Posted on 12/26/2003 8:15:44 AM PST by blam
The loser's guide to getting lucky
By Professor Richard Wiseman
University of Hertfordshire
Why do some people get all the luck while others never get the breaks they deserve? A psychologist says he has discovered the answer.
Ten years ago, I set out to examine luck.
I wanted to know why some people are always in the right place at the right time, while others consistently experience ill fortune.
I placed advertisements in national newspapers asking for people who felt consistently lucky or unlucky to contact me.
Hundreds of extraordinary men and women volunteered for my research and, over the years, I have interviewed them, monitored their lives and had them take part in experiments.
Professor Wiseman's top tips
The results reveal that although these people have almost no insight into the causes of their luck, their thoughts and behaviour are responsible for much of their good and bad fortune.
Those who have succeeded at anything and don't mention luck are kidding themselves
Larry King
Take the case of seemingly chance opportunities. Lucky people consistently encounter such opportunities, whereas unlucky people do not.
I carried out a simple experiment to discover whether this was due to differences in their ability to spot such opportunities.
I gave both lucky and unlucky people a newspaper, and asked them to look through it and tell me how many photographs were inside.
Professor Wiseman's formula came too late for some... I had secretly placed a large message halfway through the newspaper saying: "Tell the experimenter you have seen this and win £250."
This message took up half of the page and was written in type that was more than two inches high.
Anxiety
It was staring everyone straight in the face, but the unlucky people tended to miss it and the lucky people tended to spot it.
Everything in life is luck
Donald Trump
Unlucky people are generally more tense than lucky people, and this anxiety disrupts their ability to notice the unexpected.
As a result, they miss opportunities because they are too focused on looking for something else.
They go to parties intent on finding their perfect partner and so miss opportunities to make good friends.
They look through newspapers determined to find certain types of job advertisements and miss other types of jobs.
Self-fulfilling prophecies
Lucky people are more relaxed and open, and therefore see what is there rather than just what they are looking for.
Luck is believing you¹re lucky
Tennessee Williams
My research eventually revealed that lucky people generate good fortune via four principles.
They are skilled at creating and noticing chance opportunities, make lucky decisions by listening to their intuition, create self-fulfilling prophesies via positive expectations, and adopt a resilient attitude that transforms bad luck into good.
Towards the end of the work, I wondered whether these principles could be used to create good luck.
I asked a group of volunteers to spend a month carrying out exercises designed to help them think and behave like a lucky person.
Dramatic results
These exercises helped them spot chance opportunities, listen to their intuition, expect to be lucky, and be more resilient to bad luck.
I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it
Thomas Jefferson
One month later, the volunteers returned and described what had happened. The results were dramatic: 80% of people were now happier, more satisfied with their lives and, perhaps most important of all, luckier.
The lucky people had become even luckier and the unlucky had become lucky.
Finally, I had found the elusive "luck factor" .
Here are Professor Wiseman's four top tips for becoming lucky:
Listen to your gut instincts - they are normally right
Be open to new experiences and breaking your normal routine
Spend a few moments each day remembering things that went well
Visualise yourself being lucky before an important meeting or telephone call. Luck is very often a self-fulfilling prophecy
;)
Life is good.
If my adolescence is any guide, I would be one of the losers.
Just my luck ... I didn't see it.
and her she is ! !
too my nog in the eggnog.
1. Buy my book.
2. Buy my book.
3. Buy my book.
4. Buy my book.
It's mind over matter. Once you decide you are going to do something, no matter what that something is, and that you are not going to let anyone get in the way or bring you down, you begin to do the things necessary to accomplish those tasks or goals. Most of the time we don't really even realize it, because we do it self consciously(sp?).
Senior year Comp. Science class written final exam. Teacher says "read the directions completely before begining the test." He says again, "read the directions completely before begining the test." He talks some more and answers some questions, then for a third time he says "read the directions completely before begining the test."
Now the third time he said it really got my attention. So read the directions and sure enough the last line in there said, "Do not answer any of the test questions. Write your name and date on the test, bring it to my desk and don't say anything. Then get your books and go to the library and study for your other tests. If you answer any questions on the test you will be given a zero for a score.Poor saps.
People with a positive attitude tend to have good things happen to them. And when you have a positive attitude, the inevitable misfortunes and disappointments that visit all of us in life don't seem so bad. In fact, people with a positive attitude frequently turn unfortunate events into positive events, and if not, they tend to bounce right back anyhow.
On the other hand, people with negative attitudes seem to attract all the troubles of the world to themselves like a giant magnet. You can actually see it in their body language. They "shuffle" around and have that "sad sack" look about them. I try to stay away from people like this because negative attitudes are contagious! These people are also awfully depressing to be around. They are losers, plain and simple and until they change their attitudes, they shall always be losers.
Those who are "winners" in life are easy to identify. They have a spring in their step, a smile on their faces. They are fun to be around. It is not "luck" that gives them a positive attitude but it is their positive attitude that brings them "luck."
The best New Year's resolution one can make for themselves in the coming year is to get a positive attitude (if you don't already have one).
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