What is Luck? And How Can We Use It?

Luck is a little four-letter word that holds a lot of weight in the world.

While we like to throw the word around, we struggle to know what it is.

What do we truly believe about it?

So, what is luck? 

Does it exist, and how does it affect your lives?

We tie luck to all kinds of ideas, beliefs, and superstitions:

• Breaking a mirror will bring you bad luck for seven years
• Beginners’ luck
• The #13 is unlucky
• Find a penny, pick it up, and all day long, you’ll have good luck
• A black cat is bad luck, but a rabbit’s foot brings you good luck
• Opening an umbrella indoors is bad luck

We also credit the success of others, or lack of it, to being lucky or unlucky.

You might also enjoy these Lucky Quotes to Make You Feel Good.

What is Luck?

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines luck as “a force that brings good fortune or adversity” and “to prosper or succeed, especially through chance or good fortune.”

Luck is nothing more than a way to explain away random things that happen in life that we have no control over.

It’s difficult for our minds not to have the answer to a question, so luck fills the gap.

For example, a wildfire comes through an area and burns every house but one.

We may view the one homeowner as lucky.

We do not understand why their house wasn’t destroyed like the others.

Or imagine if the shopper in front of you at a store wins a gift certificate for being the 100th shopper of the day.

Are they lucky?

Are you unlucky?

We can’t explain exactly why and how it happened, so we credit it to luck.

With that in mind, it’s safe to say that luck involves chance.

It’s unlikely to happen, can’t be expected, and has no concrete explanation.

Where does it come from?

If you believe the superstitions, you might credit your luck to many rituals or events in your life.

You broke that mirror when you were a teenager and then got rejected from the college you wanted to attend, even though you thought you were in for sure.

Or you picked a penny up at the start of the day before you won the free drink at the coffee shop.

But there’s also much to be said about the idea that luck can come from your mindset.

If you’re afraid that you have bad luck because you broke a mirror, you will look for the bad things happening to you.

If you think you have good luck for a certain reason, you’ll also look for how it’s showing up in your life.

Those same things may have happened to you regardless, but you’re not sure why, so you attach “luck” to it.

Luck may also come from actions that you’re not aware of.

For example, a student may appear lucky to attend a school with an outstanding education that sets them up nicely for life.

Is that luck?

Or is it possible that their parent worked hard and researched to get their child into an excellent system to give them a better opportunity?

What looks like luck for the student might directly result from purposeful action taken by the parent.

How does luck affect your life?

Luck can make us feel better about our situations.

Sometimes we use luck to comfort ourselves when we see someone achieving the success we would like to have.

They have the dream house, a great relationship, a perfect job, and the fun toys to go with it.

It can be a lot easier to believe that they were just lucky in life instead of believing that they’re just working harder in those areas to make it happen.

When we believe that we’re just unlucky, it makes life easier.

We don’t have to accept responsibility for our current life situation.

If we believe others are in a better position than us because they worked hard for it, we’re largely to blame for where we are.

If you choose to let luck dictate your life’s direction, you’ll leave your success or failure up to chance.

Instead, take action and play an active role in your life.

What role do you play?

Are you able to increase the good luck that you experience in life?

Or are you stuck with whatever comes your way?

If you believe that luck is simply random, uncontrolled things that happen in your life, then it’s easy to think there is nothing you can do about it.

While that may be the case for some things in life, there are ways we can work to improve our chances of being on the receiving end of fortunate events and situations.

Are you lucky to win the lottery?

Just by purchasing the ticket, you gave yourself a chance.

So, while you may feel “lucky” if you win big, it wasn’t a random event that happened to you.

Now, if a stranger gives you a million dollars for no reason, you could probably chalk it up to luck.

There are many ways that you can play an active role in achieving goals that might make others think you’re lucky.

Some common examples include:

• Practicing harder than others at a sport leads you to earn that athletic scholarship to a Division I school.
• Studying hard and building a strong network while in college leads to landing your dream job upon graduation.
• Starting a business and working long hours when others are having fun leads to a thriving business and people thinking you’re an overnight success.

While you can’t control what happens in your life, you play a bigger role in it than you might realize.

So, what’s the bottom line with luck?

It all boils down to the fact that you control your own luck in many ways.

Your mindset and beliefs lead you to take action (or not take action), which results in positive or negative situations.

However, some things appear to be random in life.

It might be a “right time, right place” situation or just luck.

But if true luck is something that you have no control over because it’s based purely on chance, then it’s really in your best interest not to spend too much time focusing on it.

Instead, work on developing positive thinking and a growth mindset.

This can help you create your luck by putting yourself into better situations where fortunate things are more likely to happen to you.

Why believe that the success of your life is left up to random events that occur instead of taking action to direct the path you want your life to be on?

Go out and create your luck!