The Hustle of Luck: Living With Too Much

It’s the 1950s. Your grandparents are scraping together every last crumb of butter and bread to make it stretch to tomorrow’s breakfast. Grandma is sewing patches on jeans because, well, they don’t grow on trees, and she’s washing plastic bags to reuse them. Because waste is a luxury they can’t afford.

Fast forward to now. We’re drowning in stuff. Stuff we bought on impulse, stuff we never needed, stuff we have no space for. And somehow, we still don’t have enough. Our closets are bursting, our clothes sizes are increasing, fridges are packed, our schedules are overloaded.

And yet, here we are. Scrolling. Shopping. Hoarding. Overthinking.

Welcome to the PARADOX OF ABUNDANCE.

We provide for scarcity while we live in a world of abundance. What gives?

Luck Isn’t Magic. It’s Math

People talk about luck like it’s a magical force. Yeah, some people just wake up and trip over bags of gold. But luck isn’t just about being in the right place at the right time. It’s about stacking the odds in your favour.

Think of it this way, if 90% of what you try, fails, the answer isn’t to wish for better odds. The answer is to try more. Hustle harder, experiment more, put yourself out there. That’s why the people who look “lucky” are often the ones who failed a thousand times before they hit their big break. They weren’t waiting for luck. They were building it.

From Scarcity To Stuffocation

Our parents and their parents grew up in a world of scarcity. They learned to stretch a dollar, to hold onto things “just in case”, and to treat every resource like it was their last. The problem is that this mindset doesn’t work in a world of abundance.

Scarcity taught us to hold on to everything. Abundance demands that we let go of most of it.

And yet, we struggle. We hoard calories, and we gain weight. We hoard stuff, and we drown in clutter. We hoard information, and our minds turn into noisy, chaotic storage units for things we’ll never actually use. We keep saying yes to everything until our calendars look like a tangled mess of obligations, and somehow, amid the mounting pressure and anxiety, we’re still worried we’re missing out.

That’s the pattern: we collect, we hold on, we overfill. And then we suffocate under the very things we once thought we needed.

When Good Things Become Bad

Here’s the kicker: the things that clutter our lives were once valuable. Someone, if not me, worked hard to earn that money. Someone, if not me, bought those things with a sparkle of excitement in their eyes. Someone, if not me, filled their time with commitments they thought mattered.

But when you don’t know when to stop, everything – the good and the valuable – eventually turns to waste.

Look around. Our homes, our minds, our relationships – how much of it is still serving us? And how much of it is just junk we haven’t figured out how to let go of yet?

Winning The Game Of Abundance

Abundance is not about grabbing more. It’s about learning what to leave behind.

Success in today’s world isn’t working harder. It’s choosing wisely. Instead of saying yes to everything, figure out where I actually shine. Instead of chasing more, decide what truly matters.

That’s why Hemingway’s advice is gold: “Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.”

Scarcity teaches us to make do with what little we have. Abundance demands that we cut through the noise and focus on what truly counts. The trick isn’t to collect everything. Understand what is worth keeping. And let the other things go.

The Hustle That Works

Luck isn’t a lightning strike. It’s a well-placed antenna. You don’t sit around waiting for it to happen. You put yourself in motion so that when the opportunity comes, you’re already there, ready to grab it.

And maybe the secret to handling today’s world is to know when to go all in – and when to just let go.