Is luck a mindset? 3 ways to shift the odds in your favour

Do you believe in luck? If so, I wonder how much of your success, or lack of success, you attribute to good or bad luck? It's an important thing to think about from time to time because often it is our attitude to luck, rather than luck itself, that has the bigger influence over our lives.

To illustrate the point, here are three key issues associated with luck that we should all bear in mind:

Luck and perspective

Whether or not you think of yourself as a lucky person often has more to do with perspective than anything else. For example, an "unlucky" person might arrive late for work one morning, distraught that the bad luck following them around has led to their lovely new car being written off. But a "lucky" person might arrive at work after the exact same incident, amazed that Lady Luck was with them, allowing them to walk away from the accident without a scratch! Regularly counting your blessings has much to recommend it, and the positive emotions that come from feeling lucky in life are particularly beneficial. Our lives are often less determined by what happens to us and more by how we react to what happens to us.

The lottery of life

We all know the expression "you have to be in it to win it", but it doesn't just apply to the National Lottery. Footballers have a similar saying: "You'll never score if you never shoot!" We should remind ourselves of the simple truth behind both of these sayings every day. No matter who you are, if you want something to happen, you have to try. Whether it's finding a new job, starting a new relationship, or having a great new experience, the odds of that happening if you just sit at home waiting for the phone to ring are extremely small. We can all become "luckier" by shifting the odds in our favour and taking action to make our goals more attainable. Lucky people don't wait. They make good things happen by stepping out of their comfort zone and taking chances on a regular basis. They also increase their odds of success by sharing their goals with others, as you never know who might be able to help you or offer valuable advice.

Try and try again!

Here is an experiment for you to try involving two standard six-sided dice, where the goal is to roll a sum of seven. Before you start, decide how many rolls you would be prepared to commit to and still count yourself as "in luck" if you rolled at least one seven. One, two, three rolls, or even more? Now ask a few friends to do the same. Unsurprisingly, you will find that "unlucky" people often won't think of themselves as lucky unless they throw a seven on their first roll, where the probability is roughly 1 in 6 (16.7%). But "lucky" people improve their cumulative odds with every additional throw they commit to. For example, those who decide to roll the dice 4 times give themselves nearly a 50% chance (around 48%) of rolling at least one seven, and committing to 6 rolls raises those odds to over 66%. Lucky people improve their overall chances by staying persistent and not giving up after the first throw! Truly lucky people also seek to learn from each unsuccessful attempt, doing things slightly differently each time to improve the outcome. While changing tactics doesn't alter the math of rolling dice, it dramatically increases the likelihood of success for more complex real-life goals.

How coaching can help improve your luck

Coaching is a forward-looking process that involves helping you draw up an action plan that can transform your life, whether in a work or social context. As we have seen, taking the right actions and not giving up at the first setback dramatically increases your odds of success, making it look to the rest of the world as if your luck has suddenly changed for the better! Coaching can also help you see that true success is more about the way you live your life than the outcome of your actions. Or as one of my favourite sayings goes: "Happiness is a journey, not a destination!"