There's an ancient Chinese story about a farmer who bought a horse. The next day, the horse runs away.
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The farmer's neighbour says to the farmer, "Oh your horse ran away; that is bad luck."
The farmer responds, "Good luck, bad luck, who can say?"
Days later, the horse returns, and with it, a herd of wild horses.
The neighbour, seeing this good fortune, congratulates the farmer. "You are rich now! You have many horses. This is good luck."
The farmer responds, "Good luck, bad luck, who can say?"
The farmer gifts one of the horses to his son.
His son rides the horse, only to be thrown from its back, badly breaking his leg.
"This is bad luck now!", says the neighbour.
The farmer replies, "Good luck, bad luck, who can say?"
Days later, the emperor, a bloodthirsty and vengeful man, summons every able-bodied young man to fight in an unwinnable war in a foreign land. The farmer's son is spared because of his broken leg.
"The neighbour exclaims, "Your son's life has been spared from certain death! This is surely good luck!"
The farmer replies, "Good luck, bad luck, who can say?"
I can still remember the first game of golf I ever played. I was in my mid-20s on the Gold Coast and I parred on my very first hole ever.
Beginner's luck you're thinking? I thought: "This is my game!"
The second hole went not so well, but anyone can have a bad hole, right?
The third hole went badly, as did the fourth and... well, you can guess how this game ended.
Have I had any luck paying golf since then?
Well, I'm no Shane Lowry, however a few years ago I entered a prestigious golf tournament in Albury and took out the prize for the longest drive. True story.
I drove from Wagga to Albury and back again just for the tournament which at 256km was easily the longest drive of the day and I was even given a prize for this "achievement".
One of the elderly competitors had to retire hurt, so I'm musing I must have beaten at least him, so I know I didn't come last. But golf is a frustrating game.
American golfer David Duval last week posted the worst score at the British Open on a single hole in 69 years and the second worst score in the tournament's history with 14 strokes.
Surely this is bad luck? Well, for him maybe, it wouldn't be quite as bad luck for me.
My worst is 20 strokes on the one hole, but it wasn't my fault, it was the owners of the golf course. They put a dirty bunker on the course and filled it with sand! And where did they put it?
Well, for him maybe, it wouldn't be quite as bad luck for me. My worst is 20 strokes on the one hole, but it wasn't my fault, it was the owners of the golf course.
Right next to the green where everybody is aiming for! But 20 strokes? Surely this was just bad luck.
Gary Player, a South African retired professional golfer who is widely considered to be one of the greatest golfers of all time had a saying, he admits he didn't make up, but lived by: "The more I practice the luckier I get!"
In his 2003 book The Luck Factor psychologist Richard Wiseman researched why some people seem to have all the luck and others seem to experience predominantly only bad luck.
Wiseman put it down to four reasons: lucky people act upon the chance opportunities of their life; secondly, lucky people tend to follow their intuition, unlucky people do not.
Thirdly, lucky people tend to expect good things (surprise, surprise - they're optimists) and finally, lucky people see their well-being is not grounded in circumstance, and so they cope better with the ups and downs of life.
Wiseman noticed that when bad luck does strike, the lucky people in life often find the luck within that moment by imagining how things could have been much worse.
They take control of the situation, and move on.
Jesus said, "When you ask for something, believe you have already received it."
Maybe the playwright Tennesse Williams was right after all when he said, "Luck is believing you're lucky."