We all know the famous quote, “One’s man trash is another man’s treasure.” But for the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani, one man’s trash is his source of luck.

When Ohtani was in high school, he set his sights on one major goal: being drafted first overall. He accomplished this goal in the 2012 Nippon Professional Baseball draft. He used a Harada method chart to map out how he would accomplish this goal. The ultimate goal is in the center of the method chart, surrounded by eight crucial elements to reach that goal. Ohtani’s crucial elements were body, control, sharpness, mental toughness, speed (100mph), pitch variance, personality, and karma.

Each of the eight key essentials had an additional eight methods to satisfy them. While most of the elements revolved around physical conditioning and baseball s𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁s, karma demanded a different approach. Along with taking care of equipment and respecting umpires, Ohtani believed that maintaining good karma involved a simple task: picking up trash.

Dodgers Nation’s Noel Sanchez explains how the act of picking up trash fulfilled one of the eight crucial elements, karma.

“He believed that you needed a great amount of luck and actually viewed picking up trash as picking up luck that other people threw away…Japanese culture also teaches everyone to clean up after themselves, especially when they are guests somewhere else or when they’re hosting other people.”

Picking up trash is not new for Ohtani. He has been contributing to a litter-free baseball field for six years during his tenure with the Los Angeles Angels. From signing the most lucrative contract in sports history with the Dodgers to establishing himself as an MVP candidate, it seems adopting Ohtani’s habit of picking up trash might just bring us the same stroke of luck.

“He still wants as much luck as he can get, and he continues to practice this goal that he listed when he was a kid. So the next time you see some trash on the floor, please be like Shohei,” said Sanchez.