I've been called a lucky person before; both on Steemit and in general; so I thought I'd blow the lid on how I managed to get so lucky. It hasn't always been this way, believe it or not, I used to believe I was so unlucky, to the point of being cursed by bad luck.

Then one day I watched a program on luck, and that changed my view forevermore, and I became, one of the lucky ones.

The process for becoming lucky is so blindingly simple, so obvious that I was astounded that I hadn't tried it before. So, read on and find out what I consider to be, the five pillars of luck.

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is for... Opportunity

If there is one component of luck that is more important than the rest; then opportunity has to fit that bill. Without opportunity there is no luck; you are not going to get lucky, sitting at home all day fiddling around on Facebook and watching reality TV.

In the same way you are not going to have the opportunity to be lucky if after a hard days work, you come home, crack a beer; spark a joint and slip into a soap opera induced coma; before finally peeling yourself off the sofa and going to bed.

So how do you increase your exposure to opportunities, that might lead you into situations that could be considered lucky?

This is a lot simpler than you might think; it is no more complicated than simply telling yourself;

I am looking for opportunities, I will maintain a healthy balance between enthusiasm and skepticism, however I am open to discovering anything.

You might be thinking; so what Cryptogee; how's that going to make a difference?

Believe me; take it from someone who has completely transformed their luck, those words are very powerful indeed.

I will give you one very powerful example of how this can work; on May 13th, earlier this year, I quit my job. Around 2 weeks before this, whilst standing in a room alone, I repeated a version of the above words, out loud, basically confirming to myself, that I was now looking for opportunities, regardless of what they were.

In that 2 weeks, I went to quite a few random events that sounded interesting, I arranged meetings with people with no agenda other that I wanted to talk to them. I also checked out various things on the internet that came my way, and I signed up for a property seminar, telling people how to profit from real estate without investing any money.

So what were the results of those 2 weeks?

I met with a high-powered Marketing Director of a major charity to pick her brains; we really connected and shared some good business experience. This might develop into something in the future, and it might not; who knows?

I went to a meetup with a bunch of fundraisers, I listened to some good tips on fundraising and connected with a few people who might come back into my life at some point.

I went to the property seminar, which turned out to be one long upsell, sales pitch; and will not develop any further. However I did get a couple of tips which I may use in the future.

I applied for a role as a trainee comedy producer at BBC Comedy; I have since gone for the interview and not got the job.

I discovered Steemit a month after it started.

Nuff said.

is for... Attitude

Back in that weird and wonderful time we called the 80s, there was a particular buzz phrase that made it all the way across the Atlantic Pond, from the good ol', US of A, all the way to the little ol', UK.

Positive Mental Attitude, or PMA, to give it its snazzier, snappy 80s moniker. I didn't really understand the meaning behind PMA at the time. To me it was just an empty, meaningless statement, that was trying to find originality in the blindingly obvious.

It was only in the last few years, that I have really begun to embrace the idea of having a positive mental attitude.

You see, it all comes back to our little, silent friend, your subconscious mind, it works on a level that is beyond conscious thought (obviously).

What we see and hear is what we think about. What we think about is what we feel. What we feel influences our reactions. Reactions become habits and it is our habits that determine our destiny.

--Bob Gass

If a person has a negative mental attitude, they always see the worst in people and situations, the glass is always half empty, they are always focussing on what they've lost, rather than what they have gained. They mire themselves in negative news in the papers and on TV, and concentrate on what is wrong with the world rather than what is right. What will that person be like to be around? Does that sound like the description of a lucky person to you?

Having a positive mental attitude is vital if you want to be a lucky person, and I'm not talking about being insanely happy all the time, regardless of what is going on around you. I am talking about how you react to external events beyond your control.

For instance there are people in this world, who have had what others would term, really bad luck, some of these people have lost limbs or vital bodily functions, yet they don't let it get them down.

