What’s Luck Got To Do With It?

Today, over lunch, someone said to me, “You know, you’re very lucky to do a job that you love so much.”

“I suppose I am,” I replied.

I love what I do, but on reflecting, I’m not sure luck has anything to do with it.

Luck doesn’t get you out of bed at 5am. Luck doesn’t help you meet your deadline. Luck doesn’t plan and organise. Luck doesn’t get you in your car, to meetings, to coffee dates and out of your comfort zone.

I’m not sure that anything I’ve ever done has come down to luck. I am sure, however, that it has come down to hard work. Doing, not dreaming. Being proactive, not reactive.

And I’m pretty sure a lot of it has come down to love.

I don’t get the Sunday night dreads. I don’t roll over in the morning and snooze the alarm. I don’t dream and pine for the weekend. I don’t bitch and moan my way through the working week.

I genuinely love what I do.

I can’t think of an aspect of my job that irritates me.

I wish there were 48 hours in a day.

Work, to me, so often doesn’t feel like work. Even though I do feel challenged, and pressed for time, and occasionally overwhelmed, it’s not boring, or draining, or annoying.

I cannot imagine working so passionately, or happily, in a job I didn’t love so much. I can’t imagine doing anything else as a job.

Doing what you love has very little to do with luck; it involves a stack of self-belief. You can do anything in life, but not without spades of self-belief. I believe it’s belief itself that’s the biggest hurdle – if you believe in yourself, and what you do, then you can’t go wrong.

I know of some very brave people that have left day jobs in search of their dream career. They’ve taken salary cuts, moved homes, cities, countries and have adopted new lifestyles in the pursuit of happiness.

My parents always told me that it doesn’t matter what you do for a job in life – all that matters is that you love what you do.

And as long as I do what I love in life, I’ll be happy.

The thing I’ve realised is you make your own happy in life. You make your own luck. Fluke and chance and fortune are for fools. If you want something, go get it. If you love something, do it. All you need is to believe it.