3/11/13 The
Luck O’ The…Intentional?
St.
Patrick’s Day is coming. It’s a time when we might think about the concept of
Luck… and maybe whether it might “come our way.” Over the last few years, our
office has been remarkably successful in providing outstanding service to our
students and community partners, and we have maximized our resources in the
face of diminishing budgets and the number of staff. Have we just been lucky?
Maybe, right? But what is luck anyway? In past quips, I have repeated a great
definition of success as the confluence of preparation and opportunity.
Is luck
(fate/kismet/destiny/providence/instant karma) in the opportunity? Maybe. But,
don’t we make our own opportunities, too, when we keep our heads up and make our
brains aware of them? And, when has anyone ever been successful when they
couldn’t capitalize on an opportunity because they weren’t prepared?
We can
NEVER get so lost in the crises of the moment that we cease to plan and prepare
and be ready for an opportunity. We must intentionally set aside a portion of
our time and attention to the consideration of new opportunities and to the
creation of an environment that allows them to incubate. As Ernest Hemingway
said, we must never stop doing what we do and being the best we can be because
sometimes we will have “good luck” and become “better than we can” be. Let’s be
intentionally lucky.
