“Luck”

Whether Thais or people of other nationalities, we all share similar views regarding luck.
Some people have a firm belief in luck, others don't necessarily believe in it but neither do they deny it,
while still others deny that luck has any role at all to play in our lives.

Those who believe their lives are founded on luck will chance their luck in all kinds of ways.
They will have their palms read, interpret how the sticks fall, engage in various kinds of gambling.
They will buy lottery tickets at every opportunity. Besides trying to read their luck in ways like this,
they are also quick to look for other signs and omens of their luck. When they hear house lizards
making sounds, or see a snake slither across the path ahead of them, or have events occur
that bring about a loss, they think of it as bad luck. When things don't turn out the way they
anticipated, they remark that today their luck was not with them. "Luck" according to their thinking
is anything that effects their lives in either a positive or negative way. If they get a good return on something for which they had to extend but little effort or investment, or get something better than
what they had expected, they consider that to be due to good luck. But when events occur
that result in a loss, they consider that to be due to bad luck. They take little initiative in life.
They pick up and keep things that others have lost, making no effort to locate the owner
because they figure that person's loss was due to either luck or fate.

Those who give themselves over to fate and allow fate to significantly
influence their lives will lack peace. Some people worry about position in life.
They put themselves down, and fail to map out plans for their lives, because they are uncertain
about their luck and lot in life. If they have their hopes smashed even once, they lose
the will power to carry on, because they think that it is their fate to experience bad luck.
They eventually develop an inferiority complex. They think of themselves as the victims of bad luck.

I don't want any readers of this article to think their lives have to be controlled by luck, nor for anyone
to consider themselves to be a victim of bad luck merely because you have not yet experienced
success in life. Having had your hopes dashed does not have to mean that it is something bad.
It could just be a turning point in your life, something that enables you to rethink, and so end up
accomplishing even greater things than what you had previously thought was possible.
A disappointment in one area of life may lead us to experience success in another area of life.
It may bring about our making friends with people that we never thought before was possible.

Everyone, instead of waiting for our lucky day to come, or having to push our luck,
can create our own luck. We can take pride in our own accomplishments that are the result
of our own fortitude, rather than expecting things to happen by chance. And when we see things happen in a greater way than what we thought possible, don't attribute it to luck. Instead,
see it as the reward and compensation for our hard efforts.

Many people are not yet aware of the great potential that lies hidden within them.
Some readers may not yet know that you are smarter than you think. "Luck" already lies dormant
within you. You don't need to push your luck, nor wait for your lucky day to arrive, but just begin to think about the various possibilities and discover what you would like to be and do, and then
you can make your own dreams come true. Nothing that comes about by luck alone can build
in us a sense of pride. Good things that happen to us in life because of luck will hold little value to us. And if something bad happens to us, we don't try to resolve the problem,
or attempt to make adjustments, because we will attribute it all to luck.

Those who have faith in God do not believe in luck. We don't bless others by saying "good luck".
We don't encourage people to "risk their luck" in this thing or that thing. We believe that the world contains principles for living. We should sincerely apply ourselves to these principles,
especially to the principles that we find contained within the Word of God.

Stop waiting on luck. Instead, develop yourself to the greatest extent possible,
and life will get better on its own accord.