Firstly, I want to apologise for not providing a new piece for last week’s newsletter. The mental fatigue was very real (between us, it still is, but it’s easing up) and I couldn’t think of a topic that I could delve into. I do have one this week and although it’s a cliché that many of you have heard before, I wanted to provide some context around why it’s relevant now. Drum roll please…

“Luck is where preparation meets opportunity”

I love that quote and it feels relevant now as I’ve had to reframe some aspects of my life. Although I’ve previously mentioned that I value impact over numbers when it comes to success, I’ve found it challenging to see the decrease in people listening to Guards of Eden in season 3 as well as the general disconnection from my work as a whole over the past few months. I feel it’s important to be transparent about that. I’m human and although it’s not everything to me, seeing people enjoy or appreciate what I’m doing does impact how I feel about it all, especially when I’m as proud of those episodes as I am.

So how does that relate to my formula for life? It’s the same reason that I still attack those episodes with the energy they deserve. The work that I’m putting in now may not see the rewards I’m seeking directly or indirectly until the future and that’s okay. In a world that craves immediate results and gratification, I’ve had to accept that although there’s not the response I’m seeking right now, I may be planting a seed that blossoms in the future. In my case, the preparation takes form by consistently approaching the podcast with love, care and sensitivity whilst appreciating that the opportunity I’m seeking could be further down the road. The operative word being “could”.

I want to share a response that Coach Geno Auriemma (The Head Coach of the UCONN Women’s Basketball team) gave when he was asked to finish the sentence “The truth about achievement is…”

“The truth about achievement is… you can’t plan for it. You can’t sit here today and tell me what you’re going to achieve in the next five years.

You can tell me what you’re going to achieve tomorrow. Tonight, tomorrow, maybe the next day, but thinking that you can think that far ahead and plan that far ahead and not have anything get in the way, I don’t think you can plan for it…

You have to prepare yourself that if you’re lucky and fate taps you on the shoulder and says “It’s your turn dude”, you better be ready. If you’re not, there’s no guarantee it’s going to tap you again. It may never tap you again…
If fate taps you and you’re not ready, that’s your fault. If you’re always ready and fate never taps you on the shoulder, there’s nothing you can do about that.”

I’m not saying that just because you’re working hard and staying prepared for blessings that they are 100% going to happen, but as Geno says, if you’re not prepared then you have no one to blame but yourself. That can be tough to hear, but I believe it to be true. I say that to say this, the work that you’re putting in right now may not be seeking the reward that you feel it deserves, but they could be the seeds that you’re planting for a future reward to blossom. Even if they don’t, you can take tremendous pride in knowing that you led a life based upon hope and dedication.

We can often look at people and believe that they were simply “lucky” with the subtext behind it being that they’re non-deserving of what they have. My perception of the word luck/lucky has changed a great deal over the past few years and I don’t think it’s a bad thing to be considered lucky. When a person is labelled as lucky, there’s an acknowledgment that the work they’ve put in wasn’t for everyone to see. It brings credence to the idea that the hard work that’s happened in the dark often leads to the results displayed in the light.

My advice for you is that there’s going to be natural ups and downs with the work that you do and times where you feel that your efforts aren’t being rewarded appropriately. That can be tough and demoralising. When you reflect on those times in the future, you’ll realise that battling through them will be the reason why you’ve either been rewarded down the line or you’ve grown as a person. Keep on fighting, creating and moving forward as that preparation could be inching closer and closer to an opportunity where one day, someone will label you as lucky. And they’ll never understand just how strong you had to be to be considered lucky.

One love, Luca :) x.

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The Formula of Life