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We all desire good luck and good fortune. But somehow some people "have all the luck," while others have none or very little.

Let's take two brothers and watch their lives unfold over time.

One seems to glide easily through life, gaining all that he sets his mind on, while the other brother is always "down on his luck." What's going on here? Was one brother born with a lucky streak and not the other? That doesn't sound rational to me. But if genetics and environment don't play a major role, what does?

There's a lot in life that has very little to do with luck. Luck doesn't pick our friends; luck doesn't keep us healthy, fat or slim. It certainly doesn't have much to do with raising a happy child or having a good marriage partner. So why is it so important to so many? What does luck do for us?

Well, for one thing, believing in the power of luck gives us an excuse for our shortcomings. It allows us to feel sorry for ourselves when life gets tough, and gives us the rationale to continue our self-harming behavior like playing the tables at a gambling casino and smoking our lungs to death.

Rational thinking doesn't enter into the realm of luck. Instead, it cancels out our fantasies and puts our minds to work using reality and truth.

Take casino gambling: Have you ever heard of such a place going bankrupt? That's because the house always wins. Yet people keep thinking their luck will change and they'll win "the big one." When they don't, they chalk it up to bad luck. Their poor, deluded thinking never enters into the equation.

When we smile at the world and think positively, the world smiles back at us. If our expectations are realistic, they can be realized. On the other hand, when we fantasize about goals and don't do the work that needs to be done to get what we want, we fail. Bad luck? No. Fantasizing about something doesn't make it happen. It might be easier to dream about something we want, but we'll never get it that way.

No one wins the golden ring on the carousel of life without trying over and over again, realizing the steps it takes to be a winner, then focusing the energy it takes to do the job. The only way to become a star is to understand what it takes to be one. Then go for it. Fear of failure has stopped more people from reaching their goals than anything else. If we don't try we can't succeed.

The human mind is the best tool we have for helping us to be winners in life. Unfortunately, too many don't use their brains for what they are meant to do, think rationally. Losers are easily distracted and discouraged by things outside of them. Successful people are not lucky — they're smart. When we blame luck on our failures, we're just passing the buck.

Years ago as a teenager I got my first full-time job. After a few months, I decided I should get a raise. These were the good old days when a female was supposed to be shy and passive. But while all the other girls in the office didn't have the nerve to ask, I did. My boss was so amazed that a female was asking for a raise, he gave me what I wanted and raised my position in the firm. It's a cop-out to think that luck played a part in my winning a raise. Anyone else could have done the same thing.

We usually can get what we want — if we forget about luck and try using our brains and guts.