"Serendipity": Is it bad luck that prevents results? #26
"I don't get results because I'm unlucky."
Have you ever felt that way?
When you are working hard but not being rewarded, it is easy to blame "luck."
But does that "luck" really exist?
In contrast, here is a quote from Pasteur, the French bacteriologist and chemist known as the father of modern bacteriology.
"Chance favors only the prepared mind."
■ The concept of serendipity
I learned about this term when I heard a lecture by neuroscientist Kenichiro Mogi.
"Serendipity"
It is the ability to notice accidental good fortune and make use of it.
Regarding this term, Akira Suzuki, who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2010, said the following:
"Even if you have the opportunity to encounter good fortune, whether you can make use of it—how you respond to it—is what matters."
In other words—
chances come to everyone, but whether you can seize them is a different matter.
■ Great people did not overlook "coincidence"
There is a famous example.
Newton got the hint for universal gravitation from the sight of an apple falling, a scene everyone else overlooked.
The same goes for Alfred Nobel, the founder of the Nobel Prize.
While researching liquid explosives, he did not overlook a "leak" that occurred by chance, and from that, he discovered the manufacturing method for dynamite.
There is one thing common to both.
They did not let the coincidence end as "just an event."
Chance is proportional to the "amount of action"
To speak realistically here,
if we assume that "a chance comes once in 100 times,"
if you act 1000 times, the chances increase to 10.
In other words, part of the true nature of luck is simply the amount of action.
People who feel that "chances don't come to me"
might just be lacking in the "number of attempts."
Common traits of people who still don't get results
However, there is one problem here.
There are people who work very hard but still don't get results.
Their amount of action is high.
They are gaining experience.
Yet, it doesn't lead to results.
Why?
It is because—
there is a possibility that they are not noticing the chances.
The difference between those who notice and those who miss
So, where does that difference lie?
The cocktail party effectis a concept.
It is the phenomenon where, no matter how noisy the surroundings are, you can naturally distinguish your own name or the voices of acquaintances.
Thisis also called the principle of focusing,and people unconsciously pick up "information they recognize as important."
At the root of this is "mindfulness."
Simply put, mindfulness is
"a state of being conscious of the present moment without unnecessary distractions."For example, it is a state like Zazen or meditation.
You are relaxed, yet your senses are sharp.
You are not fixated on one point, but are perceiving the whole softly.
There is also a quote from Miyamoto Musashi like this:
"Do not place too much attention on one thing. You must look at the whole softly."
Impatience narrows your field of vision
The more you try to produce results, the narrower your field of vision becomes.
• I don't want to fail
• I must choose the correct answer
• I want to proceed efficiently
When such impatience and emotions become strong,
you overlook options and chances that you should have been able to see.
Conversely, if you are in a mindful state,
• You can perceive the situation broadly
• You can notice subtle changes
• You can make flexible judgments
As a result, it becomes easier to pick up chances.
Good fortune is not "something to wait for"
To summarize up to this point,
• Chances are proportional to the amount of action
• However, it is meaningless if you don't notice them
• To notice them, you need a prepared state of consciousness
This is what it comes down to.
In other words—
good fortune is not a coincidence, but a "structure."
We live in an era where time performance and cost performance are emphasized,
but if you only pursue efficiency, you will overlook important things.
What is necessary is:
• Increasing the amount of action
• And being in a state where you can notice
These two things.
Chances are not something you invite, nor something you wait for.
They are something you can only grasp after you have done everything you should do.
At that time, serendipity will surely be on your side.