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The more I practice, the luckier I get

The more I practice, the luckier I get

A sales person said this to me today, but it is pretty well true. The more good practice we have, the less variation in our performance and ultimately, we are far more prepared to take advantage of available luck - because we can move faster, stretch further, jump higher in whatever sense of skill we are training in. And, that means the lucky shots that would have passed by for being too fast high or wide of us, are within reach. And, we are more capable to make a dive, because we have free resources available, because we have automated the "close to home" factors.

I wish I was luckier!!

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Perhaps that means I don't have good enough skills, because I haven't practiced enough. Or, perhaps it is because I haven't practiced enough at the right thing, so I don't have the necessary resources to feed the outcomes I am looking for. Working hard is great - but not if working hard at the wrong thing.

I actually think that this is one of those situations where people say "when you die, you aren't going to wish you worked more" - and I call bullshit. Because, it matters what kind of work you are doing. I also call bullshit on the "Do what you love and you will never work a day in your life" saying. Instead;

Do what you love and you will never stop working for it.

"They are so lucky, they have a job that they love to do!"

Is it luck, or the right preparation? Sure, luck plays a massive role in all of our lives, but at an individual level, we can affect our outcomes through our own activities too, so that we self-directed to where we want to be and as we improve our skillsets in that area, we are prone to more luck, because more opportunities come into our awareness and our locus of influence.

OF course, we can't be lucky in everything and we can't stop bad luck, but we can increase our chances to the upside and decrease our exposure to the downside - it is essentially an investment with a greater return potential for our inputs, whilst mitigating risks. This sets up for a compounded return on our efforts, because even though we are investing more for a higher return, the more we invest, the safer the investment becomes.

It is like a relationship too, where if we are looking for a certain type of person, we increase our chances by being in circles that certain kind of person is more likely to frequent. If you love dancing and want a partner who dances, it is probably worth starting some classes or going to dance events.

I use that example, because I met my wife dancing.

It is good to practice enough first.

Luck is a funny condition, because from the outside at least, it really does seem that some people are for more likely to get a visit from Lady Luck than others and it is very likely true. But, it doesn't mean we can't influence our luck, which in essence, is creating our own luck out of thin air - or is it thick work.

The other day, I heard someone say how lucky another was for getting a promotion, as if the person had no hand in the result at all. It is like these things are made on coin tosses, but at least in most organizations, this is not the case. Another comment a couple weeks ago was on someone who was unlucky to get cancer, omitting the fact that they had been a heavy smoker for two decades.

Is luck involved?

Perhaps we don't define luck well, or conflate the outcome with it, minimizing the journey it took to reach that outcome. We look at a one hit wonder and scoff at their lack of talent, yet also fail to recognize that in order to get to that one hit, it likely took years of practice. It is the same for many skills people charge for - we minimize their value, because we are only evaluating the end result, not the work that went into it.

So, continuing on from yesterday's post on resources required to meet needs and wants,

Are you waiting for luck, or making it?

Taraz
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