Friday August 12, 2022: Greetings from Toronto, Ontario.
I am writing this article after going to a fantastic brunch restaurant located in the Leslieville district called Bonjour Brioche. It's a quaint bakery with amazing brunch options. If you're in Toronto, I definitely recommend checking it out.
This week, I have taken a break from reading books and have been opting for music and a podcast as my morning commute indulgence.
Album of choice has been Honestly, Nevermind by Drake.
Podcast I recommend everyone listen to: Huberman Lab - Specifically I listened to the episode titled: Sleep Toolkit: Tools for Optimizing Sleep & Sleep-Wake Timing.
Increasing your Luck.
I have always been graced with good luck. I like to say I am not a superstitious person, but I like to think extraordinary things are possible with enough ground work and time:
UNCOMFORTABLE TRUTH:
— Pomp 🌪 (@APompliano) October 2, 2020
The conflation of "luck" and "randomness" is one of the most intellectually lazy things we do in our society.
Time for a thread 👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽
I believe it is easy to increase our luck. The answer isn't just to increase the amount of work you do, but a few changes in behavior.
Step 1: Dress for Success.
Successful people know that dressing well is the easiest thing you can do to become luckier because others take notice of you, and they may be more inclined to respect what you have going on.
Dressing for success is the easiest thing you can do to become lucky because it will make feel more confident, and people take your work seriously. This starts a powerful positive feedback loop that helps our self-esteem grow with every interaction.
Dress like you are going to meet the love of your life everyday.
Step 2: Show up.
You need to show up for things to happen. It's as simple as that.
After the end of the larger waves of lockdowns, a lot of VDC Coordinators were hesitant to go back to the office, understandably so. I was no different, but instead of requesting full remote, I worked out a middle ground, that gives me a few days at the end of the week to work from home.
This simple action, brought countless opportunities and responsibilities to my lap. I have been given a raise over 20%. I handle several critical aspects on my projects that is outside of my scope. Now I am being handed responsibilities of a Project Manager - which comes with it's own perks. My team never has an issue with communicating with me and constantly elevates me. At the same time, I am able to maximize my time with my family and invest time into personal passion projects as well.
This is all to reiterate the only way these opportunities can show up is by being present in others minds. This works with remote work as well, be the person that pushes for team events, always open to discuss issues or just jumps on short calls to check up on others.
Be present, not just in the room, but in others minds.
Step 3: Learn Skills that are In-Demand.
You don't need to learn everything about a specific topic. The goal is to learn about new skills and know how to efficiently communicate around new subjects. You do not need to be a master in all of them.
For example, I am a Civil Engineering graduate, but I went out of my way to earn my PMP as soon as I could. For my purposes, project management skills are easily transferrable to any industry. I gained the skills so I can openly communication with other industry specialists in Software, Pharmaceuticals, Mechanical, etc.
Become a jack of all trades, and a master of one.
Step 4: Create Opportunities to ask Questions.
Being able to ask good questions will build a lot of good rapport with others.
Asking quality questions shows that you care about the other person and their expertise. Use the other steps to help you find quality open ended questions. This will help you learn new skills, and it is also a form of showing up.
My ability to ask quality questions is what brought me industry mentors who were actively invested in seeing me succeed.
Ask questions to build relationships, doing so will increase the investment capital others have in you.
Step 5: Cast your Net of Influence.
Have you ever been with someone that makes the room light up the moment they walk in?
Everyone stops what they are doing to say hello, and proceeds to have natural conversation that elevates that person. You don't need to be a celebrity to have this impact.
Simple steps to start casting a net of influence:
- Consistently show up or frequent an establishment.
- Learn others names, and greet them with their names.
- Create a zone of comfort and positivity.
- Uplift others accomplishments.
- Strive to connect people from different groups.
Be positive, connect and uplift others and your zone of influence will expand.
Step 6: Consider Yourself Luckier.
There has been many psychological studies done where you can change your luck purely by changing your mindset.
Positive people tend to be significantly luckier.
Negative people tend to be significantly unluckier.
9) So why is it important to separate luck and random chance?
— Pomp 🌪 (@APompliano) October 2, 2020
Studies show that you can change your "luck" by simply changing your mindset.
Be positive, you become luckier. Be negative, you become unluckier.
Change your mind, change your luck. pic.twitter.com/AScZyXj0py
Simple, change your mindset, change your luck.
That's it, there is 6 steps you can take to make yourself luckier.
What else would you add?
Thank you for reading. See you all next week!