I once watched a documentary on a mother who had no arms and no legs, her happiness and positive mental attitude was quite astounding to watch. I remember thinking to myself, how I don't think I could carry on living if something like that happened to me, yet this woman is genuinely happy, living as full a life as possible.

The program reminded me of the simple fact that; in life, we are surrounded by external factors of which we have absolutely no control. The only thing we can control, is our reaction to these events. We can choose to let things get us down, or we can say; nope, I'm not going to let this get to me, I am not going to waste energy in despair.

Our achievements of today, are but the sum total of our thoughts of yesterday. We are today where the thoughts of yesterday have brought us and we will be tomorrow where the thoughts of today take us.

--Blaise Pascal

Okay, so you're sold on the benefits of having a positive mental attitude, so how do you achieve this amazing state of positive thinking that will attract good fortune to you, like ants on candy?

Simple; as with before, you just repeat things to yourself, that will allow your natural positivity to shine through.

Good things tend to happen to me when I look for them.

I am a naturally positive person.

Even if it takes a while, I can always learn a positive lesson, from a negative situation.

I am a lucky person!

If you are not a naturally positive person, these statements might seem at odds with your personality, and therefore will feel weird when you're saying them. If that is the case, then all you have to do is, fake until you make it, eventually those things will be true.

Experiment with the statements above, and add your own, also add your goals in there, so you might say;

I am going to take that trip to Thailand next year, I'm not sure how I will afford it, but I know something will come up, because I am a naturally lucky person.

is for... Learning

There is nothing worse than an opportunity coming your way, yet you just don't have the skills to take advantage of it.

Hey! I just got two free tickets to do a rally driving course this weekend! Do you want to come?

Sorry, can't, I don't have a driving license.

Are you coming, or what?

The important phrase to keep in mind, is, the amount of opportunities that you can take advantage of, is only limited by how much or little you know.

For instance, I have spent the last 10 years or so, trying to learn how to write well, I have read countless blogs, spent my hard earned cash on seminars, and programs, all designed to make me a better writer. Some have been great, some have been terrible.

The point is, if I hadn't been honing my skills, I doubt I would have made 10% of what I've made so far, writing on Steemit.

Remember, opportunity and learning are intrinsically linked, look at users such as @roelandp, he has spent a considerable amount of time honing his coding skills. So once Roeland discovered Steemit, he was able to code steamstreem.com and make $4,358.58 on the post announcing the site.

If you look at it in isolation, then Roeland was lucky that he happened to hear about Steemit in the early days, and then was lucky that he knew how to code.

Or you can look at the bigger picture and see how Roeland engineered his own luck, by keeping his mind open to opportunity and then applying a skill that he's learned.

At this moment, you might be sitting reading this thinking; OK, I get it Cryptogee, I'll increase my chances of being lucky if I learn a skill. Does that mean I have to wait 10 years for my luck? I want to be lucky now!

That's fine, you can increase your luck right now by learning; it's just that the further you go along that road, the more chance you give yourself. There are still plenty of things out there, that you can start to learn today, which will benefit you in some way. The beauty is, you never know when or how these things can benefit you, so you've just got to go for it, and along the way, you'll enrich your life. Win, win.

Here are 3 things I'm learning at the moment:

• Self Hypnosis/NLP
• Yoga
• Swedish

The first two things have helped me personally, and may or may not help me professionally at some point in my life (unlikely with yoga), but the point is, it doesn't matter, they are new skills which will enhance my experience of life.

As far as Swedish is concerned, I doubt I will ever be good enough to use it professionally, I just started learning it because I like the accent!

is for... Persistence

Let me say this to you, it is very important that you understand that you will never be a lucky person, if you give up too easily. Giving up can only lead to bad luck, because somebody will come along after you're gone and reap the rewards of your efforts.

In the book; Think And Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill, there is a story of a man, who went by the name of R.U. Darby, who lived in America in the Gold Rush days, around the end of the 19th century. Darby like so many of his time, got gold fever and went to Colorado to find his fortune.

