Is luck really about being in the right place at the right time?

Love this emailed article I got from Bradley Thompson:

Be In The Right Place At The Right Time

Ever wonder how some people seem to have all the luck?

Whether or not you believe in luck, there's something to be said for being in the right place at the right time. For example, say we were walking together and saw a sign offering $5,000USD to any responder who could write a 250-word article on a topic revealed at the start of a 20-minute time window.

We're both decent writers and the price is right so we follow up on the sign. Within minutes, we're each sitting before a computer. The monitors blink on, the countdown starts, and our assigned topic is displayed. "Write about the development of cold-hardy peach varietals." I stare at my monitor, deflated. I type a few lines about liking peaches but that's it. Today wasn't my lucky day.

Your story is different, though. You know the guy who developed the premier cold-hardy strain of peach tree. You know enough about the topic to produce a satisfactory article in the given time and walk away with a check for $5,000USD. It's your lucky day!

But it wasn't really luck, was it? We were both in the same place at the same time with the right skills to make the most of the situation. You just happened to have that extra bit of information that allowed you to succeed while I lost out. Why does that happen? How was it that you had the right information at the right place and at the right time? Why were you lucky?

Your good luck, as well as the luck enjoyed by most successful people, can be attributed to the combined force of three simple elements:

1. Proximity
"You cannot catch a fish without being near the water."

The people you think of as lucky often put a lot of effort into being near as many pertinent opportunities as possible. In my example, we both had a shot at getting lucky because we weren't just two idiots reading a random sign. We were skilled writers looking at a writing opportunity. We were both close to the opportunity. Not just in skill or location but in timing as well.

Most of life is less random than my example. You can put yourself in the right place at the right time more often by identifying an area in which you have the necessary skills and knowledge to capitalize on sudden opportunities.
Questions:
• What are you doing to make timing right for you?
• What area have you put yourself in a position to "get lucky" in?
• Is there a skill you can improve for knowledge you can gain that will allow you to better capitalize on opportunities you discover?
2. Practice
"The fish not caught on the first try is larger when finally caught."

Ask any professional athlete about a shining moment in their athletic experience and they'll tell you that "luck" came only after long hours of practice. Wide receivers practice catching the ball thousands of times for every touchdown catch they make. Web developers create hundreds of applications before bringing the perfect one to market. And you? You read (possibly) millions of words before arriving at this article. In every case, the practice that precedes the instance of "luck" is just as important as the crowning moment itself.
Questions:
• Have you given up on practice only to wonder why you're not improving in your field and experiencing the same luck as others?
• What steps can you take today in order to hone your senses and polish your skills so the next opportunity can be turned into a lucky moment?
3. Persistence
"If you do not fish often, the fish have little chance to bite."

One sad truth of existence is that most people give up long before they should. Being in the right place at the right time involves being in a lot of places at a lot of times that might seem inconvenient or even painful. You've heard that luck favors the well-prepared but what about luck favoring the tenacious?

Every successful (you might say "lucky") person I know has come very close to giving up many times. They've looked failure directly in the eyes and said, "not yet." Sure, they've closed businesses, lost clients, and left relationships. But they never stopped trying. They never gave up.
Questions:
• Do you have a tendency to give up on things too early?
• Think of the last project you gave up on. What might have happened had you stuck with it?
• Are you currently giving your everything to the project or relationship at hand?
Ever wonder why some people seem to have all the luck? By paying close attention to your proximity to opportunities and following through with practice and persistence, you may soon become one of the people we look at and wonder how you got to be in the right place at the right time.

Just luck, right?


By Seth Simonds.

Are over the counter drugs for prostate problems really a good idea?

A £5 million marketing campaign, the brainchild of a pharmaceutical company trying to sell their drug, means that instead of having to visit a GP, who may decide that symptoms warrant further investigation for conditions such as prostate cancer, someone suffering from symptoms of benign prostatic hyperplasia will be able to visit a pharmacy. This reclassification means that Britain is the first country in the world to allow Tamsulosin to be sold over-the-counter.

Tamsulosin, the active ingredient in Flomax MR, has been used successfully for many years as a first-line treatment to alleviate the symptoms of a very common condition called benign prostatic hyperplasia, which affects around one in four men over the age of 40, and occurs when an enlarged prostate presses on the bladder, obstructing urine flow.

The drug works by relaxing the muscles in the bladder and around the prostate so that the urine can flow more freely.

This reclassification of Tamsulosin is just one in a string of drugs which were formerly only available with a doctor’s prescription. Simvastatin, Naproxen, Sumatriptan, Tranexamic acid and Colefac can now be bought at your pharmacy but is this really such a good idea and is there an alternative to Tamsulosin?

If you are worried about the health of your prostate then your doctor should be the first point of call in order to eliminate any serious underlying problem.
However, having said that there is a lot you can do to help yourself.

Cut milk out of your diet. The strongest dietary risk factor for prostate cancer is dairy consumption. Switzerland, for example, has the highest dairy intake and the highest number of deaths from prostate cancer. This is almost certainly due to a hormone in milk called Insulin-like Growth Factor (IGF).

Prostate tissue has receptors for IGF-I and IGF-II. Research shows clearly that men with high levels of circulating IGF-I are at greater risk of suffering from prostate cancer than those with lower levels. Research also shows that circulating levels of IGF-I in the blood correlate with high dairy consumption. A pint of milk a day, or the equivalent in other dairy products, quadruples risk. Switch to soya milk or rice milk.

Switch to organically reared meat, poultry and fish which do not contain hormone-disrupting chemicals. Increase vegetarian sources of protein in your diet using beans, lentils, nuts and seeds. Fish, especially if organic or wild, and omega-3 rich eggs, are probably the best of these foods.

Increase omega-3 fats – fish oils may be protective against prostate cancer and reduce the risk by a third.

Eat more fruit and vegetables, the higher your consumption, the lower your risk. Particularly beneficial are tomatoes, rich in lycopene, and kale, cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower.

Eat shellfish and pumpkin seeds for their zinc content and brazil nuts for the antioxidant selenium.

Drink plenty of water, at least 1 and a half litres a day. Reduce or preferably eliminate caffeinated drinks such as tea and coffee.

The herb Saw Palmetto and the mineral Zinc both help to inhibit the action of the enzyme that causes the prostate to grow and help normal hormone activity.
Alkalising the diet also seems to have a beneficial effect. (See the last issue of the My Health Network newsletter.)