Luck vs. Fate
Happy Sunday, everyone! Halfway through the month of March and we’re still pressing forward. Being that St. Patrick’s Day recently passed, I felt it would be appropriate to talk about luck and fate.
Luck is defined as “good fortune; advantage or success, considered as the result of chance; a combination of circumstances operating by chance to bring good or ill to a person.” Fate is defined as “a prophetic declaration of what must be; that which is inevitably predetermined.” I breakdown the definition of these two words because sometimes I feel as if people use the two words interchangeably and quite frankly use them out of context. When it comes to building a habit or developing a new skill, it takes time and work. But it doesn’t just take any type of time and work. It takes carefully crafted and detailed work along with consistent time. Anyone can say that they’ve been putting in the work to get better at a certain skill, but what kind of work are they actually doing in that time? How much time are they even spending working on that skill or habit? Anybody can do some type of workout to burn some calories and maybe they’ll get lucky and get the results they want, but there’s no guarantee that they’ll get those results if they’re just half-assing some basic, run of the mill workout. Same goes for hoopers. Anyone who plays basketball competitively can go outside for an hour a day at least 2-3 times a week and say that they’ve been training, but it comes down to what they’re actually doing and how often and how intense these workouts actually are.
Fate on the other hand is a different story. One word that is synonymous to fate is destiny. Picture that hooper that I mentioned earlier. Imagine if that player went from an hour a day, 2-3 times a week of quality skill development and bumped it up to 2 hours each day? Imagine 2 hours a day for 5 days out of the week. Granted, everyone’s success is subjective to the persons dedication and consistency to their craft. However, from an objective standpoint, that player is going to start making some quantum leaps. From an objective standpoint, that player is destined or fated to do very well given the time that they’ve put in to developing their skill set. Now imagine if the same type of intensity that we put into developing our skill set was also put into developing our mindset. Now we’re really getting that mind-body connection firing up!!! That’s where we can start talking more about being in “the zone” or being in a “flow state”, but I’ll save that for another blog post.
Clearly fate trumps luck, but here’s where things get a little tricky. Whether it’s luck or fate, the common factor between those two is that there’s no clear cut or tangible way of knowing for certain that you will achieve the result that you want. Luck is a game of chance. Fate is strictly a game of trust—in the process, in yourself, in the work you put in, but most importantly, in God. Anyone can put themselves in a position to get lucky. Hell, that’s what the lottery is for. But can you be the person who sets themselves up to succeed? Can you position yourself to be that person who is destined to be the best, knowing full well that you may not get the result that you want? Can you trust that you’ve done everything in your power and that God will handle the rest? I think you can. I think that if you willingly and diligently work at your craft and have a plan, you can put yourself ahead of the masses of people who “Let go and let God” without any type of plan. Luck is for the faint of heart. Fate is for the fearless and faithful.
The best way to predict your fate is to create it. Stop wishing and hoping for something great to happen and go out there and make it happen. You might even reach that goal that you have. If not, you’ll get something even better. Keep getting after it!