Before we dive in: MasteryOS is open for enrollment. There are limited spaces. If you want to achieve Self-Mastery, unlock your true potential, and smash every goal you set, click here.  

Most people sit around complaining about others being lucky yet waiting and hoping to become lucky themselves.

Not understanding that, for the most part, luck isn’t real.

Most cases of “luck” are either crafted luck or random chance with an outcome that you deemed desirable and hence, “lucky”.

This lack of awareness is the exact reason they aren’t lucky.

When you view yourself as never being lucky, or even unlucky, you’re engaging in negative self-talk.

Limiting and ruining any chances of you actually taking life into your own hands and creating your own luck.

What Is Luck?

There are 2 types of luck.

What most people consider “lucky” isn’t luck at all.

When someone is a master of something, or when they’re

• rich

• happy

• fulfilled

• successful

• able to travel

• able to buy nice things

Most people say “aren’t they lucky” discrediting all their success down to mere chance.

In reality, most “lucky” people combine hard work and smart work for a period of time so long it seems insane to the average person.

They meet opportunity with preparation.

Now, there are some rare cases of actual luck.

But as I explained earlier, these are nothing but cases of random chance that you choose to view as “luck” because the outcome is desirable.

So if you’re not lucky, it’s not because the universe hates you.

It’s because you haven’t taken life into your own hands and combined hard work and smart work for a long fucking time.

“I believe luck is preparation meeting opportunity. If you hadn't been prepared when the opportunity came along, you wouldn't have been lucky.” — Oprah Winfrey

Taking Luck Into Your Own Hands

You need to change your perspective on luck.

You need to start viewing luck as something that’s in your control. As a combination of hard work and smart work.

This way you can actually take control and implement some luck into your life.

When you view luck as something uncontrollable, you remove your power. You remove your ability to manipulate it in your favour and become lucky.

When you take control, you craft your own luck.

The biggest bit of conventional luck (random chance viewed as favourable) I’ve had in my life is the country and the family I was born into. In regards to that, I’m lucky.

Otherwise, I’ve not had much luck in my life.

That’s not to say I’ve been unlucky - because I haven’t been in the slightest. But “conventional luck” hasn’t played much of a role for me.

Everything I’ve achieved over the past few years has been down to crafted luck.

It’s been through hard work combined with smart work repeated every damn day for the past 4 years. And we’re only just starting.

This is a decades long game that I’m playing.

The Self-Mastery movement is spreading. Every damn day I see more and more people with “Self-Mastery” in their bio. Soon it will be a household term and the next level of self-improvement that the world aims to be on.

There have likely been micro cases of random chance which have benefited me throughout these past few years. But none of these cases of random chance would have led me to where I am without the work.

I would have wasted the opportunities.

You can’t rely on conventional luck if you’re not trying to craft your own.

How To Craft Your Own Luck

So we’ve covered that luck is a combination of hard work and smart work repeated for years upon years.

But what is hard work and what is smart work? Let me explain.

Hard work is classic productivity, discipline and Self-Mastery.

If you want to work hard you need to:

Set your goals 

Make sure they’re reasonably unreasonable, specific and with a deadline

Make a plan

Find the vehicle for your goal (what you need to do to achieve it)

And then break it down into a daily action which you complete every damn day.

Plan your day 

I recommend planning every hour.

This is essential for ensuring you’re able to get what you need to do done (your daily actions) on top of everything else in life.

I break down how I plan my day, deep work, focus and consciously align my life in my Get Shit Done Productivity System. As a subscriber, you can click here to get 50% off.

Perform deep work

When you’re completing your daily actions, you want to complete them to as high a quality as possible.

This requires undistracted focus and flow - which you can't achieve through short shallow work blocks (such as a pomodoro timer).

Deep work is a non-negotiable.

Now, there are more things you can do to work hard.

But these are the foundations, set your direction, make a plan, get shit done. You’ll have a fantastic foundation for working hard.

Now, smart work requires you to combine hard work with:

Training & good nutrition

For peak mental abilities you need to be in peak physical shape.

That requires good nutrition (high protein, low sugar, vitamins and minerals, water)

Training also helps stave off burnout. It relaxes your nervous system with feel-good neurotransmitters.

I went into more detail on the link between success, nutrition and working out in last weeks newsletter. Click here to check it out.

Sleep 

You can’t work hard without good sleep.

Your cognitive function will be minimal and your quality of work will be massively diminished.

If you try to slack on sleep, you’ll burn out and not be able to work hard.

Get 7-9 hours of high-quality sleep every night and you’ll be able to work your ass off.

I go into optimising sleep in a past Self-Mastery Letter - click here to read it.

Meditation + silence

Meditation + silence are 2 keys for mental clarity and mental peace.

When you’re working hard and building something great, your mind gets cluttered.

It’s trying to connect so many dots, recover and do everything else it needs to do whilst being pushed hard daily.

You need to be meditating and sitting in silence daily.

I recommend building up to 10+ minutes / day.

Learning

You can’t generate good output (in terms of ideas) without good input.

So if you want to know what to work on, when to work on it and be able to generate new ideas, take the right steps and make progress toward a goal - you need to prioritise learning.

Whether it’s Youtube, books, courses or coaches.

Learn every damn day.

I go into how to balance action + learning in my 2 hour mastery formula, click here to read it.

Systems + processes to streamline the work

Working hard doesn’t mean being stupid.

Build systems, automate what can be automated, outsource what can be outsourced.

Streamline the process of working hard and you’ll be working smart.

Combine both hard work and smart work over a long enough period of time.

You’ll be prepared enough to seize any opportunity. Which can be presented through random chance or through you creating them.

Without hard work and smart work, all the “luck” in the world won’t give you long-lasting results, progress, or fulfillment.

I’ll finish this newsletter with a quote from the boss;

“When it comes to luck, make your own.” — Bruce Springsteen

- Ross “create your own luck” Harkness

REMINDER: MasteryOS is open for enrollment. There are limited spaces. If you want to achieve Self-Mastery, unlock your true potential, and smash every goal you set, click here. 

When you’re ready, here’s how I can help you:

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• Get actionable advice specific to your situation to help find what's holding you back, boost your mental & physical performance and gain clarity on your next steps toward Self-Mastery. I can help you with: Mindset, Mental + Physical Performance, Long Term + Short Term Direction, Getting Shit Done and/or Social Media. Book a 1:1 call with me by clicking here.

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