10 March 2003
How to become a Lucky person
Excerpts taken from an article in the Daily Telegraph about Richard Wiseman’s book The Luck Factor, plus a few of my own: -
After a variety of studies over ten years Richard Wiseman uncovered a number of factors that separated Lucky people from Unlucky people. They are as follows:
1. Lucky people constantly encounter chance opportunities because they are more observant not at a detailed level but on a general unexpected level i.e. unlucky people tend to get so focused that they cannot see the wood for the trees.
2. Lucky people tend to be less tense than unlucky people. Tenseness tends to be a sign of the result of stress and anxiety, which has proved in many studies to limit the ability to see the unexpected.
3. Lucky people tend to listen to and make more decisions based on their intuition rather than get stuck in the rut of past and socially accepted behaviour. They believe in hunches and use gut feeling to reach a decision, rather than going by accepted dogma or systems.
4. Lucky people believe in and practise self fulfilling prophesies, by having and stating positive expectations of what will happen i.e. what you think or say is what will eventually come to pass.
5. Lucky people develop a resilient behaviour in the face of adversity and “bad luck” by always looking for the “silver lining”.
6. Lucky people make their own luck, by putting themselves in situations where they will be near the edge of, or outside their comfort zones. This will invariably be in areas where they will learn new things and/or make new acquaintances.
7. Lucky people will adopt different routines so that variety is forced into their lives, thus accepting spontaneous change as a way of life.
8. Lucky people recognise when they have been fortunate at the slightest thing i.e. find a parking space, not splashed by a car going through a puddle, caught the bus without a long wait, had a nice cup of tea/coffee, were fit and healthy, found a seat on the train, items were still on shelf at the supermarket, the smell of fresh bread, etc. and thus have concrete evidence of their “Good Luck”.
9. Lucky people invest in making “Luck” for others.
William Barron
Creating Insight
March 10 2003
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