How is it that some people just seem lucky when it comes to their career growth? According to Psychologist Richard Wiseman, who has been studying luck for decades, states that “in business and in life luck isn’t something that happens to you, it’s something that you look out for, and in looking out for it, participate in the creation of.”
When you feel stuck in your career with little expectation for growth, it can be easy to spot colleagues who appear as though they have the perfect job. It seems like their career is a perfect fit and promotions follow them wherever they go. How did they get so lucky to end up with a perfect job?
Those who seem fortunate in their careers usually have several factors in common, one of which is taking action toward their goals. When you visualize luck as a mystic process that happens to a few people, you end up missing the formula for making it happen – the amount of luck is often equaled to your willingness to take action.
Lucky people tend to have a willingness to keep an open mind and take risks towards experiencing new opportunities. Luck is often a reflection of how much discomfort you are willing to tolerate. Asking for new assignments that cause you to stretch your skills can be uncomfortable at first, however the exposure to new teams and projects adds to your luck factor.
You create the atmosphere for chance to happen when you put your career goals in action. Take the example of a New Year’s resolution of wanting to increase participation in professional associations. By putting your goal in action and attending just one event a month you will multiply your opportunities to acquire more information, meet new colleagues and perhaps your future employer.
People who wait for luck to come their way miss out on the opportunities to learn and often trade their self-confidence for the hope of others to make decisions for them. Lucky people trust their gut instincts and let their intuitions guide them in taking career steps, they listen to their internal cues for taking action.
Making your own luck has a good measure of resilience attached to it, not every step you take will lead directly to your career goals. The unplanned setbacks you experience along the way help you learn to bounce back, not giving up makes you more susceptible to having good luck.
Develop a mindset of discovering opportunities. The person who seems lucky might have experienced numerous setbacks over his or her career but used each one as leverage for the next step to take. Rejection and disappointment pave the way for new ways to solve problems and grow. Use Nike’s attitude, “just do it,” and luck will be sure to follow.
How would you describe a lucky person?
