The art of being lucky

I've been seeing a lot about luck online and it's got me thinking about the art of being lucky. Luck is often associated with unexpected things happening and out of our control. And whilst chance is of course real, there are things that we can do to help us meet luck more frequently. You might have heard of the phrase 'luck is when preparation meets opportunity'. And what this is essentially saying is that we can engineer luck. So let's dissect these two things. On the one hand, there's preparation. The preparation side is all about being ready when luck presents itself. The people who seem consistently lucky are usually doing the quiet work, they're showing up when no one's watching and they're growing behind the scenes. So when the opportunity does appear, they're positioned to meet it. Look, that can look like all sorts of things. It might be doing unglamorous internships so that when your dream job does finally come along, you've got the evidence to show you could take it on. Or it could be working on yourself, understanding your triggers, learning self-love. So when the right relationship finds you, you're ready to show up in it. The other side is exposure. It came across these two ideas on Substack that really beautifully explained it. One described it as 'actively increase your surface area for luck to hit you'. And another said, 'you have to touch the world to win'. Both are saying the same thing. It's that you have to put yourself out there. Speaking to strangers, posting online, going on dates, facing your fears. When you're open, you're more available to the world, and that's when serendipitous moments will find you. Yes, sometimes you have to be in the right place at the right time. But luck can't find you if you haven't shown up, or if you're not ready for it. It does.