We are continually hoping that our luck is good for much of our lives and it will bring us good fortune. Unfortunately, I have found over my life that there is no such thing as luck. Events occur, and we assign the value to them. They are not going to be to your liking simply because you have a lucky rabbit’s foot or find a four-leaf clover.  Luck doesn’t exist.

Luck is defined as success or failure due to chance rather than through one’s own actions.  I will admit that luck can be a compelling force in your life if you want to look at life this way. However, if you bow down to luck, you have to concede that you are generating its power, not luck itself.

Every other Step Skipped

My first superstition, I came up with on my own and for no apparent reason that I can remember, but when I was a kid, I would always go upstairs two times. If I didn’t skip a step on any stairs, it would mean bad things would happen. I can remember doing this as early as 5 years old and, to some degree, maintaining it through high school. Yes, I skipped a lot of steps.  The thing about it was, things happened regardless of how many steps I skipped. Some were pleasant; some were not so pleasant.  Even though it was clear to me that skipping a step wasn’t excellent luck, I continued to do it because it gave me the illusion of control. That is important for people when they feel powerless, I think.  Eventually, I just accepted that good and bad thing happen every day, and my skipping steps weren’t going to help the Red Sox win the World Series.

I have come to realize that it is how I think about things that count. Stuff is always happening around me, and since I live in the world, I am a part of some of it.  Some things are good for me and some that are not, but they are all just things.

You get experiences from them, but it is not luck.   If an asteroid falls from the sky and lands on you, you might consider that bad luck, but perhaps the lesson you were teaching was not for you but for others who know you.  Enjoy life and make every moment you have special because you never know when you will be struck by an asteroid and be killed.   That is the way of things, and it is how you think about things that count, not luck.

********Note on October 12, 2004, I was heading home to watch the Red Sox play the Yankees in game 7 of the American League Championship Series. I stopped at a store on the way home with a moderate number of steps.  Thinking it couldn’t hurt, I skipped steps for the first time in many years.  The Red Sox won and went on to win the World Series for the first time in 86 years.  I was sure my old stand by superstition was responsible.

What’s Your Lucky Number?

Numbers were always a superstitious thing for me as an athlete.  A good number would mean success and a bad one tragedy.  I had many good numbers in a lot of different sports and still remember every number I had on every team I ever played on ever.  My top number was 10. I for some reason, I felt like I could overcome anything wearing this.  The second was 17, which I loved because it belonged to my favorite Celtic.  The third was number 4 because it seemed extremely lucky for me.

Now I do not believe any luck in numbers because as I look back on the hard work and desire I had when those good things happened, that was a lot more to blame for my success than any number.  Other than a mental edge or positive thinking, no reason wearing one number or another has any impact on your performance or the outcomes of contests at all.  It is how you think that counts.

Hold Your Breath Now

There are several superstitions that you can look at that I have participated in my life.  When riding on the bus as a kid, it was “lucky” to raise your feet off the floor, cross your fingers and hold your breath as you rode past any graveyard.  I always did this, but only because everyone else did it, not for luck.  Often I would breathe and touch the floor to see what happened.  Nothing ever did.

Walking down the sidewalk in my little hometown, I would avoid stepping on the cracks.  But really, after a while, there were places with a lot of cracks, and you really couldn’t avoid stepping on one here or there.  As I already stated, I was a cautious stepper by nature.  Yet even though I occasionally put my foot on a crack on the sidewalk, nothing untoward ever happened to my mother’s back or anybody else’s anatomy.

I Walk Under Ladders

This superstition made little sense to me. Even though many things can happen if you walk under a ladder, neither good nor bad fortune is dictated by it. In fact, as a college student, I worked for a contractor in the summer, and we often used ladders. I walked under them all of the time on purpose, and nothing at all ever happened because of it.

Now someone might argue that your life isn’t over yet, and bad luck could reign down on you at any second. I don’t worry about that because I have constructed a necklace made of four-leaf clovers that I wear at least once a week to combat any bad luck I may have built up over the years.   I walk under ladders because there is no such thing as luck. It is all how you think about it that counts.

There is no way that you can convince me of the existence of luck in any way, shape, or fashion.  Some things happen, and we evaluate their value-based almost solely on how they influence us individually. The good news is that you don’t need luck. What you think about your life and your experiences is much more powerful than a lucky number or action could ever be.  Choose to think positively and see the good in events, and they will most often seem “lucky.”