Preparation + Opportunity = “LUCK”
Preparation + Opportunity = “LUCK”
“LUCK” = Laboring Under Correct Knowledge
Here is a great exercise to get your year off on the right path.
Set aside a couple hours to relax and mentally walk forward through the past year.
Write down on a separate sheet of paper everything that occurred as a significant event or personal shift from your prior life. I call this my “Acknowledgements & Accomplishments” list.
Allow yourself to err on the side of writing down too much (one of my lists had 24 items) and give specific, measurable results when applicable.
Spend an hour or more on this portion of the process alone, as it can be incredibly uplifting and validating.
Then, write down the following:
- Accomplishments from last year that pleased you the most and what elements did you have in place so that you could accomplish these things?
- Obstacles/fears you overcame/challenges you faced last year and what motivated you to break through them? Who celebrated with you?
- What business or career situations changed/improved last year?
- Ways that you surprised yourself or others last year and who knew?
- What mistakes did you make last year that you do NOT want to repeat and who will hold you accountable?
- What was disappointing to you last year and what can you do to avoid repeating similar disappointments? Who knew the depth of your disappointment?
- Who or what stretched you the most last year?
- Who or what brought you the most delight/laughter/love last year?
- For what, are you most truly thankful?
- What are your major life and career goals for this next year?
- Who will hold you accountable to your newly established goals next year?
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Want to Get Lucky?
These four principles can create good fortune in your life and career:
1. Maximize Chance Opportunities
Lucky people are skilled at creating, noticing and acting upon chance opportunities. They do this is various ways, including building and maintaining a strong network, adopting a relaxed attitude to life, and being open to new experiences.
2. Listen to Your Lucky Hunches
Lucky people make effective decisions by listening to the intuition and gut feelings. They also take steps to actively boost their intuitive abilities and clearing their mind of negative thoughts.
3. Expect Good Fortune
Lucky people are certain the future will be bright. Over time, that expectation becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy because it helps lucky people persist in the face of failure and positively shapes their interactions with other people.
4. Turn Bad Luck Into Good
Lucky people employ various psychological techniques to cope with, and even thrive upon, the ill fortune that comes their way. For example, they spontaneously imagine how things could have been worse, they don’t dwell on the ill fortune, and they take control of the situation.

Follow Hire Consulting on Linkedin for talent management solutions and executive career transition coaching to help reach your full potential.
Mark James, CPC is the founder and CEO of Hire Consulting Services (HCS). Established in 1999, HCS is a highly customized executive outplacement and career coaching firm for executive-level professionals.
Mark is equipped with over 25 years of experience in Executive Career Management Coaching, as well as Outplacement and Executive Search Consulting. He is the author of the three best-selling books—Keys to the C Suite: Unlock the Doors to Executive Career Path Success, The Interview Mindset: The Ultimate Guide to Mastering Your Career, and The Recruiter Mindset: The Ultimate Guide to Working with Executive Search Recruiters.
Mark uses a proven and successful strategy and structured process to fully enable his clients to conduct a professional job search campaign and with the singular goal of securing their next career opportunity in significantly less time it would take without a career coach. Clients gain a new perspective of their marketing value coupled with executing a strategic plan and closing the deal on their new role in their next job.


