Luck has been described as being in the right place at the right time. But, there’s a catch: you also have to know what you want. Otherwise, you might be in the right place at the right time…and never even know it!
Picture two runners on a racetrack…blindfolded. One of them turns to the other and says, “Hey, do you have any idea which way the finish line is?” The other says, “No, I have no idea. But what do you say we start running anyway?”
Do you want to run that kind of race?
Neither one of those runners is going to win any Olympic medals anytime soon. If one runner “beat” the other, how would either of them know? It’s an absurd situation, but it’s no more absurd than the way a lot of salespeople “race” through their daily routines.
If you were to ask one hundred salespeople at random to identify where they want to be one, two, or five years from today—what “finish lines” they hope to have crossed in terms of income, personal and professional growth, contribution to their company, or for that matter, any other meaningful area of life—what would you hear in response? Perhaps five out of those hundred people would be able to say, specifically, what it was that they wanted out of life within each of those timelines. From the remaining ninety-five people, you’d most likely get a blank stare or doubletalk.
Put those five people in the “right place,” at the “right time,” and, yes, great things can happen—because they know exactly what they want, can visualize that outcome, and are ready to take action on that outcome. Once they know what they want, they can take advantage of the circumstances, relationships, and “coincidences” that support their goals. You couldn’t even put the other ninety-five people in the “right place” at the “right time.” Why not? Because they don’t know what they want! There is no right place! There is no right time! There is no finish line!
“Luck” really is the intersection of preparation and opportunity. And the clearer you are about what you want in life, the luckier you will find yourself becoming.
You might also be interested in:
