Some things just happen.
Art : Home sweet home.
By Sakuan.
Is success predicated on luck or hard work, or maybe both? Is it healthy to tell people hard work pays? From what I’ve seen hard work doesn’t always pay, sometimes, it just wasn’t your lucky day. I used to beat myself up a lot when something didn’t go my way even though I gave it my all, putting myself down all the time wasn’t helping, so I came to realize one thing, sometimes things happen because that’s how the world is, things just happen.
Here is a quick scenario, you play for a basketball team that works so hard, and in your finals game there’s a second left on the clock, your team is leading the game by two points, for the win, the other team hits a lucky shot from the other side of the court. Let that sink in, of course you’ll be sad you lost, that’s a normal human feeling considering the situation, it’s natural, but for you to beat yourself up trying to analyze everything and tell yourself you could’ve done something better in that situation doesn’t really make sense, because if the other team didn’t hit that lucky shot you probably would have never had such thoughts. If you know deep inside you tried your best, you gave it your all, and don’t lie to yourself about this either, if that’s the case then there’s no need to beat yourself up, some things just happen.
An undesirable thing would happen in my life and I would spend a lot of time trying to figure out what I did wrong. In some cases, sure, there was something I did wrong, and I was honest with myself and tried to improve, but in some cases that wasn’t it, in some cases, there was nothing I could’ve done, and with that, there was nothing to learn from, things just happened because things just happen in life. A good example that might be relatable is when I started posting my art on social media, I didn’t get the amount of attention I thought I deserved, out of nowhere I would beat myself up trying to figure out what I was doing wrong, and then I looked at other artists works and how they get more likes than me, I would give almost anything at the time to get the attention they got, but then I realized something important that changed my whole view. The artists with all that attention I wish I had at the time were also trying to figure out what they were doing wrong that led them not to get the number of likes the artists on top of them had. A vicious cycle, it’s never enough, we always want more. To be fair, I think there is this fear of losing it all or going back to a state where you didn’t have anything. Think about it, there’s someone out there who’s doing exactly what you’re doing, and they don’t work as hard as you, and yet they’re successful in that thing, what is that, LUCK?
How do you maximize your luck? What is luck? According to the google dictionary, luck is success or failure apparently brought by chance rather than through one’s own actions. That makes sense, I think luck is underrated because due to our own bias we tend to think everything we do is because of our own actions. For example, a lot of people got to be successful because of someone they knew, that’s why in a lot of career paths it’s common to hear people say, “you should network because you never know.” I think that statement is predicated on luck, that’s the whole essence of the reason as to why we should network, luck is a big part of our success. Being someone who was born and raised in a third-world country, I know I am lucky living in America, a lot of people who are born and raised in America won’t feel the same way because the American life is all they know, I guess that makes luck subjective. The more I think about it, just about everything is subjective because of our different perspectives on life. It is hard to convince someone, especially a successful person, how lucky they are. When you work hard on something and succeed you tend to think your actions contributed 100% to your success, but that’s not the case, theirs always luck, either it be 1% luck or 99% luck, luck is always in the mix because in whatever you want to accomplish in life there is always this; you had the option to participate in the thing that brought you success, not everybody has that option, some are restricted physically and some mentally, at the end of the day you were lucky to even have the opportunity to participate in that thing that made you successful, that makes sense right?
That begs the question, what will happen to me if everything doesn’t go my way and in the end, I end up not acquiring success?
Before I had my website, my art, and my writings, my answer would’ve been morbid, I can only imagine how sad I was back then. I didn’t have anything at all to show for my existence, “why am I here, why do I exist? This thought crept up in my mind from time to time. I’ve always considered myself a strong-minded person, so I can only imagine what a weak-minded person would go through with such thoughts creeping up on them. Well, back to the question, what if it doesn’t go my way?
I guess some things just happen. All I know is, at this point in my life, with my mentality, my values, and my thoughts, I know I’m working the hardest that I can, while also trying to improve just to get where I need to get. In the future if I look back and see there’s something I could’ve done differently, which is highly plausible, at least I’ll know with the mentality, values, and thoughts I had back then I did my best, I really tried my best. Right now all I’m doing is trying to increase the chances of being successful, at least I have the privilege to do that, I’m healthy, I have all my five senses intact and I’m grateful for that, I have a family that makes a lot of sacrifices for me and they don’t even know they’re doing it, I hope it’s not in vain, I’m trying my best to make sure it’s not in vain, please don’t be in vain.
(I can’t help but tear up)
