Category Archives: Luck

Are You Waiting For Luck?

Are You Waiting To Get Lucky?

I saw this movie the other night about King Arthur.

This is one common story in Western Culture.

In this particular story, Sir Lancelot had to run this huge obstacle course.

It was for some carnival they were setting up.

In order to get through it, he needed strength, flexibility, balance and a lot of luck.

Kind of a “foreshadowing” event of what he’d need to navigate the deeper politics of the movie.

Most successful people, if they’re truly honest, will admit that “luck” plays a HUGE role in how they did what they did.

Of course, “luck” is one of those things that we all think we know, but it’s pretty hard to agree on the definition.

Certainly if you’re NOT lucky, that makes a ready excuse for not being successful.

And even if you ARE successful, part of you may think it will be snatched away, so if you attribute at least part of it to “luck” then you won’t feel so bad in the “rags” part of your “rags to riches to rags” story.

But if you REALLY want to reverse engineer success, a fantastic book is “The Millionaire Next Door.”

Sure, these guys got “lucky,” at least sometimes. But part of being lucky means to always be on the lookout for opportunities, and always being ready to take advantage of them.

And most of those guys in that book realized that success is a long, consistent effort more than anything else.

If you want to do ANYTHING very, very well, then you better be willing to put in the consistent practice.

Instead of asking yourself, “what can I do to be successful,” a better question should be, “what kinds of things should I do on a daily basis to slowly BUILD my success?”

Of course, few people think of success this way.

They tend to think in terms of winning the lottery, or “meeting” the right person.

But if all you did were a few mental exercises every day, ten minutes per day, you’d soon have skills most people don’t know exist.

The heart of nearly all success is the ability to communicate effectively.

Not just to communicate YOUR ideas, but to carefully elicit the ideas of others.

Because when you get YOUR ideas working along with the ideas of others, THAT’S when you start to build MASSIVE success.

Get Started:

Interpersonal Resonance

Become Obediently Free

Follow Your Bliss

When To Follow

Most people don’t like the label of being a “follower.”

Meaning we like to thinks of ourselves as independent thinkers, rather than mindless sheep.

And to be sure, if your go-to strategy is to wait around for somebody to tell you what to do, you won’t generally get much more than everybody else on the planet with the SAME strategy.

However, there ARE times when it’s very, very important that you DO follow.

Like following your bliss, for example. Joseph Campbell, who studied mythology his entire career, came up with that piece of advice based on his life’s work.

The Hero’s Journey is something we ALL are called to follow. Since it’s different for everybody, we have to figure it out on our own. The simplest way to do that is to simply “follow your bliss.”

Now, many people misunderstand this to mean “do what you like” and you’ll be magically rewarded by the money fairy.

But what I think he meant was that your “bliss” is kind of like your life’s purpose. Your mission. Your best idea of your best self. A shining goal out on the horizon that you MUST pursue relentlessly if you are to break the chains of mediocrity.

Nobody what can tell you what to do, or where to go. This is the crux of the Hero’s Journey. They weren’t following a step by step blueprint of somebody who’d gone before them, and proven that it was safe and guaranteed.

They had to boldly go into the UNKNOWN FUTURE of their own lives, with only their intuition to guide them.

If your bliss is something you follow in the long term, then your intuition is something you need to be absolutely obedient to in the short term.

Your intuition is based on the raw intelligence of your subconscious, who’s playing long-game chess, instead of the simple checkers our rational mind plays.

But since your subconscious can only speak to you in vague gut feelings, it can be hard to interpret.

Or very easy to ignore.

If you wait for a step by step, foolproof plan to be handed to you, free from risk or uncertainly, you’ll be waiting a while.

However, you can take some time to quiet your mind, take a few slow, deep breaths, and you’ll be in a better state to listen to your intuition.

This is your deep friend. The only friend who’s TRULY got your back. The friend who will guide you to heaven on earth if you would only listen.

As Rumi the Sufi poet said, “When you are obedient to that one, you will be free.”

See Through The Noise

See Through The Haze

Adjust Your Vision

If you’ve ever seen those hidden 3D pictures, you know how frustrating they can be.

Now, some people can see them right away. But not me.

The first few times, it felt like I just couldn’t “get it” while everybody else was saying how cool it was.

