you’ve got to ask youself one question: do I feel lucky?

“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” Seneca

“Shallow men believe in luck, wise and strong men in cause and effect.” Emerson

“Chance never helps those who do not help themselves.” Sophocles

“I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.” Jefferson

“You make your own luck, Gig. You know what makes a good loser? Practice.” Hemingway

Can a person be lucky?  People say it all the time – good luck – but what does it mean?  Preparation meets opportunity, the culmination of hard work?  Or is it blind randomness, the roll of the dice?

Training gets you only so far on race day.  This I know, this I understand.  There are uncontrollable factors at play, things all the preparation in the world cannot thwart: rain and weather woes, angry dogs, potholes, rogue cramps, recurring injuries, fatigue.  Is ‘luck’ the product of those uncontrollable factors?  And why is that a list of negatives, the things we hope don’t happen but know are possible – do people wish others luck to ward against the negatives or to encourage the positives?  Is good luck simply the absence of bad luck?

When it comes to race day luck, I take training as my baseline and from there consider the bad things that can and often do go wrong from there.  My ‘luck’ is – has been – mental steeling for those uncontrollable events that derail the hopes and goals I’ve pinned on my preparatory efforts.  Maybe it’s the lawyer in me, I consider the negatives so I can safeguard against them as much as possible.  But in racing, in life, that’s not always feasible.  There are things over which I have no control.

So I wonder, as I am wished “good luck” for race day, is it luck I’m hoping for and if so what does that mean?  I’ve trained, I’ve put in the miles and hours, but there are some things no amount of training can account for.  Is good luck having those factors swing in my favor?  I so seldom consider the things that can go right.  At Augusta, I could find the rolling hills of the bike course suit me. My run may come together as it never has.  The heavens and stars may align.  Everything may go right.  It could.  It happens. If it does, is that luck, serendipity smiling down upon me?  Hm. This doesn’t quite suit me, doesn’t sit right with me.  It feels too much like relinquishing control to a higher power, it undermines my role in the process.  If I have a good day, if I have a bad day, it’s on me, my preparation, my hard work.  It’s not simply serendipity at play. It can’t be.

So.  What of Emerson’s cause and effect?  In sport, where there are so many things beyond my control, I initially thought the concept didn’t quite hold … but maybe it does.  Maybe I’m missing something.  Maybe I’m missing the part where I make my own luck, that’s the cause and effect.  Although I cannot control everything on race day, I can control how I react, how I think about it.  That’s the part where I make my luck, where I control the factors beyond my control.  I can focus on the negatives and let them get to me or I can choose to take what the day gives me, good and bad. Maybe the ability to focus on the good and draw every ounce from it is the heart of luck.  Instead of thinking about the things that can go wrong, I need to understand that they can, certainly, but I need to remember that it doesn’t matter unless I let it.  Good luck doesn’t have to be about the absence of bad luck.  It shouldn’t be.

So.  It’s true, preparation will only take me so far on race day.  I do need some luck.  And if you wish me luck, I’ll take it as a reminder to focus on the good.

And right now?  Yes. I do feel lucky.

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~ by debs on September 17, 2011.