Latest / The On Purpose Podcast / Ep. 356 – Lucky Is a Lie; The Work Behind Success
Transcript
- The On Purpose Podcast: You are listening to the On Purpose Podcast. Hey everybody, it's Jared Hardy here. If the On Purpose Podcast has sparked something in you, maybe a shift, a question, or a deeper dive, my excellence and leadership course is built to help you act upon it. This isn't just about leading others. It's about leading yourself with intention, resilience, and clarity. Whether you're an individual chasing growth or a team ready to level up. I offer custom coaching and speaking engagements to meet you where you are. Visit teamhardy.net and let's grow with purpose. What's up, everybody? Welcome to this week's edition of the show and welcome to July. It's hard to believe we're in the midst of summer. Hopefully you're enjoying some, you know, some slower-paced time, getting outdoors, maybe some barbecues. Whatever it is you enjoy about this time of year, I hope you're enjoying it. And this ⁓ this week I'm I'm excited to share something I've been thinking about and pondering for a while. And and some of you have heard me talk about this in the past. And I looked through and I was like, gosh, how how have I not done an episode on this? And ⁓ it's time. It's time as we've been making changes in our lives over the last few years and accepting new challenges and by the time you hear this we'll just ran the Copper Kings one hundred, our first attempt at an ultra a hundred mile ultra marathon, which still seems daunting to me, but but we're excited for it is I want to talk about the word lucky. And and people love the word lucky. It's it it's one of the easiest ways to explain somebody else's success. Right? And notice why I said there, it's easy to explain somebody else's success. is to say they got lucky. Cause you hardly ever explain your own success as, ⁓ I just got lucky. Because you realize the hard work that took place. You realize the risk and and the decisions that took place. Because when we say other people got lucky, it means we're not looking at our own effort, our own choices, and our own willingness to take those risks. Right? Think about this. It's comments that you'll you'll you might actually say to people, and this isn't ⁓ an accusatory or ⁓ hey, you're doing this. This is a hey, let me reflect on. Am I dismissing other people's success? Am I minimizing what other people have done with comments like, ⁓ it must be nice. ⁓ they got lucky, right place, right time. Right? We say it like it's harmless. But it's not. It's dismissive. Right? Think about if you're talking to your children or or people you get to lead, and you're like, ⁓ you got lucky, or ⁓ it must be nice. You're dismissing all the other energy, effort, thoughts, time that went into them producing the results you now see as luck. Right? It's A lot of times we use terms like that as a protecting ourselves from the uncomfortable truth that most of what we cause luck is actually work. that we didn't see, sacrifices we didn't personally make, and the risk we weren't really willing to take. Right. And and and I receive it that way at times, right? Like I've received it. I'm wondering if you received it that way. When people say lucky, you're like, ⁓ man, that just kind of sting. Like, was I really lucky? Like to me, here's where I say luck is, right? Like putting diesel in the truck on accident. I was lucky that there was an awesome repair shop nearby. I didn't create the repair shop. I didn't earn the repair shop. I didn't do any of the work to make that happen. I was lucky that the circumstance allowed me to have somebody good to help me out. That's luck. I was lucky that the tornado missed our neighborhood and went in a different direction. I didn't do anything to prevent it. I didn't do anything to stop it. I was lucky that Mother Nature took a different course. Right? When I'm not lucky is when we work at something. And when we're around people and they're sharing maybe their success with us or we're seeing their success with us or seeing their success through our lens, when we tell somebody they're lucky, what does that really say? A lot of times it means we're not acknowledging how hard they worked. We didn't we're not acknowledging the choices they had to make, the risk they had to face and were willing to take. And a lot of times it's easier than saying they earned it and reflecting back on, hmm, could I too if I was willing to do what they did? Right? Saying luck and luck is a shield. It's a way to avoid responsibility, it's a way to avoid growth. And I can't tell you how many times in in our travels the last five years, we've heard like, ⁓ you're lucky to live this life. And both Andrea and I are we lucky? What did we do that was lucky? Right? We we chose to be honest with each other. We chose to say, Andrews chose to say, Hey, I want more from this life after the kids move out. I don't want to just stay in this neighborhood. I don't want to stay doing the same thing we've been doing for another 50 years. I want more. We chose to embrace the unknown, to learn skills neither of us had. To answer questions that we didn't even know were gonna be questions yet. You see, though none of that's luck. That's intentionality, that's choice, that's willingness to go, hey, wait a second, let's throw the dice here. What's the worst that happens? Right? Luck is is is rarely the spark of why people are gonna do what they do. And it's almost never a reason. You don't usually start some go, I feel lucky, I'm gonna try this. It's just part of the story that people notice. last once the thing's already done. Then people go, ⁓ wait, that's look it looks like you got lucky. But what we're dismissing is the early mornings, the late nights, the failures that nobody saw, the doubt that lives in our own heads that other people don't know you're going through. You're also not recognizing the discipline to keep doing the same things over and over, to keep pushing forward, even though maybe you're not getting the results you want. The conversations that didn't go well or the opportunities that showed up because we put ourselves in a position. You put yourself in a position by showing up consistently so you get