The Courage To Be Lucky

Many years ago, I used to work with a bunch of single guys. One, whom I'll call Dave, was not very well liked by the other guys at work. This was due in part to the fact that he was a jerk.

Okay, there might have also been a bit of envy involved. You see, Dave seemed to easily get dates with many of the beautiful women in the area. This was a mystery to many of the guys at work, and even seemed unfair.

I would hear comments like, "That lucky (blank)! How does that jerk go out with all the beautiful women?" But the solution was clear to anyone who paid attention - he asked them out! Of course, he really was a jerk, so they usually said no. However, he just kept asking, until some of the woman said yes.

Now isn't this so common? We wonder at the "luck" of others, when the key is that those lucky people are doing the simple things we are afraid to do.

Who is more likely to get a date? A man who asks out one woman or a man who asks out ten?

Who is more likely to get a raise at work, a woman who just quietly does a good job and hopes it's noticed, or one that does a good job and asks for a raise?

You have to have the courage to do something if you want the results of that action. This is obvious stuff, right? Almost all such "lessons" are, but we need to be reminded. We also need to take action to put lessons into practice.

Feel The Fear And Do It Anyhow

I was recently at one of those free money-making seminars, and the speaker asked who wanted a hundred-dollar bill. A few hands went up. When he asked who would come up and get it, only a few people out of hundreds approached the stage. He handed the bill to the first one there, while the crowd sat watching, too afraid to embarrass themselves.

Exactly why did this one man get the hundred dollar bill? Simply because he walked up and took it, while the others were too afraid.

We can see that fear gets in the way of having "good luck." What can we do then to have more courage? We can act in the face of fear. Eleanor Roosevelt said, "You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do." I would add to that that you gain good luck.

Of course, there are some powerful techniques to make this process of developing courage easier, but that is a topic for another article.