The Invisible Thread

The Hotpot | December 2025 | By Lisanne

2.12

The meeting went perfectly. You got the client you hoped for. You bought a stock and the profit jumped immediately.

When it works, we tell ourselves a story.

We create a seductive myth.
We tell ourselves we were smart, or prepared, or just in the right place.

That we made this happen. We earned this. We deserve this.

But what if the coffee shop happened to be open. The right person happened to be in the room. The timing was coincidental.

We most likely take the credit because it’s tempting. It feels better than noticing the accidents—the tiny alignments that had nothing to do with us.

But part of the journey is noticing the invisible places we weren’t.
The missed turns, the unchosen paths, the almosts.

It’s strange how we take credit for what just happened to fall into place. And stranger still when we stop noticing the invisible threads holding it all together.

Being “lucky” often means we don’t fully understand why it worked.
And that’s okay—
because the next time, what we discover about where we weren’t
can teach us where we need to go.

The goal isn’t to take less credit. The goal is to map the ghost roads.

Thank you for reading! The journal prompt of today:

Which win do you like to take full credit for?

Let me know in the comments.

Curious to see more reflections like this? Click through to see the rest of the series on success. I’d love to hear what resonates with you.