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Welcome to the ThinkerNick Newsletter! This is a FREE weekly publication where I’ll share key life lessons, up-to-date trends, and the tools and techniques I use in this journey called life. Expect insights on health, wealth, finance, lifestyle, community, and fresh new perspectives to help you thrive. I hope this brings as much VALUE to your life as it does to mine. I’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to reply and share your feedback. Happy Days!

Good Luck vs Hard Work

You often hear people say, wow, you're so lucky!

What they fail to realize is that most of the time, the "lucky" people have generally worked really hard to put themselves into a position to become lucky.

I enjoy talking about the subject of luck because I've always believed that we create our own luck and the luck we receive in life is based on the effort we put in.

There are of course exceptions, so I took a look at luck in a bit more detail.

There are 4 types of luck:

1) Blind Luck: This luck is completely out of your control. Things like random occurrences and life circumstances. (Lucky)

2) Luck From Motion: You create motion and collisions through hustle and energy that you are inserting into the ecosystem. This then opens you up to more lucky events or opportunities. (Hard work)

3) Luck From Awareness: The result of your awareness and your depth of understanding of a specific area. Having a deep understanding of this area allows you to position yourself for lucky breaks. (Timing)

4) Luck From Uniqueness: This is luck that seeks you out when your unique set of attributes attracts specific luck to you. (Value proposition)

What did I take away from this?

Almost everyone I know who became lucky was a result of hard work.

Are they lucky? Perhaps, but deserving, even more so.

I touch on the subject of luck in more detail in this newsletter. Check it out here.

What are your thoughts on luck?

If you have 12 minutes to spare, take a look at this awesome video from Veritasium’s youtube channel.

Here is a quick summary of what you can expect:

• Egocentric Bias: We often think we’re doing more than others, even if it’s not true.

• Role of Luck: Success is also about luck, like being born in the right place at the right time.

• Perception of Fairness: Successful people might overlook luck and think it’s all their own doing.

• Humility and Generosity: Knowing luck’s role can make you more humble and willing to help others.

• Balancing Effort and Luck: Believe in your efforts, but also recognize that luck plays a part in success.

This quote has completely changed my perspective on personal accountability.

Remember that time you put something off, didn’t go to the gym or didn’t finish the work you told yourself you would do?

These are just some examples of little promises we keep to ourselves everyday that we don’t follow through on.

The problem with this is, every small promise you break, compounds.

It creates a ripple effect and eventually translates into bad habits or negative thought patterns.

Too often in life people forgive themselves for not getting something done and used the excuse of “I tried my best”.

This is actually just a cop out because if they were truly doing their best then they would be doing what they told themselves they would do.

I’ve decided to reframe this quote for myself going forward.

Do what is necessary and do it to the best of your ability.

Morning pages is a technique that is used by high level professionals for creativity and problem solving.

It is a daily journaling practice where you write one to three pages of anything you think of as soon as you wake up.

This helps to clear your mind and boost creativity.

I have been using it for problems I am dealing with in my life.

I write down what I’m thinking as soon as I wake up.

I don’t read the pages again. I tear them up and throw them straight in the bin.

This allows me to free space in my mind and reduce negative emotions like fear, anxiety and stress.

It won’t solve your problems but it is a way to allow your mind to process and release them, making it easier to focus on solutions rather than getting stuck with the negative thoughts in your head.

When you give an emotion a name, it loses power over you.

By letting go of what you’ve written down, you’re symbolically letting go of the weight those thoughts carry. This gives you a fresh start each day.

It's a simple yet powerful habit that helps you move forward with a clearer and more positive mindset.

It has been really effective in my life so far.

Give it a try and let me know what you think!

In case you missed last week's newsletter, I spoke about:

The Limitless Model: Jim Kwik's approach to achieving goals through mindset, motivation, and methods.

The Investing Expert: Scott Galloway's advice on wealth-building, investing, and networking for financial success.

Let Go of The Outcome: Edward De Bono's wisdom on adapting to life's challenges and a journaling technique to turn adversity into opportunity.

The Brain Score: A tool to assess and improve your brain health.

Check it out here.

Feel free to share this if you gained any value from it. Feedback is also welcome.

THANKS FOR READING, LEGENDS!