The Loser's Guide To Getting Lucky

BBC ^ | 12-26-2003 | Professor Richard Wiseman

[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

[Lazamataz]

I think there is real luck, not just noticing opportunities.

Whenever I go to a party with a door prize, I invariably win it. I've gotten more frozen turkeys, screwdriver sets, and even expensive software packages then anyone else in history.

[GOPJ]

Great story. Thanks for sharing:

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.

[Lazamataz]

Getting lucky with a dog is pretty sick!

Yeah, but you should see her sister.

[GOPJ]

Great story. Thanks for sharing:

Senior year Comp. Science class written final exam. Teacher says "read the directions completely before beginning the test." He says again, "read the directions completely before beginning the test." He talks some more and answers some questions, then for a third time he says "read the directions completely before beginning 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.

[WKB]

This is bogus from the start because there is no such thing as luck

[AdA$tra]

Perhaps, but the self fullfulling prophecy thing is sure true. I don't ruin my own day.

[Prodigal Son]

I don't know about that. I have met some incredibly lucky people in my life. One Irish fellow in particular, he owned a pub in Germany. I used to play him at Backgammon quite a lot. Never saw someone who could roll so many double 6's in my entire life. Seemed to be able to do it at will. I've met a lot of 9 ball players who were quite good skills-wise but who seemed to rely on luck more than their skill. Lost lots of money to these types of fellows. Also, don't play Irish people at games of chance in Ireland if you're not Irish ;-)

[WKB]

You can insert Blessed for lucky EVERYTIME it never fails

Acts 17:24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands.
Acts 17:25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else
Acts 17:26 From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined. the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.
Acts 17:27 God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.
Acts 17:28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’

[Protagoras]

I have always thought that a lot of it was a matter of perception on the part of the recipient.

For instance, a medical test that brings a diagnosis of cancer or heart disease can be perceived by the person either way.

[pabianice]

LOST!

7-yr-old male cat. Neutered. Missing right ear and left hind leg. Blind in left eye. Nose bitten-off in fight. Epileptic, has degenerative nerve desease and feline AIDS. Answers to name "Lucky."

[John Lenin]

The harder I work the luckier I get.

[Paulus Invictus]

I have been supremely lucky at several moments in my life as there were numerous instances when luck or extraordinary coincidences intervened when they were needed.

I was once dead last in one of those very long lines in the service when the troops were being interviewed for a new service job in Japan. As the line moved slowly towards a building where the job interwiews were held, the guys got more and more aprehensive, and for a good reason. Out of the office came each guy looking very unhappy as they were all bound for Hokkaido and nothing jobs.

I finally got to the office, walked in and found a captain there with my papers in his hand. He smiled and said,"hey, this is a coincidence, we have the same last name and are both from Los Angeles. You don't want to follow these other guys to Hokkaido do you?" Naturally, I said no. Then he told me he had one job left at the Air base and it was mine if I wanted it. I shouted YES and jumped for joy.

Another great piece of luck then occurred-- that new job at that base also changed my life as it was there that I discovered the company where I wanted to work after I got out of the service. It worked, I got the job, based upon the experience I gained while in the job I had in Japan. Is that luck, or what?

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Or as we say at this company,

"Thirty minutes of sucking a$$ is worth two years of college education and 10 years of on the job training.

[Centurion2000]

This is bogus from the start because there is no such thing as luck

Don't tell Murphy .. he gets revenge in creative ways.

[Centurion2000]

bump

[EggsAckley]

She's a bunch of terriers-mix. Lovely doggie. Love of my life!

[pizzalady]

Your post brought back memories from 45 years ago.

In Junior High, mid term, we were assembled for a test with the same instruction. I believe there were only two of us who actually read the whole test before answering a question.

We were excused for the remainder of the day, while the rest of the class had to listen to a lecture on the importance of following directions.

Thanks for sharing.

[MaeWest]

and her she is ! !

What a sweetie. But, cough, are you sure that's a "she"??

[Prodigal Son]

You can insert Blessed for lucky EVERYTIME it never fails

For those that believe- sure. Whatever works out for you. It's hard for me to imagine God giving a guy a lucky hand at the craps table though ;-)

[EggsAckley]

Heheheh! Yes, she's a she. It's her odd markings playing a visual trick on you. LOL!