But when it finally clicked, it WAS pretty cool.

Even after that, it still took me a while, but once I got it, it was easy to get.

It’s kind of a focus thing, you need to look beyond what’s right in front of you. Pretend to look deeper than what’s really there.

Once I was out hiking with my buddies. I was up a couple hundred meters ahead. I came across this one hill, and saw this bear. I wanted to reach up and grab my camera, which was hanging over my pack.

But I was so close, that I was worried just the camera-grabbing motion would startle the bear, and either chase him away, or make him angry.

So I just stood there, as motionless as I could, and enjoyed being so close a to a VERY powerful force of nature.

He even looked right at me, and then quickly dismissed me. I imagined he thought something like, “I could kill you, but I’m too lazy.”

After a few minutes, I went up the slope, and over the rise.

When I came down on the other side, I saw something that TERRIFIED ME.

Two bear cubs!

Suddenly this powerful force of nature became WAY more dangerous. You NEVER get between a mama and her cubs!

So I FROZE. Only when my friends started showing up, and the bear and her cubs started walking down the hill away from me, did I grab my camera.

I thought I would have an AWESOME picture, one that would certainly amaze my friends.

Only when the pictures came out (this was before digital cameras were popular) you could barely see the bear.

Since I knew what to look for, I could see it. But none of my friends could, unless I pointed it out to them.

Even then they didn’t believe me.

Imagine if those people who made those 3D pictures never explained how to see them!

This is the danger of living with your eyes closed.

One the one hand, there are TONS of stuff out there that we simply can’t see. 

However, there’s nobody really there to point things out.

Which means it’s up to us. To change our filters, to have faith in ourselves to see deeper than most.

To look through the noise and see the treasures hidden right out in the open.

They’re there.

Waiting.

Can you see them?

Are You Kind To Your Best Friend?

Listen To Your Friend

Strengthen Your Instincts

When people go to Vegas, they hope to get “lucky.”

When people go to the track, they hope to get “lucky.”

Now, there’s blind luck, and there’s inspired luck.

For example, if you can learn to count cards, and stay focused, you can generally win most of the time.

So much so that if you start to win a lot, you’ll get kicked out. In the movie “Bringing Down The House,” which was based on the true story book, a group of students (and their professor played by Kevin Spacey) did just that.

With a pretty ingenious “group” card counting system, they won big. Consistently.

I also know a guy who’s pretty good at the track. He knows which horses are going to win, generally, before the race goes off. I don’t understand how he does it, but it’s a combination of reading body language (of the horses and their owners) as well as some advanced statistical analysis of past races for all the horses involved.

And he makes a very nice income from this “hobby.” More than most people make in a regular job. 

The truth is that all things are like this. Of course, most people are hoping for blind luck. They expect (or want) good things to come gift wrapped from some kind of fairy godmother.

But those that get lucky, consistently, instead of sitting around wishing, know that you need to put in a little effort.

But you’d be surprised how easy it is to learn to count cards. The theory is very simple, and it’s really a matter of a couple hours practice.

Most other “luck” is just as easy as well. It’s just a matter of understanding how the game works, and how to operate within it effectively.

For example, most people get hunches all the time. This is your subconscious speaking to you. Giving you a hint that there’s something good out there. Just waiting for you to grab it.

Most people are too scared, or too busy checking Facebook to notice.

Are you?

Imagine if you had a close friend, that was ALWAYS giving you fantastic advice, but you never listened. How long do you think they’d keep it up? They’d probably get gun shy after a while.

Now imagine if you finally started listening. Not only listening, but actually taking action based on their advice.

And imagine if once they saw you actually not only listening, but taking action, this made them MUCH MORE effective in spotting opportunities. So much they were literally speaking non-stop about all the things around you that you could turn into money, love, or anything else you wanted.

The truth is that friend is with you right now. They’ve always been with you and they always will be.

Will you start to listen? To take action based on their subtle advice?

You KNOW what will happen when you do!

Have You Made The Second Switch?

Switch On Your Life

Turn Yourself On

Efficiency is an interesting concept.

Basically, the more output you get per input, the more efficient your system is.

The more efficient your car is, the more output (miles) you get per input (gas).

The other day I was talking to a friend about language learning.

