Hubris

Hubris (hjuːbrɪs/), means extreme haughtiness, pride or arrogance. Hubris often indicates a loss of contact with reality and an overestimation of one's own competence or capabilities, especially when the person exhibiting it is in a position of power.

It is easy to get a full head. To feel like everything you have is earned and destined to be.

I also am becoming increasingly aware of how fatal that mind set really is.

I would like to use the word luck here not as a superstitious force that can somehow be conjured or manipulated but in the sense that sometimes you are randomly at the right place at the right time and favorable events manifest themselves in a way that is advantages to you or the opposite.

I have always been a huge believer in hard work, the harder you work the more successful you will be on average and nothing is changed here but even in this mindset there is an element of chance that has to be acknowledged.

I could work 80 hours a week for 60 years on a cure for cancer and not find it or have someone else find it a week before I could, making them successful and me not. That is not to say you should not work hard and be diligent but just that in the real world there are many variables outside of your control at work in the outcome.

I think it is healthy to recognize these variables. It is humbling. It is helpful
In this sense this is my combating of hubris. It is my reminder to myself of this random chance, which luck has played a role in where I am. That the random chance that has brought me to this point should be celebrated as well as the effort.
When I recognize this fact I am more grateful. I empathize more with others who might not have had the lucky breaks. It also makes me aware that the lucky breaks will go the other way at times and I should plan for contingencies.