Day 7/100: It Was Never Luck. Why I’m finally giving myself credit… | by Ankita Singh | Aug, 2025

I used to call it luck.

When I saw my friends studying all night, memorizing every line, and I would just read once and remember — I thought I had it easy. I treated it like a superpower. Social sciences, English, GK — I barely studied and I still did well. Maths was terrible, but these subjects felt natural.

Back then, I didn’t question it. I just felt special.

But somewhere along the way, I forgot. Because as I grew older, life wasn’t about recalling details from a textbook anymore. As a filmmaker, as a photographer, I didn’t have the same structure of exams to prove myself. I started doubting.

I would think: I don’t practice enough. I don’t make enough. I’m not obsessed like others. So how am I getting residencies? How am I getting labs? How am I getting jobs?

The answer I gave myself was always the same: luck. Right place, right time.

And yet — there was another voice inside me, saying: but you did something. You opened the application, you pressed send, you showed up. That counts. Why dismiss it?

Still, I kept shrinking. Because somewhere in my conditioning, I had absorbed this idea: only toil equals worth. If you didn’t suffer for it, you don’t deserve it. Work 24 hours or it doesn’t count.

So when good things came, I dismissed them. I told myself: you didn’t work hard enough. You don’t deserve it.

But here’s the truth I had been refusing to accept: even if my effort wasn’t extreme, it was still effort. Even if it looked effortless to others, I was still doing the work. And that matters.

I don’t want to believe otherwise anymore. If I’m getting something, it’s not because of sheer luck. It’s because of me. My talent. My effort. Even if that effort was just sitting down to apply, or picking up the camera, or writing the draft. That was me.

And I’m done letting my brain tell me otherwise.

So if you’ve been doing this too — brushing off your own wins as luck, telling yourself you didn’t work hard enough — stop.

Remind yourself: you did put in effort. You did show up. You did create something.

And if it led to something beautiful, it’s not random.
It’s not luck.
It’s you.