Can you plan to have good luck? Isn’t luck something that just happens? Well, several career experts think you can create your own good fortune.
Dr. John Krumboltz and Kathleen Mitchell define “Planned Happenstance” as a way of being that makes good luck more likely. For job hunters, this means finding a great job and career!
Planned Happenstance consists of small new actions and attitudes that can lead to big career insights and opportunities. Every action you take – deciding to attend a networking event, being persistent in following a lead, taking an extra risk – all directly shape what happens next: different choices and attitudes lead to distinct outcomes. By cultivating five skills you already possess, you can make it much more likely that creative opportunities will pop into view.
The key luck-generating skills include:
• Optimism: Be positive. View new opportunities as possible and attainable.
• Curiosity: Stay open to and explore new learning opportunities.
• Risk Taking: Take action in the face of uncertainty. Feel the fear and do it anyway.
• Persistence: Repeatedly try despite setbacks. Remove obstacles.
• Flexibility: Remain open. Change attitudes and circumstances as needed. Be resilient.
If you actively cultivate these five skills, you can generate an irrepressible forward momentum toward exciting new experiences and opportunities. Follow your intuition, experiment, remain open, think and plan less, do a lot more.
Use these five skills as you explore career opportunities without necessarily committing to them. Take temporary jobs and see how they fit you. Go to informational interviews with people in interesting professions and find out what they do. Try an internship or volunteer and when you assess jobs think in terms of job activities rather than titles. Learn more by associating with people outside your immediate circle of friends. Hang out with people who support your career explorations.
If you give Planned Happenstance a try, I think you’ll find that you too can create your own good luck and just maybe find the job you want and so richly deserve!
