Leveraging Your Luck In Sports

The harder I work, the luckier I’ve gotten. I bet that’s true for most of us. And I believe that part of being lucky is feeling lucky. Attitude makes a difference, and you have the power to choose your attitude every day. #DailyMight

In his book, The Success Equation, Michael Mauboussin attempted to place major sports on the skill-luck continuum by using sports data analytics observance of things like amount of games played, players in action, and the amount of scoring opportunities. Of the 4 major sports leagues (MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL) you’ll be happy note that hockey rated the “luckiest” of the sports. So Putting luck in your favor can have a huge impact on the outcome.

I believe being great at sports requires three major ingredients to align in order for ultimate long term success. Work ethic, skill, and luck – in that order too. In fact, if you can think of it like a pyramid, work ethic lays the foundation. Skill get’s you in the right place at the right time and equipped to perform. And luck, well, puts the odds in your favor sometimes.

I also believe that part of being lucky, is feeling lucky. Like your attitude toward work ethic – believing that putting in the effort to get better is worth it – having a willful belief that you are capable of being lucky starts the thought chain reaction that leads you to a lucky situation. But not only leading you there, but having learned the skill through effort to be successful once you get there.

A fool would place luck at the bottom of the pyramid we built above. After all, luck is a happenstance outside of your control. However, if you have prepared for the opportunity by putting in the effort and by building skill along the way – believing you are capable of being lucky increases your chances of well, being lucky. And although being lucky might be outside of your control, choosing to have an attitude of the capacity to be lucky, is something you can choose everyday.

Give everything your everything, and then some.