There are some things in life that I can influence which might or might not turn out good or bad. There are other things that I have no influence over that also may or may not turn out good or bad.

I feel lucky in my life in total but have worked hard for it. However, I have also suffered bouts of very bad luck that I have no chance of influencing.

Also having the guts to take a risk when a piece of luck arises is also part of 'making ones own luck'.

The word 'luck' is a perversion of the name of the norse god 'loki'. This 'god' used to go around striking people with his powers, people at the time used to do things to appease this god, so the carrying of amulets and such like, you would either get 'good loki' or 'bad loki'.

Of course its a whole load of superstiious crap. I would say that most of what we call luck is a result of our actions, and how we treat people.

We all know that there is a real God that sits in heaven and has a son called Jesus..Amen

I have pondered this very question quite a lot.

I agree with MrsBadger that some people react better to bad things, or pick themselves up, dust themselves down...(musical note emoticon).

Then there is the point that some people work very hard at being lucky. Although there is the view that you have to be in the right time at the right place, espoused by Malcolm Gladwell - eg Bill Gates would not be so successful if he were just getting into computers today - his computer obsession had to coincide with when it was all kicking off.

But there's no denying that there is random luck. Some people just seem to have some kind of magic dust sprinkled all over their lives, whilst others struggle at every turn.

There's an apocryphal tale about a golfer who hit a very tricky shot, and got the ball into the hole. Someone in the crowd shouted out "lucky shot" to which the golfer replied: "funny, but the more I practice, the luckier I get"

Some people call it luck, some people call it spotting opportunities. I think a lot depends on how you see things. An optimistic person will consider themselves lucky even when things are going wrong, whereas a pessimistic person may consider themselves unlucky even when things look OK to an outsider.

Me? I'm lucky to be an optimist.

I was born to poor, alcoholic and disinterested parents too, luckyblackcat!

I made my own luck by getting the fuck away from them!

My DH is a 'you make your own luck type' which is fine for him to say - born into a loving, affluent, educated family and sent to one of the top schools in the UK.

I can see that for him 'making his own luck' may come a lttle easier than to a child born to poor/alcoholic/disinterested parents.

He cannot see this at all and I think this shows a lack of understanding. We have agreed to disagree on this one.

You create your own luck, but shit does happen.

<adjusts bum cheeks on fence>

'more of their fair share of stuff like this'

see the thing I take issue with is that there is even such a thing as a 'fair share' in this situation.

there is no fair

stuff like you describe just happens

you are right, there is no control over it

what people do have control over is how they react to it - whether they waste time hating / blaming / wallowing / beating ourselves up, or reconcile themselves to it, get everything positive they can out of it and move on.

eg people like Miggsie's spendthrift brother who seem to shake off all their setbacks and come out on top, vs ones like her mate who get dragged down

But what about stuff like ill health, someone v close to you dying, infertility, being involved in an accident?

These are not things that you have much control over, they just to happen to you. Some people have more of there fair share of stuff like this. Have they 'created their own bad luck' and therefore are to blame in some way?

hmm
I am a bit of a 'create your own luck' thinker

Many people would look at our family and me and say 'oh you are so lucky - lovely house / area / schools / jobs / kids / business / opportunities etc etc'
I look at it all and think of all the work, effort, money, risks, study, research, agonising decisions etc it took to get here and think how small a part mere luck actually played.
Even when it seems like opportunities have fallen into our laps, a closer look reveals that actually it was networking / doing a good job on a previous project / stopping to chat to someone etc that sparked it, ie a good decision made earlier up the path.

On the other hand we haven't, as a family, suffered any major setbacks that I migth otherwise blame on either bad luck or having made a bad decision somewhere earlier.

Having no regrets is very important, I think.