3 Ways to Make Your Own Luck

Are successful people lucky? Perhaps. But there’s no reason to envy their luck when you can make your own. Take these first steps:

1. Pretend someone else is doing your job. How would you critique that performance? How would you advise someone else doing your job? When you look at your work objectively, you will see your errors more clearly and your path to improvement will be clear.
2. Commit to improvement, every day. It’s good to set big goals, but if that’s all you have, then you have far to many excuses to put off improvement for another day – when you have more time, more resources, etc. Instead, commit to doing one thing, every day, that will improve your performance. Commit to getting to work five minutes earlier. Commit to speeding your performance by five minutes. Commit to making one more call, completing one more task. Success (and that lucky break) is created out of the accumulation of many 0.01% improvements.
3. Measure your results. Don’t wait for your annual review to analyze your performance. Measure your results frequently – daily, weekly, monthly. Are you meeting your goals? Why? Why not? What are you doing that works? What can you do tomorrow that will improve your performance? Measure your rivals. What are they doing that can inform your work? Measurement is the process that allows you to be honest with yourself about how you are really doing.

Luck is not magical occurrence. It is the opportunity that comes to those who are focused, ambitious, methodical and prepared. These are the individuals who move themselves closer to their lucky break every single day. Standing on the sidelines, envying someone else’s luck will not move you forward. Instead, make changes in your own daily behavior and make your own big break.

Photo credit: Ogiyoshisan
https://flic.kr/p/hx7XCG