Leave something to chance

The bow of a sailboat on a sunny day.
(Photo: Eirik Skarstein/Unsplash | Text: David/ArtisanEnglish.jp)

YouTube / iTunes / Spotify / Radio Public / Pocket Casts / Google Podcasts / Breaker / Overcast

Listen to ArtisanEnglish.jp posts & lesson intros here.



English Phrase: Leave something to chance

So, I’ve heard that you’d like to make a little more money this year and losing a few kgs wouldn’t hurt either.

How do you intend to make that happen?

Do you have a plan, or are you going to leave everything to chance?

I know it may be a little too early in the year for so many difficult questions.

If it makes you feel any better, I’m writing this at 6:07 in the morning.

The early bird gets the worm, as they say.

To get back to my original question, what are your plans on the financial front?

Leaving everything to chance?

Hoping and praying your manager will notice your hard work is not the best strategy.

That’s doing nothing at all and exactly what leaving something to chance means.


When you leave something to chance, you take no action to change the current situation.

You depend on fate to do things for you.


If you want more money, you need to ask for it or find a better job.

Next, on to that battle of the bulge around your waist.

At the moment, your best friend is the person who invented stretchy pants.

You know you really should lose those extra pounds.

What are you going to do about it?

Again, please don’t leave it to chance.

You need to take action and make a change.

If you don’t, the current situation will continue to, ah, expand.

Slight variations have significant effects over time.

Less sugar in your coffee or getting off the train two stations early to walk the rest of the way are vital first steps.

When it comes to making ¥ or losing kgs, your best bet is to leave nothing to chance.

You can make it happen, whatever ‘it’ is.


Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test

This post is understandable by someone with at least a 7th-grade education (age 12).

On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 79.

The higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100, the easier the passage is to read.