Money Motivation: Is it luck or hard work?

Finding the motivation to keep up with your finances after a major set back or an unexpected expense can be difficult, but you can get back on track. Money Motivation is a new series where we will be featuring inspiring and uplifting advice from Finance Collective members that can help you take a step back and reevaluate your financial situation, so you can make a plan for how best to move forward. This week's advice comes from The Wild Wong and is about figuring out what we can and cannot control:

"Despite the events you can't control in life, there are so many things you can control. If you feel the same way, chances are, you have a strong internal locus of control: a tendency to feel like you have influence over your own destiny. Research, like this study published by the American Educational Research Association, shows that people with a strong internal locus of control are more motivated, less stressed, and academically successful. If you blame and credit yourself for the circumstances in your life, chances are, you have a strong internal locus of control. If you feel outside forces are responsible for your fate, good or bad, you have an external locus of control.

An internal locus of control has obvious benefits, but it has drawbacks, too. As dominant as you might feel in your own life, there are things outside of your control. Layoffs. Breakups. Death.

It's not all doom and gloom, though. There are good things you can't always control, like hitting every green light on your way home. Those of us with a strong internal locus of control tend to dismiss luck, though. I've always felt that when you focus too heavily on luck, you discredit your hard work. But luck is not the opposite of hard work. We often look at hard work and luck as mutually exclusive when, actually, they go hand in hand. And when we dismiss luck, that can be problematic." -The Wild Wong

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