When you have to translate the language in your head, you’re pretty inefficient.

Foreign language in, internal translation (twice) and then foreign language out.

The magic “switch” comes when you get rid of the internal translation part, and start thinking in your target language.

Chomsky’s great contribution to linguistics was the idea of a “grammar organ” in our brain.

Between the ages of 0 and 2, we are busily trying to decipher the “structure” of our “native language.”

Once we get the structure worked out, it’s just a matter of filling in the parts to the empty machine, or the words onto the grammar structure.

His genius insight was that there is a “meta-structure” that all “native structures” are part of.

Which is why you can take any baby from any household on Earth, stick them in any other household on Earth, and they’ll learn the “new” “native language” like a champ.

This is also why when kids learn foreign languages when they are very young, they speak them fluently, without any discernable accents.

However, this is often misunderstood.

Many people assume that since that “language learning center” of our brains is most “open” when we are young, that all other learning ONLY happens when we are young.

Luckily, this is absolutely FALSE.

There is one very powerful “switch” that people NEVER turn on.

And just like when the “language structure switch” is turned on, when THIS switch is turned, like magic the world around us suddenly changes.

Obviously, none of us can remember what it was like to not know how to put words together and describe the world around us. However the switch from babbling nonsense to suddenly running around and describing people, events, and interactions with extremely accuracy is nothing short of miraculous.

That SAME shift can still happen.

All you’ve got to do is flip another switch.

A “meta switch” that will give you a whole new understanding of the world around you.

The people that have made this switch see things differently, and operate in their reality (which is the SAME as your reality) with much more efficiency.

The get more, do more, and enjoy more.

Which switch is this?

Shift Your Luck Filter

Find Better Tools

Get Some More Tools

When all you have is a hammer, all you see is nails.

This is a very basic description of human perception.

How we perceive the world around us is directly related to our own filters.

Some of these filters are pretty hard wired. These are throwbacks from evolution and kept us safe when we were running around in the jungle chasing dinner.

Since cavemen weren’t famous for their intellectual reasoning, Mother Nature had to make certain things automatic.

So when they saw something out of the corner of their eye that was a potential threat, that flight or fight response AUTOMATICALLY kicked in. They’d take off running before they knew what was what.

We’ve still got those filters today, which is pretty funny whenever we jump at shadows!

Other filters are based on our recent experience. Things that we’ve been thinking about a lot lately will start showing up.

Others are kind of in between, and they are not set in stone, but they take some effort to change.

They are also structurally based, rather than content based.

In NLP, these are called “Meta Programs.”

Like if you are more motivated by fear or pleasure. Or if you see a new situation, do you automatically find things you are familiar with, or things you are unfamiliar with? 

Or when you make a decision, does it come from the inside, or do you need to hear validation from the outside?

One thing that’s crucial is how open you are to seeing opportunities.

You can have the attitude of “nothing good ever happens to me,” or “why doesn’t anything happen to me.”

Many people have these thought patterns running through their heads.

And guess what? Nothing ever happens to them!

Others have the idea of “Something fantastic is going to happen,” or even “I wonder what cool thing is going to happen?”

And guess what? Those people usually find some pretty good things. Some may say they are extraordinary lucky.

Imagine if you saw an interesting person across the room. Instead of thinking, “I’d like to talk to them, but I might get rejected,” you thought, “I wonder what cool things I can find out about that person?”

Imagine going into a job interview and instead of thinking, “I hope I don’t mess up,” you think, “Hmm, I wonder if this is the right opportunity for me?”

Now, this wouldn’t magically change your life. It wouldn’t rain money.

But you would create a LOT more positive events.

All it takes is a shift inside, and you’ll see a shift outside.

Are You Ignoring The Goddess Of Luck?

Dreams Are All Around You

Dreams are Everywhere

One of the most common ways people (in this case guys) use “luck” is in seduction.

Meaning if a guy “gets lucky” then he gets the girl.

However, if we dive just a little beyond internet mythology, it’s clear there’s much more “choice” going on than luck.

If he’s confident, for example, he’ll radiate a much different energy, which will attract a much different energy from others.

Studies have shown, that both for guys and girls, simply changing their posture (an indicator of confidence) will change how people “rate” them on that 1-10 scale. As much as two points in some cases.

