Luck influences outcomes without asking permission from effort.

Effort is real and it matters, but it is only one of the forces acting on any result. Timing, other people’s moods, the state of the market, who happened to read your message on a good day, all of it moves the outcome without consulting how hard you worked. That is not an argument against working hard. It is an argument against reading every result as a verdict on your worth.

When something goes well, try naming one piece of it that had nothing to do with you. When something goes badly, do the same. Over a few weeks this habit makes praise sit lighter and disappointment sting less.