subscribers count will double overnight. 

This past 8 months, traffic to my blog has been more than 3 times what I had for the entire first 4 years of the blog. And after thinking hard about it, I could only attribute it to luck. And the sometimes amazing posts I now write, I also attribute to luck (I remember calling it the luck within).

To me, luck is some external factor you can't control. No amount of thinking about it or analyzing it can make you get more than someone else who's actively living his life, trying this and that.

I have this wonderful list of all the cool ideas that cross my mind. But luck is not there. I plan my life like luck doesn't exist. If I'm doing times 4 of what other people are doing and I'm seeing much less result, I don't feel luck has been unfair to me or think others are just lucky. I even don't feel sad about it, I just keep following my plan and making fact-based changes to the plan.

I leave luck out. 

You will never find me call into a quiz show saying, "I'm not lucky with numbers, just give me any question that has not been picked." Or, "This is my luck dress. It always bring me good luck."

The only thing I do with luck is to include it in my blog posts once in a while, and I love asking people to wish me luck when I have made up my mind to take a life-altering decision. 

Everyday I meet people who have tied their dreams to luck. They'll say, "If only God will touch someone to give me N2 million. I will start that business I have always wanted to start and my life will never remain the same." And I think to myself, if God has been good enough to show me the exact figure I need to change my life forever, I wouldn't wait for luck at all. I will save up to that N2 million and go after my dream life. 

And there are those who love attributing other people's success to luck. They'll tell all the different points in Dangote's life that he got extremely lucky. Everyone that's richer than them is simply lucky. And they will diligently prove it to you. 

Luck is a wind. As long as you are outside it will blow on you, someday. But you can't get more of it than someone else by always thinking about it. It's the wrong way to go through life. As long as you live a life that keeps you outside and active, trying new and challenging things, you will get all the luck you will ever get. And no amount of analyzing luck can increase it a bit. Rather you should try to get for yourself everything you wanted luck to get for you. 

Leave luck out of your plans. Let your thoughts about luck only point out the things you badly want.

When I discovered that I wanted my blog subscribers to double so badly that I sub-consciously was hoping luck would do it for me. I immediately set out to do it for myself, to stop tying something that mattered greatly to me to luck. I set-up a facebook advert to get more blog subscribers. After spending about N3,000, I discovered I didn't want it that badly anymore. I became happy once again. No more feeling sad and waiting for luck. Until yesterday, when my subscribers hit 700 and I began wishing it will hit 1000. Then I remembered my expensive N3,000 facebook adverts and the wish vanished. I'm no longer in a hurry.

And so my special advice for you today -- Leave Luck.