Scott Adams is the creator of Dilbert. His new book is How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life, which Portfolio Penguin will publish on October 22.

People often ask me for career advice. I suppose that’s because I write about the workplace for a living and my own career turned out well. That creates the impression that I know something useful. I’m not sure that’s the case, but I do have some observations that you can compare to your own experience, and to that of others, and see if any patterns emerge.

The pattern I have noticed is that the people who aren’t happy with their careers are usually making at least one of the top five career mistakes listed below. See if these track with your own observations.

Mistake #1: Hiding from luck

Success requires luck, and luck isn’t something you can directly influence. But you can move from a game with bad odds to a game with good odds. If you want luck to find you, stop hiding from it.

Your job should either be providing you with all the money and satisfaction you desire or else it should be preparing you for a career that does. If you’re working to pay for school, or gaining valuable skills on the job, you have a smart strategy. If you’re just working to pay the bills, you’re already on a slow downward spiral.

Mistake #2: Having goals

Goals are for losers. Systems are for winners. If your goal is to get your boss’s job, you limit yourself to one possible winning outcome. If other people want your boss’s job too, you might have moved to a game that will have more losers than winners. But if you have a system of continuously improving your marketable skills, you open yourself to a larger world of new job possibilities and you’re playing a game you’re likely to win.

Mistake #3: Having rigid work hours

We humans are generally happy when we have good health and we can control how we spend our time. That means any long-term career strategy should provide a path toward a flexible schedule, or at least flexibility in terms of what you do within your work day. If your boss is telling you what to do and when, you have no real hope for being happy during the workday. Most of us pass through that type of a job on the way to something better. Make sure you have an escape plan.

Mistake #4: Sacrificing fitness

Attractive people earn more money and have greater career opportunities than those who are beauty-challenged. You can control your attractiveness to a large degree by eating right and exercising. If you skimp on exercise to spend more time at work, you might be picking your own pocket. Health and fitness are your primary human assets. If you treat them as top priorities, money and opportunities will follow.

Mistake #5: Fearing failure

Failure is only bad if you pick the wrong projects. Choose challenges for which failure will cost you only time and embarrassment if things don’t work out. Seek the type of projects that will teach you something useful even in failure. At the moment, I’m working on an Internet start-up with partners. If it works out, that’s great. If it doesn’t work out, I’ll emerge with some useful new business contacts and a deep knowledge of how to launch a start-up. I expect I would use those assets to try again. Luck can’t find you unless you stay in the game.