Very early in my career, I worked a day job writing for Lifehacker. One of my favorite posts was about how to create your own luck. The piece featured research from neurologist James H. Austin, who suggested there were four types of luck.

One of these types is specific to your own personal preferences, inclinations, and interests. For example, Alexander Fleming chose to attend his school not because he was interested in bacteria—but because he was familiar with it after playing water polo against its team. A handful of happy accidents later, he discovered penicillin.

The other types of luck aren’t as special; one is entirely out of our control, the second is effectively a numbers game (try a lot of stuff, and unluckiness runs out), and the third is based on awareness (you develop expertise and notice an opportunity everybody else misses).

Since we all live life moving forwards, and can only connect the dots by looking into the past, it helps to keep a sense of precursive faith.

It also helps to listen to yourself a little more. As much as your commitments allow, pull back from the people and opportunities that you feel drained by, and move closer to the people and opportunities that energize you. 

P.S., Another useful mental model: luck as a surface area. Jason Roberts phrases the metaphor like this, “The amount of serendipity that will occur in your life, your Luck Surface Area, is directly proportional to the degree to which you do something you’re passionate about combined with the total number of people to whom this is effectively communicated.”  Note the emphasis on passion.

P.P.S., Sometimes, I still feel silly writing every day at this blog, over a decade after the medium peaked in popularity. While I’m not sure where it will lead me to, it gives me energy for many other parts of my life.