Should “Lucky Girl Syndrome” be the mindset we’re adapting for 2023?
Do you think that 2023 isn't shaping up to be your best year yet? Lucky Girl Syndrome says, not with that attitude.
The onset of every year is laden with intentions for change and growth. We set up our 2023 planners, we jot down our goals, we start implementing new habits, and keep the momentum for, well, as long as we can.
While change requires no specific time, we tend to look toward the new year to reinvent ourselves. Perhaps attaching change to a specific season is our way of maintaining some sense of control. So January has been synonymous with “New Year, New Me” mantras, productivity tips and tricks, and the like. Lucky Girl Syndrome is this year’s entry.
me having meetings with myself to discuss my rebrand pic.twitter.com/czh7rigUqk
— reactions (@reactjpg) January 4, 2021
The mantras that surround this syndrome proclaim luck before it finds you. According to this mindset, believing that you’re the luckiest girl in the world is key to letting the good things in life find their way to you.
The trend traces itself back to a TikTok from December 2022 where two girls inside a car talked about how they practiced the manifestation “everything just works out for me” as a social experiment and how everything, eventually, worked out for them.
@skzzolno i don’t know why it works but… everything works out for us #luckygirlsyndrome #luckygirl #luckygirlsyndrom #manifestation #affirmationsoftheday #affirmations #collegelifehack #lifehack #college #collegegirls ♬ original sound – skzzolno
The videos under the hashtag #luckygirlsyndrome on TikTok chant: “I am so lucky everything goes my way,” “I am so lucky everything works out for me,” “Things are always working out for me no matter how it looks at any given point in time,” “Things are always working out in my favor.” Others praise its effectiveness, citing good luck both big and small. Those who practice it share that they’ve gotten their dream jobs and apartments, received pay raises at work or even encountered all green lights on their way home.
@meganguilbeaxi am so lucky everything works out for me♬ original sound – megan guilbeax
If this sounds familiar, it probably is. Lucky Girl Syndrome has similarities with other mental and spiritual practices tied to productivity, such as manifestations and affirmations. Particularly, its teachings come from the Law of Assumption, which is a sister “law” to the more popular Law of Attraction.
While the Law of Attraction is about radiating the energy you want to receive, the Law of Assumption is more concrete, as it trains your mind to bridge your dreams and desires to reality or what you believe is possible. Instead of simply attracting good things to happen to you, you assume that it’s already happened. Laura Galebe, a creator under the Lucky Girl Syndrome hashtag says, “The secret is to assume and believe it before the concrete proof shows up. BE DELUSIONAL.”
Take it from the Law of Attraction website on the Law of Assumption: “You align yourself, in other words, with the thing you want—and this draws that thing towards you.”
@robbiesmoonmusic #stitch w/ @SADICKA is this blowing anybody else’s mind cuz when i conceptualized this i was SHAKETH #spirituality #manifestation #futureme #goals #selflove #spiritualtiktok ♬ original sound – robbie scott
The Law of Assumption rebranded
Like a lot of things on the internet, Lucky Girl Syndrome is just a rehashed version of knowledge that existed before TikTok. These principles find their origins in the New Thought movement, which emerged in the United States in the early 19th century. Their teachings have been perpetuated by the likes of Neville Goddard and Joseph Murphy.
Rebranding is basically marketing the same things over and over again to keep them relevant, and this is especially present in social media. While this tactic has existed long before the internet, platforms like TikTok make these turnovers quicker than ever, where the attention economy is a victim and a perpetrator of this phenomenon. It’s a cycle: the shinier “new” things are handed to us the more we demand them.
Should this be the mindset we’re adapting for 2023?
Whether or not this thought is old or new, the more critical question is whether it’s worth practicing, and what the considerations are surrounding it.
The mindset shift that the Lucky Girl Syndrome gives could train your brain to open your eyes to and notice the “lucky” happenings around you, akin to playing eye spy during a road trip. You place your focus on what you seek, and perhaps you will find.
The practice of manifestations and the Law of Assumption helps you visualize and concretize your goals and aspirations. Externalizing or “regenerating” these desires through writing them down or speaking them out loud helps to encode them into your brain as bases for decision-making. The identification of these desires gives you direction on how you might pursue them. The Lucky Girl syndrome isn’t a wishing well where you can throw your coin in and get what you want. It’s a method that helps restructure your subconscious beliefs that, in turn, influence how you shape your reality.
However, one should be careful about viewing the syndrome as an end-all solution to all of your problems. While your mindset can change a lot of things, you have to put into consideration the structural and societal constructs that surround people. It’s important not to take the syndromes completely to heart, or else you might blame yourself for your reality when it could be external circumstances. There’s more to the world than Caucasian people sitting in their cars talking about how lucky life is when it isn’t the case for everybody.
And there’s more to the Lucky Girl Syndrome than thinking positively. The truth is, things in life will eventually go against your will, and life will require more than “delusion” to figure things out. But if you need a mindset shift to notice the good around you, then the Lucky Girl Syndrome might be worth practicing.
Words Gwyneth King
Art Matthew Ian Fetalver