His efforts led to him finding a plot of land, with a rich vein of gold ore buried within it. So he went back to his home town in Maryland and raised money from neigbours and family, in order to buy equipment to mine the land.

Darby and his Uncle, both went back to Colorado and started to mine the land that Darby had discovered, and for a while it appeared they had discovered the richest mine in the whole state. But then the gold just stopped, there was nothing there and after weeks of drilling they decided to give up.

In order to recoup some of the money they had borrowed, they sold their machinery to a local junk dealer; who with the help of a surveyor, discovered that tectonic movement had caused the gold to shift slightly.

The junk man started drilling just three feet from where Darby and his uncle had stopped. The junk man struck gold immediately and became an instant millionaire.

We can fast forward about 120 years to Steemit and see that nothing has changed. There have been quite a few users who have come onto the platform, had varying success with author rewards, complained and then gave up.

On the flip side, you have users like @robrigo who earned 3 figures with his first article and then over the next 2 weeks wrote another 13 posts that didn't get anywhere near the $574.18 he made for his first post. He could have given up at anytime while he was writing those posts.

He could have let negativity creep in after seeing another post fail to make any money, or another one start promisingly, only to end on $11. He didn't though, he carried on and with posts 14, 15, 16, and 17, made a combined total of $10,925.68.

Or how about @opheliafu who created a whopping 26 posts making less than $25, and eighteen of those posts made less than $0.50, and twelve of those made exactly zero. Then on post number 27 @opheliafu's efforts were rewarded with a $427 post. She has since gone onto post 5 more articles that have made more than $200, two of them being around the $1000 mark.

Luckily these Steemians and many more like them, do not give up, they use their persistence to overcome resistance.

They dig that final three feet.

is for... Desire

In order to change your luck you need to take each one of these five elements together, none of them should be treated in isolation, and desire is how you apply the other elements together.

Some people feel they know what desire is, they claim that they really want something, but nothing has happened, even though they do really want it.

Unfortunately, these people are often mistaking desire for wishful thinking, it is one thing to want something, but it only becomes a desire, if you do something about it. Without action, then desire dilutes down to wishful thinking.

For instance I wanted to be a footballer when I was growing up, however I didn't desire it enough to do much about it. I did things, but they were half-hearted, excuse-laden, attempts. None of the things I did, truly reflected a desire, so it transformed into a fantasy. A comfortable place I could retreat to in my mind, without actually ever having to lift a finger.

So therein lies the clue to the difference between wish-making and desire, the secret ingredient is action, without action there is no desire. Action will spur you on to not just look for opportunity but to act upon it when you find it.

Action will spur you on to go and learn a new skill, and will fuel your persistent efforts, it will prevent you giving up and most of all; action will create a hunger in you, which will be manifest as pure, focused, desire.

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Summary

None of these five things can be done in isolation, you must look for opportunity, whilst learning new skills, and keeping a positive attitude, and never giving up. All of these things will help you fuel the desire you need to become lucky.

The big take home here, is that doing all of these things will instruct your subconscious to act in a way that will increase the likelihood of fortunate events happening to you.

That's it, I was not practicing the above tenets of luck and for years I was an unlucky person, then, slowly but surely, I started getting luckier, things started to fall into place and whilst I am not on a constant run of amazing luck, I definitely feel more fortunate than I did before I started doing all of this.

If you do consider yourself unlucky, or even just that you have neutral luck, neither good nor bad; then try doing the five things I've explained.

Then perhaps; in time, like me, you too will realise that luck is simply the by-product of process.

Till next time.

Be lucky.

Cryptogee

WHAT ABOUT YOU? ARE YOU A LUCKY PERSON? DO YOU ALWAYS COME UP TRUMPS? OR DO YOU FIND A PENNY AFTER LOSING A DOLLAR? SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCES BELOW!