Meaning if you’re normally a “6,” simply by changing your posture, you’ll be perceived as an “8.”

Or from an 8 to 10.

Of course, there’s also how well you can “interpret” your reality. Any girl will tell you that sending signals to a guy who simply doesn’t respond is about as common as sunshine.

And in most cases, the guy’s just too dense to pick up on them.

So from a guy’s standpoint, simply by changing their internal belief system a bit (more confidence) and changing how they perceive their reality (picking up on those signals) our metaphorical guy will suddenly get a lot “luckier.”

And even his friends will wonder why he’s always getting so “lucky.”

Luckily (lol), this doesn’t happen only for guys who are after girls.

This works for pretty much anybody who is after anything. Relationships, money, jobs, friendships, pretty much anything.

One of my favorite lines is from the Talking Heads song, “Burning Down The House”:

“…Dreams walking in broad daylight…”

Another variation of this comes from an old tagline from Investors Business Daily, (which has a FINE system for finding winning stocks, AND how to buy and sell them properly):

“With Investors Business Daily, the opportunity of a lifetime happens every couple weeks.”

In truth, many people wait their ENTIRE LIVES to “get lucky.”

When it doesn’t happen to them, they curse the gods of luck, as if luck is some kind of one way gift, like Halloween candy, or birthday presents.

Most people are sitting around waiting for the Goddess of Luck to come knocking, interrupting them in the middle of their favorite reality show.

Well, if you aren’t “open to luck,” she ain’t coming.

She may indeed pass by your house every week or so, but she peeks in and sees you busily checking Facebook or worrying about the latest mainstream media gossip.

So she passes you by.

But just like changing our posture and noticing those signals can get a guy “lucky,” changing your internal mindset and noticing reality a little bit differently can get YOU lucky.

In any way you desire.

Purely Expressed Desires

The Euphoria Factor

Release Inhibitions

The best run of luck I ever had in Vegas was when I was under the influence.

Not of alcohol, but painkillers.

I had really bad tendonitis, so bad I was on crutches.

I also had a nice bottle of drugs to ease the pain. But they also significantly improved my mood.

I sat at the roulette table with a buddy for almost an hour. Because of my crutches, I could only “toss” the chips onto the table, instead of lean over.

The dealer didn’t seem to have a problem with it. She just put them on the closest number they landed on.

And I kept winning. For an hour.

Statistically, this was nearly impossible.

Once or twice? Sure. But for an hour? No way. At least not mathematically.

(But then again, scientists tell us that bumblebees aren’t supposed to be able to fly!)

Now, I’m not advocating taking drugs or purposely going under the influence of ANY substance. I fully believe it wasn’t the pain killing effects of the drugs, but the secondary feeling of “euphoria.”

I had zero fears. I didn’t care if I won or lost. I just enjoyed playing.

And I kept winning.

A year or so later, my buddies and I tried to “reverse engineer” that same effect.

We discussed on the way out that we would ONLY “think positive.”

Meaning we wouldn’t rip on each other, or laugh at each other when we lost, like we normally do.

Only mutual support. Only positive statements to each other.

I know, sounds pretty lame. Pretty new-agey.

But guess what?

On that trip, we ALL won. Consistently. The ONLY TIME the three of us (who’d been to Vegas before and since MANY times) came back with pockets stuffed with MORE CASH than on the way out.

Even AFTER paying for expenses (including, ahem, “entertainment.”)

Something else pretty cool happened on that first trip.

We were playing blackjack, and our cocktail waitress was GORGEOUS.

Once when she was walking away, on the spur of the moment, I shouted out, “I love you!”

My friends, (and the dealer) were shocked.

Maybe they were waiting for her to call the cops or at least give me a dirty look.

She just turned around, no big deal, big smile on her face.

“I love you too!”

Now, sure she was a cocktail waitress looking to get tips. Yea, she was hit on all the time.

But the flow of the moment was so incredibly natural. No hesitation on my part. No hesitation on her part.

Now, I didn’t “fall in love with her,” as I was just being playful, and so was she.

But this is what’s possible if you simply release inhibitions and not just live in the moment, but fully ENJOY the moment.

The risks you take will succeed. The expressions of your desires will be reciprocated. Normally closed doors will be open.

It’s incredibly simple, and at the same time magically complicated.

