Luck and faith: Making sense of close misses
There are moments in our lives where we were so close to achieving something and we lost it by a whisker. Regrets fill the mind with agony and getting over it is an uphill task. Regrets reduce with time when this becomes a habit.
No matter how good you are, you always fall short. There's no reason for it, at least most of the time. It's just the way your life is wired that you can never have it easy. I have faced such instances like very simple easy things like getting a straightforward signature from your superior to incredibly important moments like passing an exam, I have always had it tough that I had to do it the hard way. Life moves so fast that we don't get time to look back on these moments. We usually feel sorry and regret how things could have and should have gone but it never did. But, it's not us. It's just what it is.
I know reasons are for losers and these are not excuses for falling short. It's just a character trait that's beyond comprehension or explanation. I don't know how many can relate with this but luck is a privilege. I have been lucky only a handful of times. Maybe 'cause of the same, I have mixed opinions with luck. To call someone lucky is to discredit their hard work they put in for it. At the same time looking at those who missed out by an inch, you can never stop the feeling that "had he had some luck, he would have got it done". Sometimes luck is the last piece of puzzle that everyone needs.
My mom interprets luck as faith. I have been vocal about my beliefs or the lack of it. I wrote one of the exams which I failed and it turned out I had the application filled out wrong. After a couple of years, I went to this big nation wide competition but could secure only the 4th place, so close yet so far. I look back at these as two different incidents that didn't have any connection. But, my mom calls this as a repercussion for my lack of faith. I will never know if the results of these incidents would have changed had I had faith and "prayed" the "god". I understand it now as a coping mechanism.
The reason for bringing these incidents here is that luck is like faith. You can believe or not believe, it doesn't matter. It happens as it wishes to be. When you fail with faith, you can compensate with empty theories like "the god has better things in the store for me" but in case of luck, you can't. It's just a black hole.
This was running on my mind this evening and I thought I would write about it. When things don't go your way or you have to jump through hoops every single time, understand it's just the way life works. Suck it up!
