8 Small Life Shifts That Can Help You Escape A Bad Luck Spiral
You can change your life by taking that first little step.
progressman | Shutterstock Luck plays a significant role in the life of any successful person. Hard work is essential, but a little good fortune goes a long way in being successful. Studies suggest that people more inclined to notice, create, and act on opportunities are often considered lucky. They may also persevere in the face of failure and take more calculated risks. Luck is the result of the higher-order effects of your actions, and the quality of your actions determines the type of luck you’ll experience. Purposeful, constructive actions create good luck. Aimless, overly indulgent actions create bad luck. Useful actions create useful ripples. Destructive actions create destructive waves.
The easiest way to reduce your misfortune is to stop doing things with an objectively negative outcome. Most of the misery you experience can be avoided if you simply learn to delay gratification, plan for the future, and learn to be uncomfortable. If you stopped doing these things, your quality of life would skyrocket, and you would eliminate almost every avenue where bad luck can enter your life.
Here are eight small life shifts that can help you escape a bad luck spiral:
1. Always be ready to take advantage of opportunities
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"Luck is when opportunity meets preparation." Once you select a goal, you must work relentlessly on achieving it. This ensures that you are ready whenever you get an opportunity to advance on it.
Imagine being a writer, waiting for your big break. If you have a finished manuscript, you meet an agent who has an excellent opportunity for you.
Meeting this agent may be a random encounter. It may be a result of you putting the first principle into action. Regardless, you've wasted an opportunity because you weren't prepared.
Preparation is a result of dedication to your craft. By constantly improving, you will always be ready for any opportunity.
2. Change your perspective on hardship
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There is always a way to see hardship as an opportunity. The old saying is that "luck is where preparation meets opportunity." The saying is true, but what is often forgotten is that opportunity is in the eye of the beholder.
Where the unlucky person sees a setback, the other sees a setup. Where the unlucky person sees a tragedy, the other sees an opportunity to triumph.
The beautiful thing about sudden hardship is that it’s often the only way to force growth in areas where you’ve become comfortable. Your weak traits, inadequate abilities, and insufficient resources are exposed for the first time.
Changing your perspective about the event that appears to be bad luck doesn't turn it into something you'd consider good luck. However, it allows you to see it as an opportunity to fix something that will improve you.
By reinterpreting challenges as opportunities for growth and learning, you can reduce stress, enhance resilience, and ultimately improve your overall quality of life. A 2022 study concluded that this belief fuels your motivation to overcome obstacles and achieve your goals.
3. Take more chances
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If your batting average is .400 in major league baseball, apparently, this is excellent (please forgive me, baseball fans. I don't know the game well at all). This means that if you got up to bat ten times, you'd hit the ball four times.
We don't know which of those four hits will be home runs or base hits. You still have to swing to make something happen.
Your "batting average" is–more or less–fixed. Since you’ve maxed out on skill and preparation, the only way to get more opportunities is to swing more often. Instead of 10 times, get up to bat 100 times.
There’s a much greater chance that one of the 40 hits will be a home run compared to just the 4.
The luckiest people are always looking for a way to show off what they can do.
Having skills is one thing, but marketing and selling them is another. You must find every way to display who you are and what you can do.
4. Help people when it costs little or nothing to do so
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We do things without awareness of how far our actions will reach, in time or space. While we don't know what they will affect, we know there will be reactions. In many ways, this is just another phrasing of the concept of luck.
The best way to take advantage of this is to protect yourself from the consequences of abusing it. You don't have to bend over backward to help people. However, if it only costs you a small amount of time/money to make a disproportionately large difference, do it.
You never know when or how this person may be able to help you. It should also go without saying that kicking people while they're down is entirely unacceptable.
Helping others makes you luckier and makes you a better person. Seriously, the reward for helping is the feeling of being helpful.
An unintended benefit (the “k” in the “n+k” formula) is that it makes people more likely to help you. It also makes it less likely that they will try to set you back.
A 2018 study on altruism found that acts of kindness trigger the release of feel-good chemicals in the brain, which can reduce stress, boost mood, and increase feelings of happiness and connection. Acts of kindness can create a sense of reciprocity, where others are more likely to help you in return.
5. Be likable
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No one is saying to be a brown-noser, but don't underestimate the power of likability. If you know how to make people like you, it’s amazing how much luck you'll have and the trouble you'll avoid.
When people like you, they want you to like them. My experience has been that no one is immune to this rule of human interaction. They will give you more opportunities to gain your approval and prevent others from taking yours. Not only will you get more tries at bat, but a benefit of likability is that it "shortens the field."
People are more likely to make exceptions, give you bonus points, or help you succeed despite yourself.
6. Use leverage
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You still have your name when you don't have anything to your name. Make sure it's worth something. In some circles, your reputation is the only currency accepted.
Understanding this idea is an excellent base for building any number of skills. When you have a solid reputation, you will get opportunities to be around people. With this exposure, you can build networks and build your value in a variety of ways.
If you're only good at one thing, don't worry about it. You'll use this thing to leverage your money and time. The better you are at your skill, the more ways you can leverage it into money and manpower.
People never consider this a way to get lucky, but it always pays off. You can take advantage of trade and acquire resources when you're good at something. Employment is nothing more than an exchange of skills or time for money.
By focusing on areas of competence and expertise, individuals can achieve goals more efficiently and experience greater fulfillment. A recent quasi-experimental study found that this also involves utilizing relationships, skills, and other assets to achieve more with less effort, leading to increased productivity and satisfaction.
7. Take calculated risks
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The safest path is the surest path. It's the one most people go down, and it's the reason most people, almost by definition, aren't lucky. They do not expose themselves to volatile events, preferring a life with little chance to mess up but little opportunity to excel.
Lucky people always take risks. Unlucky people don't.
One of the things that I love about entrepreneurship is the thrill of betting on myself and my abilities. Some people feel it's too risky to live like this, but taking calculated risks is a defining trait of entrepreneurs.
We make calculated moves, but still don't have a guaranteed positive outcome. We do things that most people shy away from, so we end up with chances that most people never get.
This isn't doing what's difficult so much as it's doing something where there's a chance you can lose big. A basic example is someone who starts a business. Getting a job is safer and easier, but there is also less reward (with less freedom).
To increase your luck, learn to eat a healthy amount of risk.
8. Nurture your relationships
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People are the most important thing. Being likable with the public is important, but your friends require a higher degree of authenticity. They'll be there with you through thick and thin and want to see you win.
This is, of course, assuming you pick the right friends. Selecting the right friends is beyond this article, but know that doing so makes you incredibly lucky. They will come through for you when you need it and least expect it.
The basic idea is simple: Stop doing stuff that initiates bad luck. Do more of the stuff that generates good luck.
Ed Latimore is a retired American professional boxer, influencer, and best-selling author. His work focuses on self-improvement and a practical approach to stoic philosophy.