See Through The Noise

See Through The Noise

Don’t Be Blindsided

There’s a concept in investing called a “Black Swan.”

It basically means a completely unforeseen event that sets of a chain reaction.

A chain reaction that sends markets plummeting, and the economy reeling.

It’s also used to describe things that set off revolutions, or great wars. Like the assassination that allegedly started WWI.

One small, seemingly unrelated event that sets of a huge chain reaction that literally changes the world.

Of course, looking back in retrospect (as hindsight is ALWAYS 20-20) it seems pretty obvious. We usually ask, “Why didn’t they know what was happening?”

For example, during the financial crisis of 2008, nobody really knew what was happening at the time. But a few years later, it was pretty clear. So much that everybody asks, “What were they thinking?”

This doesn’t only apply to negative things.

They happen EXACTLY the same way with positive things.

Looking from the outside in, it seems that one “lucky” event made somebody rich, or led them to meet the right person at the right time.

An those who are struggling tend to look at those “lucky” people and say, “How come that never happens to me?”

But if you look closely, you’ll see that “lucky” people are living on the same planet as the rest of us.

Moving through the same world we are moving through. Meeting the same people we are meeting. Living within the same 24 hours every day that we are living through.

It’s just that they see things a little differently. They see opportunity where others see noise. They see people as potential answers to their prayers, rather than people to simply obstacles to not bump into.

They look at the world with curiosity, wonder and positive expectation, instead of worry and fear.

They say that luck is merely preparation meeting opportunity.

But when you “prepare” your mind, opportunity is suddenly EVERYWHERE.

And it’s waiting to meet you.

As the famous saying goes, when you see a fork in the road, take it.

Most people want to be told which path is better.

Most people want to be reassured they are doing the right thing.

Most people want to see somebody else go first, so they know it’s safe.

But most people rarely get lucky.

How about you?

When you see that fork in the road (which happens MANY times per day), do you take it?

Or do you hesitate?

Fortune favors the brave.

Simply shift your mind, and you’ll see opportunities.

Can You Mold Reality With Your Mind?

Mold Reality With Your Mind

It’s Never Like You Think It Is

One of my biggest “aha” moments in my life came back when I studied physics.

It wasn’t really an “aha” moment, more like a “WTF?” moment.

When I started to understand how the nature of reality was NOT like most people understand.

Now, I’m not for a second going to tell you how it DOES work, I only know enough (which ain’t much lol!) about how it’s WAY more complicated that humans can understand.

Anyhow, when you pop a balloon, or squeeze the top of a can of whipped cream, why does all the stuff come out so fast?

Most people would say because of the pressure.

And why would pressure make stuff come out?

Most people would say because all the air molecules (or whipped cream molecules) are so crammed in there, bouncing around off each other, they CAN’T WAIT to get out.

So when you open a little hole, they push and shove all over each other to run for the exit.

At least that’s the way the “person on the street” would describe it.

Only that’s NOT what’s going on.

See, there are two types of statistics that describe the motion of a whole slew of particles.

And these two types are based on two assumptions.

One of these assumptions is that the particles interact with each other.

The other branch of particle statistics is that they DON’T interact with each other. Meaning each particle “thinks” it’s the only one around.

And guess which branch of statistics PERFECTLY describes how gas rushes out of a tight container, especially when under pressure?

That’s right. The one branch that is based on the assumption that EVERY SINGLE PARTICLE in that balloon or can of whipped cream THINKS IT’S THE ONLY ONE.

Let that sink in for a while.

So if all those particles thinks they are the only one, why do they ALL rush for the exit?

Because, as my physics professor explained, it’s simply not statistically probable that all those particles would be in there at the same time.

(Wait… What?)

Meaning that nature has some kind of secret tendency to REVERT back to what is statistically probable.

Now, who determines what is statistically probable? Was all of this stuff statistically probable before humans came along and started measuring it?

Another MASSIVE discovery in physics was that humans CHANGE the system simply be being involved. Simply by observing it. Now, this is a WHOLE different topic, that I’ll maybe write about later. (For those of you who know, it’s Heisenberg’s Principle of Uncertainty).

So is it possible simply by OBSERVING reality in a certain way, that we can actually ALTER reality?

Perhaps we can.