Making Your Own Luck

Be gracious to me, O Lord, for to you do I cry all the day. Gladden the soul of your servant, for to you, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you. (Psalm 86:3-5 ESV). Happiness and success don’t come from luck. Psychologist Martin Segilman of the University of Pennsylvania advised the MetLife insurance company to hire a special group of job applicants whom tested high on optimism, although they had failed the normal aptitude test. Compared with salesmen, who passed the aptitude test but scored high in pessimism, this group made 21 percent more sales in their first year and 57 percent more in their second. A pessimist is likely to interpret rejection as meaning “I’m a failure; I’ll never make a sale.” Optimists tell themselves, “I’m using the wrong approach,” or “That customer was in a bad mood.” By blaming failure on the situation, not themselves, optimists are motivated to make that next call. Zig Ziglar may be one of the most well known motivational speakers in the country. He is also a very faithful Christian. He said, “I’m so optimistic I’d go after Moby Dick in a rowboat and take the tartar sauce with me. Winners see luck as opportunity. They see the rewards of success in advance. They do not fear the penalties of failure.” The winning individual knows that negative thinking attracts bad luck and that an attitude of optimistic expectancy is the surest way to create an upward cycle and to attract the best of luck most of the time. Winners know that so-called luck is the intersection of preparation and opportunity. If an individual is not prepared, he or she simply does not see or take advantage of a situation. Opportunities are always around, but only those who are prepared utilize them effectively. Winners seem to be lucky because their positive self-expectancy enables them to better prepare for their opportunities. When asked by a news reporter how she thought she would do in one of her early career swimming meets in the United States several years ago, 14-year-old Australian Shane Gould replied, “I have a feeling there will be a world record today.” She went on to set two world records in the one-hundred and two-hundred-meter freestyle events. When asked how she thought she would fare in the more testing, grueling, four-hundred-meter event, Shane replied with a smile, “I get stronger every race, and besides ... my parents said they’d take me to Disneyland if I win, and we’re leaving tomorrow!”She went to Disneyland with three world records. At 16 she held five world records and became one of the greatest swimmers of all time, winning three gold medals in the 1972 Olympics. She learned early about the power of self-expectancy. And, besides all of this, since God walks beside us, how can we fail? Trust in His strength, move forward, and you will find success! Maybe it’s time to go fishing… oh, don’t forget the tartar sauce!