more opportunities. None of that is luck. People don't get lucky, right? They get prepared. And when you're prepared and the moment shows up, when preparation meets opportunity, the people in the trenches, the people in the grind, the people that stop and go, wait, I'm gonna recognize what you've done, realize that. They see the work, they see the sacrifice. The people that only see the results see luck. And let's be honest, why why do we dismiss others' success? Right, why would we dismiss somebody else's success as luck? We don't call ⁓ lucky because we're impressed. lot of times we're gonna call ⁓ lucky because we're uncomfortable. Because if their success is earned, then we have to ask ourselves, what am I not doing? What am I avoiding? Where maybe if I sh shrunk myself and played small, is there a risk I'm refusing to take? You see, luck, telling people they got lucky, lets us off the hook. Right? Because hey, I couldn't do it. They just got lucky, man. Better them than me. I couldn't do it. But ownership, if we look at and go, wait, how did they end up there? How did the people that I want to be around end up successful over here or whatever the whatever metric you're using? Right, you're talking about running, I've been putting in so many hours on running right now. And I could easily right, it'd be super easy to be like, ⁓ man, they're lucky, they got faster, their hips turn over faster than me. ⁓ they're lucky they started when they were much younger than me. ⁓ they're lucky their their their lungs just work better. Like, right, if I say that to them, what is that dismissing? It's dismissing the recognition of the hard work they put in to get faster than me. It's dismissing the hard work, the time, the energy, the effort, the things they passed up doing, the luxuries, the comforts that maybe I partook in, because it allowed them to move ahead of me. Right? Very little of our life is luck. Right? Our life is intention. It's small decisions. It's repetitive action that keeps things moving forward. And a lot of times it's gratitude for the challenges we have, for the opportunities to learn. Right? Because every time I stumble, I struggle, that means I get a new chance to try something. I get a chance to try something new, a different solution, a different out a different input, a different Whatever it is, I get to try again at it. And that's not luck. That's a choice. Right? Am I lucky to run ultra marathons? Not really. It's not luck. I choose to do it. Are we lucky to have opportunities, to have a platform, to have a family, to be where we are? I think those are all results of choices we've made. Consistently showing up, being willing to be uncomfortable. Being willing to do things that maybe a lot of other people don't want to do, which is fine. But that's not tell people how lucky they are and dismiss the work that goes into it, right? Because when we see the work, when we see the the the thing that people are doing. Gives us ownership of we can duplicate it. Right? Because if it's just truly luck, then I can't repeat it if you did it. What could I learn from you if you only got lucky? Right. You don't have any lessons to teach me. My kids can't grow into it because if it's just lucky it happened to me, that means there's no chance it's happening to them. And they can't recreate it. Right? Luck makes success feel random. work allows it to be possible. So here's here's my challenge for this this episode for us for this week, kicking off July, right? We got America's 250th celebration, all the hoopla and stuff around that. But I want to challenge us to instead be present around the people we're gonna meet. And when we see people that are doing things that like, man, they're they're doing it. They're challenging themselves. Let's not tell them how lucky they are. Let's instead maybe ask them about the work they put in. What choices did you have to make? ⁓ what risk did you take to get where you're at? What can I learn from your path? Because the moment we stop saying people are lucky. when we start seeing a blueprint. And once we see the blueprint, then we can build something of our own. And we've opened up communications and conversations that allow us to learn from those ahead of us. So as we wrap up, I just want to remind you and challenge you a little bit to not see people as lucky, see them as intentional, see them as consistent, willing to do work when there's nobody else watching. And one from that, from that lens, we can study it, we can learn from it, we can chat, it can be used as a challenge for ourselves, and hopefully it can inspire us to go, wait, I'm I'm capable. It's possible because they did it, now I can do it. Luck is a story we tell about other people. Work is a story we get to tell for ourselves. So I hope you accept that challenge. I look forward to these conversations that we move past the word luck and into the what are the sacrifices? What you risk did you take? What'd you have to give up to get where you're at? And I think you'll be amazed at how much and more enriching those conversations are, how much you're going to learn, and hopefully how much of it you can apply to your own life. Have an awesome week, everybody. It's a privilege to be here with you. Please, we've been investing a lot in YouTube lately. Hop over to YouTube, hit the subscribe button, even turn on that little bell, you'll get notified when our episodes are up. And remember, we can't do it without you. We're thankful to have you here. And I look forward to results from this challenge. Have a great week, everybody. When you're training with purpose, your fueling can't be an afterthought. That's why I use Never Second, the simplest, most reliable system I have found for staying energized, hydrated, and steady through their long efforts. Their C series carbs take guesswork out of performance, no stomach drama, no complicated mixing, just clean, consistent fuel that actually works when the miles get long. If you want to train with more intention and recover without feeling wrecked, check out Never Second. Click the link in the show notes to get dialed in. And remember, team, life is far too short. to live any other way than on purpose. We'll see you all again next week.