Luck is only a matter of chance

The term ‘luck’ can be defined as:

1. Good things that happen by chance; or
2. Chance considered as a force that causes good or bad things to happen.

In both the above definitions I have stressed the word ‘chance’ because that is exactly what luck is.  Luck cannot be made or earned.  It is something you have by fortune, or destiny if you will, but not because of anything that you do.  Our lives are not perfect mathematics.

How can every single aspect of our lives be planned out?  Think of winning the jackpot in a casino or having a royal flush in a poker game.  Those things are definitely not planned - you are just plain lucky in those situations.

I definitely do not consider myself a lucky person.  I never win any prizes or competitions.  The fact is, there is nothing I can do to change those outcomes.  If people really believed that luck wasn’t a matter of chance, but instead that people who worked hard were the ones that were lucky, why would they still wish others “good luck” for something, or knock on wood to not jinx something that they have just said or heard?

Sir Isaac Newton discovered gravity.  He did this by an apple falling on his head.  I don’t think he planned for that to happen.  He was just in the right place at the right time – as fate or chance would have it.

People very often confuse luck for reward or credit that they have received as a result of their hard work.  From my point of view luck is an unknown an unpredictable phenomenon that causes something to happen, and is not determined by your hard work.

Suffice to say that I can work as hard as I want, but I will still, unfortunately, not win the lottery!