A Matter of Luck

There are an amazing number of instances that I have noticed this summer seeming to indicate that luck is a big part of our life's successes. This year's Tour de France had two that I remember now. First, Lance Armstrong was having a strong race in the early stages and even though one of the oldest racers, he was a favorite to win. However, on a day where the course traveled over some rough patches of cobblestoned-road, Armstrong crashed losing valuable time. Later in a mountain stage, he had three crashes and it seemed to me none of them were avoidable or were his fault. This ended his chances of another Tour victory. Farther along in the race, Andy Schleck was poised to make an attack to gain time on rival riders when his chain slipped off his gears. The Tour winner Alberto Contador took advantage of the mishap and finished that stage in the lead. Had his chain not slipped, I feel as though Schleck would have won.

Earlier in July, I was personally in a race where two soloists lost their place in the lead when they got a flat tire in the road biking section or broke the chain on their mountain bike. The winner of the race was very deserving and his achievement should not be shaded in any way, however it was on the tails of misfortune that he came out on top.

I've been preparing very hard this summer for the upcoming hunting season this Fall. It has been sad to not be able to hunt in at home the past several years while going to school in Abilene. My parents bought me a bow for graduation and I've been becoming more and more accurate as the months have passed, increasing my chances of killing an elk since bow season happens during their rut, when the bulls are bugling and looking to build their harem of cows. In the 9 years or so that I've been old enough to hunt, I have never killed an elk. Yet there are people that kill a bull every year. Somehow it doesn't seem fair, maybe some people have more luck than I do.

Reflecting on these three examples, I realize that there is an inevitable amount of chance in everything we do. Tires get punctured, the wind blows arrows askew, etc. If you do something long enough, I can almost guarantee that luck will seem to be with us sometimes and fighting for our opponents at others. What sets those who seem to consistently in the lead at the end of the race are those who give themselves the best shot. In other words, being in the right place at the right time has just as much to do with the win as does your good luck or someone else's bad luck.

Contador was in phenomenal physical condition and raced strategically well enough to take the lead. The winner of the local race could not have won the race even which his opponents' flat tire and broken chain had he not been training for the competition and been close enough to the lead in the first place. Sometimes you luck out and stumble upon a herd of elk, but if you spend enough time scouting, locating, and target practicing, you can better take advantage of the opportunities when they present themselves.

So I don't think I can quite say that luck doesn't exist. However, if you put in the time and effort, you should be able to make your own.