Is good luck a choice?

[Melissa 13]

This weekend I had a conversation with friends that came up when we had a get together at the beach. My friend stood up, took a deep breath and said how lucky we are to live in the beautiful city of Barcelona sharing all these amazing experiences. I agreed while another girl said that she thinks good luck is a choice as she choose to live and build her life here just as it is. But I don't think that everybody has the same privilege of "good luck" as for example I do.

In my case, I grew up in a stable environment, we never had financial trouble and on top of that my German passport that gives me the opportunity to live, work and travel easily all over the world. I am very grateful for that and for sure do choose to be happy and live a lucky life. However, I am not sure if "good luck" always comes down to a choice.

What do you think about that...? 

[Enriqueto 21]

We are fundamentally the product of randomness AKA luck. Just think how your parents meet each other and conceived you, how your grandparents meet each other ... and so on. We unique individuals are the result of a very long chain of ancestors with a lot of circumstances involved.

[Yvonne 122]

interesting question. I think it's both. Good luck and a choice. For example I live in Barcelona because it was my own choice, yes. I did it because I followed an inner voice even my parents were against it. But I admit that I had also good luck in my life. Just the fact that I was born healthy is good luck and a lot of lucky circumstances happend afterwards.

[vind111 27]

In my experience life is nothing but the collections of decisions that we have taken. Meaning the choices that we have taken at different important times. So the luck that manifests within our lives is actually most of the time a choice or decision we have taken at some point.

So another question would be what makes us take better decisions or choices? I personally believe our associations. The friends the people we associate throughout our lives will drive us to make the better choice or the decision. 

[Guest User 2]

I believe that it depends on what you mean by luck. Because looking at the context, it seems like with luck you wanted to express the gratitude you feel for being in Barcelona. If that is the case, you can always allow yourself to feel lucky, because there are always reasons to feel grateful. So yes, luck is a choice.

Yet, personally I believe that it doesn't really matter if one was born in lucky circumstances or not. We cannot change the circumstances that we where born with. Therefore, it's a matter of what kind of use we make out of life rather then what kind of life we posses. Worrying about what we cannot change will bring us to unhappiness. Focusing on what we can change and, if we have the courage, take on the journey in changing it is what can bring us happiness. Looking at your example, it didn't really matter where you came from (Germany). What mattered is the decision you took to go to Barcelona in order to lead the life that you want to live. Being able to do that, to have courage to take a step no matter the circumstances is where real freedom and therefore happiness lies in.