Some of you have heard of Richard Wiseman before and others may have heard about his “luck” studies. If not, I wanted to share this with you.
Wiseman’s conclusions are stunning. Anything that happens to you isn’t because of luck. He says, “[Lucky people] 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.”
Pretty neat stuff. So the next time someone says, “Oh, I’m just unlucky,” you can point them to this article.
Check out the rest of the article for details on how to create your own luck :)
A decade ago, I set out to investigate luck. I wanted to examine the impact on people’s lives of chance opportunities, lucky breaks and being in the right place at the right time. After many experiments, I believe that I now understand why some people are luckier than others and that it is possible to become luckier.
To launch my study, I placed advertisements in national newspapers and magazines, asking for people who felt consistently lucky or unlucky to contact me. Over the years, 400 extraordinary men and women volunteered for my research from all walks of life: the youngest is an 18-year-old student, the oldest an 84-year-old retired accountant.
Jessica, a 42-year-old forensic scientist, is typical of the lucky group. As she explained: “I have my dream job, two wonderful children and a great guy whom I love very much. It’s amazing; when I look back at my life, I realise I have been lucky in just about every area.”
In contrast, Carolyn, a 34-year-old care assistant, is typical of the unlucky group. She is accident-prone. In one week, she twisted her ankle in a pothole, injured her back in another fall and reversed her car into a tree during a driving lesson. She was also unlucky in love and felt she was always in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Over the years, I interviewed these volunteers, asked them to complete diaries, questionnaires and intelligence tests, and invited them to participate in experiments. The findings have revealed that although unlucky people have almost no insight into the real causes of their good and bad luck, their thoughts and behaviour are responsible for much of their fortune.
Take the case of 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. On average, the unlucky people took about two minutes to count the photographs, whereas the lucky people took just seconds. Why? Because the second page of the newspaper contained the message: “Stop counting. There are 43 photographs in this newspaper.” This message took up half of the page and was written in type that was more than 2in high. It was staring everyone straight in the face, but the unlucky people tended to miss it and the lucky people tended to spot it.
For fun, I placed a second large message halfway through the newspaper: “Stop counting. Tell the experimenter you have seen this and win £250.” Again, the unlucky people missed the opportunity because they were still too busy looking for photographs.
Personality tests revealed that unlucky people are generally much more tense than lucky people, and research has shown that anxiety disrupts people’s ability to notice the unexpected. In one experiment, people were asked to watch a moving dot in the centre of a computer screen. Without warning, large dots would occasionally be flashed at the edges of the screen. Nearly all participants noticed these large dots.
The experiment was then repeated with a second group of people, who were offered a large financial reward for accurately watching the centre dot, creating more anxiety. They became focused on the centre dot and more than a third of them missed the large dots when they appeared on the screen. The harder they looked, the less they saw.
And so it is with luck – unlucky people miss chance 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 as a result miss other types of jobs. Lucky people are more relaxed and open, and therefore see what is there rather than just what they are looking for.
My research revealed that lucky people generate good fortune via four basic 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.
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We are more likely to employ Richard Wiseman's skills for "good luck" when we firstly believe and accept that we have always acted to the best of our ability (regardless what society or other people tell us), that we are all divine beings and worthy of highest love (harmony). – My comment is continued, below…
We are more likely to employ Richard Wiseman's skills for "good luck" when we firstly believe and accept that we have always acted to the best of our ability (regardless what society or other people tell us), that we are all divine beings and worthy of highest love (harmony). – My comment is continued, below…
Vishen, may I suggest that posters be required to keep any links (not just those for self promotion) in their signature only?
I find Richard Wiseman's article fascinating, refreshing and uplifting. As more of us learn and practise the easy but powerful skills he is teaching, the whole of humanity -and therefore the planet - benefits as beautiful, natural consequence.
I wonder if Eli's tragic experience at age 4, led to subsequent painful experiences largely through feelings of unworthiness (self-blame). She begins by reporting her adopted grandma's fatal accident occurred "as she was coming to get me to bake cookies". Her subsequent painful experiences would have compounded to intensify her self-defeating image of self. I am certain, every one of us carries a raft of subconscious self-imposed and undeserved "guilt" for various events. This directs our expectations, which are aligned with what we subconsciously believe we deserve.
There is no question that people who are more relaxed and easy going are able to spot opportunity. Because they allow life to flow. I have found in my own life that to be true. When we are anxious or tensed and stressed, we cut off the flow of life itself. Energy can't flow through a clogged pipe. I talk about this all the time on my blog.
If it is so simple, then how to become a lucky person? Please don't tell me that I need to start to behave differently. It is not simple. Tomorrow I have a big interview. So, I am studying ( a lot...).
Should I just forget about it and watch TV? And of course I am nervous.... Who wouldn't be?
This is excellent.
it is 100% true, the good luck or bad luck, just it is a mental attitude, just go on do the work mechanically with the presence of mind this mechanical work becomes magnetic work, you will understand the life better, a fool will wait for the luck an intelligent will create the luck, it is learning era, learn from the worst, every failure brings experience, every unluck shows us the new path, un luck is a key to a luck, wisely one should open it
it is 100% true, the good luck or bad luck, just it is a mental attitude, just go on do the work mechanically with the presence of mind this mechanical work becomes magnetic work, you will understand the life better, a fool will wait for the luck an intelligent will create the luck, it is learning era, learn from the worst, every failure brings experiance, every unluck shows us the new path, unluck is a key to a luck, wisly one should open it
all this is for happiness, be happy weather you are lucky or unlucky, if you are lucky help others, if you are unlucky take help from others, do it for the happiness.
Vishen, may I suggest that posters be required to keep any links (not just those for self promotion) in their signature only?
I find Richard Wiseman's article fascinating, refreshing and uplifting. As more of us learn and practise the easy but powerful skills he is teaching, the whole of humanity -and therefore the planet - benefits as beautiful, natural consequence.
I wonder if Eli's tragic experience at age 4, led to subsequent painful experiences largely through feelings of unworthiness (self-blame). She begins by reporting her adopted grandma's fatal accident occurred "as she was coming to get me to bake cookies". Her subsequent painful experiences would have compounded to intensify her self-defeating image of self. I am certain, every one of us carries a raft of subconscious self-imposed and undeserved "guilt" for various events. This directs our expectations, which are aligned with what we subconsciously believe we deserve.
I totally agree with what you are saying. We must always realize that not only our actions but OUR THOGHTS as well have led us to where we are today. In accepting our role in the past, and not judging it...just accepting it, we are able to understand and recognize the power we have over ou own lives, whether we considered ourselves unlucky unworthy in the past. It reminds me of Jesus talking to Mary Magdeline in the Bible. She felt unworthy of even Jesus' presense. Jesus response....come along and drop the past...so what if you were a prostitute....come with me and change your life!!! Very powerful concept. Shed your guilt, shed your old self-image and take charge!
it is 100% true, the good luck or bad luck, just it is a mental attitude, just go on do the work mechanically with the presence of mind this mechanical work becomes
magnetic work which gives lot of happiness, it brings confidence in the life, it turns into positive thinking, you will enjoy the life, true happiness tremendously flood into the mind