Luck and Wishes?

[MysterionMuffles]

Does anybody believe in luck and the power of wishing? I've come to realize lately that Luck really = Opportunity + Preparation + Appropriate Action. Oddly enough, I had this realization while playing Soul Calibur V and I had but only a sliver health left before I landed a combo that afforded me a victory. I was then 2-1 with my opponent, and he had a whole round to catch up so we can be 2-2 for a final battle, but I still beat him and he told me that I just got lucky. It's stuff like that that's make me say "I make my own luck," when people tell me "good luck!" Before anything.

 

Also, I used to be a very wishy washy with my life, just wishing I had more money, more friendships, more worthwhile hobbies aside from video games. Excuses like I didn't have the time, or I wasn't enough etc, all these things were just a matter of negative self perception. In the same vain, I fulfill my own wishes (and have done so greatly the past year) by acknowledging that wishing is just wanting without the willpower.

 

What are your thoughts on Luck and Wishes?

[WasatchMan]

The power of wishing?  Are you channeling a teenage girl or something?

 

EDIT: Is the FDR Board now into The Secret or something? Not sure why a little ribbing on the question of "the power of wishing" would be viewed negatively on a philosophy board. 

[MysterionMuffles]

The power of wishing?  Are you channeling a teenage girl or something?

 

Well...I am writing a novel that's in the perspective a teenage girl, but that's besides the point lol.

 

Do you have any thoughts on the actual topic, though, WasatchMan?

[Jeridan Kowal]

Luck: success or failure apparently brought by chance rather than through one's own actions.

 

Seems a little weird to redefine luck as "Opportunity + Preparation + Appropriate Action". Luck is supposed to be chance, a variable that is specifically independent of all others.

 

A quote from Daniel Dennet:
                  "...the point of a randomizing device like a coin flip, [is] to make the result uncontrollable by making it sensitive to so many variables that no feasible, finite list of conditions can be singled out as the cause."
 

As for wishes, just having desires and not acting on them is a paralytic device. Always dreaming, never achieving. Though it may be important to flesh out your plans for the future, goal setting is different than wishing or wishful thinking.

 

Seems like you've already concluded that both luck and wishes are sort of immutable ideas. You still need to act if you want to change your circumstances. So wishes do you no good and luck is out of your control.

[DaVinci]

Also, I used to be a very wishy washy with my life, just wishing I had more money, more friendships, more worthwhile hobbies aside from video games. Excuses like I didn't have the time, or I wasn't enough etc, all these things were just a matter of negative self perception. In the same vain, I fulfill my own wishes (and have done so greatly the past year) by acknowledging that wishing is just wanting without the willpower.

 

What are your thoughts on Luck and Wishes?

To me, that felling of "I wish I had X" is largely a result of the meat grinder we go through as kids. Instead of learning how to make money work for us we learn just enough math to run a cash register. Instead of learning how to communicate and negotiate we learn just enough English to fill out a job application. Instead of learning how to turn our home into a workshop for our dreams we learn to accumulate material goods and turn it into a museum that we only look at in that window between the drudgery of work and sleep we call "life." We drop into the meat grinder, get torn up, and come out only good enough for hamburgers.

 

We have to unlearn to wish for things. We have to learn to take action to make things in our lives happen.

[Romulox]

I would have to agree with both of the above definitions of luck in a way.  While the multitude of variables in our lives produce random successes and failures that we cannot directly control, the actions we take can increase or decrease the long term ratio of successes to failures that we experience. 

 

I wouldn't call Opportunity + Preparation + Action a definition of luck itself, but a strategy to improve or "make" your own luck.  Being aware of random events that may lead to success, knowing in advance how turn opportunity into success, and committing to act on these opportunities will obviously lead to more success and less failure in the long run.  Though possibility of failure is still there, given a stroke of bad luck, it will be less likely. 

 

For example, if my goal is to date a good woman, then the action of volunteering at a soup kitchen will obviously produce more opportunities for success than going to strip clubs.  Who we meet at either location is still completely random and beyond our control, but the action of volunteering will in the long run positively impact my results.  Meanwhile, the guy looking around at strip clubs may say that he is just unlucky as a way to justify his poor decisions and take no further actions to improve his situation. 

 

Wishing by definition requires inaction, at which point you are really only relying on pure, random luck to achieve success. 

[utopian]

You should check out Kabbalah some time, it has some very interesting information on luck and wishes. And yes, you can make your own luck and fulfill your own prophecy. 

 

There is no such thing as "luck" when considering inanimate objects, because if you could ever freeze time and do the math on the variable forces at work, you could always determine exactly what would happen, providing you knew the exact measurements. Now of course you can't freeze time and stuff, but you can largely determine the mechanics of the universe.

 

What falls under the realm of "luck" is consciousnesses other than yourself acting upon the universe to create opportunities that would not have been there if another person had not interacted with the universe.

 

 

 

Now as far as wishing goes, according to string theory (and actually Kabbalah) the universe consists of nothing but vibrating strings. The universe consists only of varying levels of vibration...of music. So, if you were to create vibrations in the world...hum, whistle...sing...PRAY...your thoughts would influence the world with your vibrations. Your song would join the song of the universe. Your wish would become part of the world, and just might have a chance of creating enough influence to make it true.