When I was in High School, a good friend of mine said "there's no such thing as luck. Luck is when preparation meets opportunity." I've heard it other times since. Even though I never took the effort to look up where this quote originated or how common it is, it has always stuck with me. I'm not a big fan of ultimatums, but I do feel this statement has some truth to it.
In my life I've felt everything happens for a reason. I'm very fortunate, which I think makes it easier for me to think along these lines than someone who has endured greater amounts of hardship than I have. But before shutting me out because you may not like how that sounds, I would say consider your hardships and failures. For me, these reinforce my belief more than the successes. I played college football, and one of the things I try to explain to people is one of the greatest lessons from that experience is that I learned how to lose. It does not always make sense initially but over time its very clear. I learned that every day is not your day. You're not meant to constantly flourish. Its how you learn from and respond to those downs. Some may be severe, some minor, but the more you take from them, the better prepared you are for opportunities that present themselves down the road. This becomes "luck", but it is really your ability to comprehend and retain things, then recognize them as they reappear in various ways. You create your luck.
Now are plenty of things out of our control, yes aspects of the world around us are left to chance. I'm not denying that. But I would ask you to challenge yourself each time you consider yourself or someone else "lucky".
I could go in thought circles about this forever but I'm going to cut it off because I dislike super long emails on the Listserve and I'm already halfway to my limit. Last thing, one of my favorite day dreams is imagining myself as a Foreign Exchange student from the US at Hogwarts. I just think that's pretty awesome, and now you know.Much love,
Jon
Boston, MA