Enhancing Your Luck
– by Coach Colle Davis
The odds are stacked against you for making it as far as you have made it in this life. Congratulations.
In the brilliant book Fooled by Randomness by N. N. Taleb, he points out that what we see as success is random luck attributed to being in the right place, at the right time, with the right attitude, and a willingness to take a risk. His contention is this confluence of randomness (where you occasionally win) makes you think you are more intelligent, more talented, or sneakier than everyone else. You weren’t, you were simply lucky.
The chances of you developing a life of success from the initial union of your parents is low. It is all a crap shoot, a lucky happenstance of circumstances, then a successful gestation period to get you here. Then to survive childhood, school, and the tribulation of being a teenager may make you think you are unique. Statistically, you are an anomaly. Considering the alarming new rate of children doing self-harm or committing suicide, the cohort group coming up will continue to shrink because they don’t think they are lucky. Sad.
“According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), rates of suicide attempts and deaths among children have increased in the U.S. over the past decade, and suicide is now the eighth leading cause of death in children age 5–11.”
– National Institute Health, December 14, 2021
You survived. You are here today because of luck.
Has this dreary scenario dragged you down, or cheered you up? Remember, if you are here, you have been extremely lucky. You can celebrate and continue to read, or you can bemoan your plight and go sulk on the couch watching Netflix while cursing your fate.
When you acknowledge that scary new fact, the real work of enhanced luck can begin. Ready?
What has to happen for your luck to ‘improve?’
First, you must know 1) where you want to be, and 2) what you want for an outcome. Knowing the answer to these questions tells your subconscious the messages regarding what is important to you.
For clarity, let’s name your subconscious Creek because it is always flowing from your thoughts to its natural state of autopilot or our absence of conscious thought. Creek’s preferred pronoun is ‘it.’
Here’s a trick: give Creek a task and let it do its job without you having to think about it consciously. Allow me to repeat: Remain clear and consistent with 1) where you want to be and 2) what you want for an outcome.
Creek is poor at controlling emotions. However, Creek can be swayed by your emotions whether they are positive or negative, etc. Emotional control is tricky because Creek (remember, you do not control this resource) sometimes wants your attention, and the only way it has to make you react is to make you feel something. Creek may trigger fear, excitement, dread, sadness, physical sickness, or even depression. All of these are on tap at a moment’s notice.
Now comes the tough part. Your outcome/goal must be tangible in some form. Your requests expressed to Creek must be physical manifestations (the dream job, the new red super car, the lover). Feelings are NOT allowed. See, you thought this would be easy. Read what you’ve written occasionally to remind Creek of its task, and then sail into success.
The challenge for creating outcomes is taking wishful thinking out of it. You must produce the outcome on your own, using your resources, in a reasonable time frame.
For example: What are the requirements for your dream job/promotion? What resources do you control that you can use to be considered and hired/promoted to the dream position? These may include skills, talents, abilities, credentials, or contacts. How do you leverage them to your advantage?
Or how about quitting your current job? Same process. What do you want for an outcome? Give the task to Creek for seven days and see what shows up in your world.
Trusting your gut means trusting the input as it arrives. Sometimes it is incomplete, you can still bring resources into play to advance your outcomes.
Now go write down your desired outcome and take the rest of the day off while Creek does its work.
For more help, encouragement, or to turbocharge your life, call or email me.Colle Davis is a Senior Level Master Coach and Certified Hypnotist with over 30 years of helping corporate clients. Reserve your free twenty-minute Zoom call with me, and your life will never be the same. 804-467-1536 EST cdavis@mycoach.com In the meantime, stay safe and have fun.