Jonathan Fields on the Formula for Luck

She published a book. She’s lucky.

National Geographic featured his photo. He’s lucky.

She has a great job. She’s lucky.

He gets to travel the world. He’s lucky.

We often think of people in fortunate circumstances as lucky. Sometimes, luck truly is serendipitous. That person happened to be in the right place at the right time.

But did you know that much of luck, particularly in your creative endeavours, is your hands?

Jonathan Fields from the Good Life Project describes luck as:

Luck = (Quality x Volume / Serendipity) + Openness

Three out of his four factors (quality, volume, and openness) are within your control. Only serendipity is left to a higher power, universe, circumstance, or whatever you do or don’t believe in.

Often, our ‘she’s lucky’ comments come from a place of guilt at our own lack of actions. They arise from an internal voice that tells us that because we haven’t achieved those things, we’re not good enough. We attribute others’ good fortune to luck. We make excuses for what we see as our own misfortune.

Stop waiting for luck and take action instead.

The next time you believe luck isn’t on your side, think again. Build quality work, content, songs, stories, photos, or whatever you do, and make a lot of it.

Be open about sharing your work. After that, there is no need to worry since the rest is out of your control.

 

Learn more about the formula for luck on the Good Life Project podcast. Pair that with Jonathan’s book, How to Live a Good Life.