Wiser by Day
Noticing Luck · Lesson 1 of 6 · Free
Notice more
Luck is part chance and part noticing. Train attention and openness to what arrives.
Listen at your own pace
Listen to Notice more
Playback starts only when you choose Play. The recording includes the teaching and reflection prompts. Quiet practice time is separate from the recording.
Read the recording transcriptThe lesson
Welcome. A happy accident only helps if you catch it. Over six short days, we'll train the catching. Today, we start with attention.
All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts.Traditionally attributed to the Buddha · Dhammapada, verse 1
F. Max Müller, 1881
Serendipity isn't only luck. It's luck plus noticing. This verse points to how much of our experience is shaped by where the mind rests. A mind fixed on the plan walks straight past the open door. You don't need to be more alert all day. You only need small moments where you look again, as if for the first time.
Try it for yourself
A short reflection
Look around wherever you are. Find three things you've never really noticed before. A texture, a sound, a detail of light. Take your time, there's no wrong answer. Take two and a half minutes.
One question to write about
What were the three things?
You can reflect without writing. Nothing you think or write on this page is collected.
Recording transcript
This text follows the recorded narration. Source credits for the quoted passage appear above.
Welcome. A happy accident only helps if you catch it. Over six short days, we'll train the catching. Today, we start with attention. From the opening verse of the Dhammapada, in Max Müller's translation of 1881. All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts. Traditionally attributed to the Buddha, Dhammapada, verse 1. Serendipity isn't only luck. It's luck plus noticing. This verse points to how much of our experience is shaped by where the mind rests. A mind fixed on the plan walks straight past the open door. You don't need to be more alert all day. You only need small moments where you look again, as if for the first time. Look around wherever you are. Find three things you've never really noticed before. A texture, a sound, a detail of light. Take your time, there's no wrong answer. Take two and a half minutes.