FEMI TAIWO ON MONDAY: Enhancing Serendipity (iii): Expect Great Things
A recap of the journey we have been on for a few months is in order. I started by saying we discount – or totally ignore – the role of luck in outcomes. I find this shocking because uncontrollable factors vastly outnumber controllable ones in almost every undertaking. I use the term luck as a catch all for these random occurrences. Can luck be increased? This was the natural question that followed. The answer is yes. We then started looking at the principles that lucky people live by. The first one was that lucky people create, notice and favorably respond to chance events. By maximizing their chances, they increase the likelihood of success. Also, lucky people take steps to boost their intuition. They engage in practices that clear their minds so that it can be receptive to answers.
Today, we consider a third principle: lucky people expect good fortune. Lucky people believe their best days are ahead of them. They know the best way to predict the future is to invent it. So they craft a simple working model of the future and live by that model. They take steps to boost their mental and physical health. They watch what they eat, listen to sound medical advice and rest and exercise as appropriate. They expect to live long, healthy and fulfilled lives. They expect people to be nice to them. They expect that doors will open for them. They see any obstacle as temporary and take a long term view when confronted with challenges. You want to be around them because they project a contagious optimism that is both uplifting and motivating. Their expectations also become self-fulfilling prophecies.
They go out and expect people to help them. Because of this, they display an open body language that projects self-confidence. Their voice is firm, their look is piercing and their outfit is sharp. People pick up on these intangible cues and respond positively to them. This then confirms what they expected in the first place. Expectations are self-fulfilling prophecies because perception is reality.
Lucky people persevere way more than unlucky folks because of their sanguine outlook. They know things will turn out well so they keep at it. And it is a law of life that when you ask, it shall be given to you, when you seek, you will find and when you knock, the door shall be opened to you. Because they expect good fortune, lucky people keep asking, seeking, and knocking until they succeed.
Expect good fortune is a super principle because it subsumes the previous principle of maximizing chance opportunities. Here is what I mean. If you expect good fortune, then you will act in ways that create chance events. For instance, you will be more outgoing and will deliberately try to meet more people. You will do this because you know you cannot keep doing the same things and expect different results. You will try new things and each new adventure carries a new lesson. The more you know, the more successful you will be. You will also notice these chance events when they appear because you are expecting them. And then of course, once you create and notice them, I expect you will respond to them i.e. asking for the job or a date.
My next article will discuss one more principle that lucky people live by and then we will recap, once more, the main points. I wish you a lucky life!
Great line of thought!