You've felt it before: Someone else seems to have the life you want - she's publishing that book while you're struggling with article drafts. He's 5 years younger than you and already an executive at a successful company. She chucked that office job and is now following her dream to be a pastry chef in Paris. And so on.
And you think to yourself: "What am I doing with my life?"
I was struck by this innocent question. I know I’m blessed in many ways – I have loving parents who worked hard to give me and my sister the opportunity to go to college and to build a future for ourselves. Although, I believe “lucky” also means being aware enough to know when an opportunity comes one’s way, and then acting upon it.
I feel that I’ve worked pretty diligently for any positive developments that have come my way. If something means that much to me, I’m pretty much willing to do anything (within reasonable limitations) to try to get there. Usually this means taking a leap of faith, trusting myself enough to know that regardless of the outcome, I have to try going down this path. Often this means that I run up against the wall and get a little banged up in the process, but it’s the only way to find out.
This is how I ended up working for nearly a year in Tokyo; this is how I quit my job and moved to New York City to dance; this is how I landed at my current job that has me splitting time between San Francisco and Beijing.
Do things turn out as I imagine? No, because there’s no way to even guess what things will be like. Do I always make the best decisions? No, and yes. I do make choices that have me run up against really tough situations, and they get brutal, but I know deep down that I’d rather go through it all than to never know.
You can only live it, and learn from it.
Most important, no one is going to set the wheels in motion for you. You have to see the opportunity and work towards positioning yourself. In other words, do something!
As an example, when I learned that the company I was working for was going to have a merger with our Japanese partner, I decided to teach myself Japanese because I hoped I could provide some sort of bridge between the two teams in my department. (It’s not fair that we tend to expect all others to speak English!) Even though my Japanese was beyond awful in the beginning, my efforts at reaching out to people worked; I became the de facto point person and one day my VP called me into the office and told me I was going on assignment to Tokyo. Voila!
Totally intended? Not quite. “Lucky” accident? Maybe. It depends on how you look at it. If you work pointedly towards something, those lucky accidents may come your way, too!
You can only live it, and learn from it.
Most important, no one is going to set the wheels in motion for you. You have to see the opportunity and work towards positioning yourself. In other words, do something!
As an example, when I learned that the company I was working for was going to have a merger with our Japanese partner, I decided to teach myself Japanese because I hoped I could provide some sort of bridge between the two teams in my department. (It’s not fair that we tend to expect all others to speak English!) Even though my Japanese was beyond awful in the beginning, my efforts at reaching out to people worked; I became the de facto point person and one day my VP called me into the office and told me I was going on assignment to Tokyo. Voila!
Totally intended? Not quite. “Lucky” accident? Maybe. It depends on how you look at it. If you work pointedly towards something, those lucky accidents may come your way, too!
Before I close, let me say that I consider myself lucky for having been a part-time pianist - lucky to have made music I loved, helped couples feel romantic to the strains of Cole Porter and George Gershwin, and gotten paid for it! Luck, perhaps, is in the eye of the beholder.
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