This is How to Be Lucky By Leveraging ‘the Luck Factor’
I must admit when I saw the title of the book that inspired this blog post in my Scribd feed, I was a little skeptical. The title of the book is called The Luck Factor and I thought to myself “Geez Louise, just what I need to read, a hokey book about how to get lucky.” (not that anyone can ever get lucky enough!)
The only reason I picked it up is that the author is Richard Wiseman who is the author of another book I really enjoyed and highly recommend, 59 Seconds: Think A Little, Change A Lot.
Well, I am glad I picked it up because it is anything but hokey.
What Dr. Wiseman did was study those who have been ‘lucky’ and those who have been ‘unlucky’ in life. He then identified 4 elements that determine the likelihood of positive opportunities coming into your life. In other words, he covers the science of how to be lucky, which is what we will discuss in today’s blog post.
Some People Have All the Luck!
Why is it that some of us live happy and successful lives while others seem to face consistent failure and sadness? Some of us are able to find perfect partners while others go from one crappy relationship to another. Is there something that helps some people have great careers while others bounce from a job they hate to another job they hate? And is there something that those who are unlucky can do to improve their luck and thus, their lives?
As Weisman hypothesizes:
“Luck could not simply be the outcome of chance events. There were too many people consistently experiencing good and bad luck for it all to be chance. Instead, there must be something causing things to work out consistently well for some people and consistently badly for others. Given the importance of luck, it seemed vital to try to understand why this was the case.” 1
One of the Things I Liked Most About the Book…
…was that Wiseman refrained from using two widely accepted yet disempowering tendencies:
As you saw in the previous paragraph, he avoided associating luck with pure chance or accident.
He also avoided explaining luck as many do by relating it to the law of attraction which is the idea that you can bring positive or negative experiences (luck) into your life merely by thinking about them.
Basically, what he did with his research was to look at both lucky and unlucky people to identify the differences in the way they lived their lives.
This is What He Found
As I said earlier, he found 4 main differences which as he says are:
“(1) Lucky people constantly encounter chance opportunities. They accidentally meet people who have a beneficial effect on their lives and come across interesting opportunities in newspapers and magazines. In contrast, unlucky people rarely have these sorts of experiences or, they meet people who have a negative effect on their lives.
(2) Lucky people also make good decisions without knowing why. They just seem to know when a business decision is sound, or someone shouldn’t be trusted. Unlucky people’s decisions tend to result in failure or despair.
(3) Lucky people’s dreams, ambitions, and goals have an uncanny knack of coming true. Once again, unlucky people are the exact opposite – their dreams and ambitions remain little more than an elusive fantasy.
(4) Lucky people also have an ability to turn their bad luck into good fortune. Unlucky people lack this ability and their bad luck causes nothing but upset and ruin.” 1
Next, Wiseman studied the psychology behind the 4 differences which led him to the 4 principles behind luck, which each contain sub-principles (of which there are 12 in total). These principles and sub-principles can be made actionable and are the ‘how to’ part of how to be lucky.
The 4 Principles of Luck
(1) Maximize Your Chance Opportunities
Those who are lucky create, notice, and act upon the various chance opportunities that they encounter in their life.
Make it actionable:
There are a few ways they make this happen:
(i) Build and maintain a robust ‘luck network’: Lucky people like being around others and the more people you are around, the greater the opportunity for chance encounters. Chance encounters can lead to various new opportunities. To maximize your attractiveness to others, make sure to use open body language and make it a habit to smile. It is also important to make an effort to connect with more people and stay in touch with those you meet.
(ii) Have a relaxed attitude toward life: Sometimes opportunities are right in front of our eyes, but we are too stressed and preoccupied with other stuff to notice them. The idea is to relax, have fun and be more receptive to the opportunities that surround you.
(iii) Be open to new experiences: This simply means maximizing your opportunities by trying new things and being open to new experiences. Whether it is taking a different route to work or trying a new class at the gym. New experiences can quickly increase the amounts of new things and new opportunities you are exposed to.
(2) Listen to Your Lucky Hunches
This one has to do with decision making and more specifically listening to your intuition. As Burns says, “Unlucky people do not tend to rely upon their gut feelings, hunches, and intuition. It is not that they do not have such feelings, but rather that they do not ‘foster’ their intuition, nor listen to it when it speaks to them. Lucky people are the opposite. They listen to their intuitions and use it as an alarm bell – a good reason to stop and consider the situation carefully.” 1
Make it actionable:
There are a couple of ways they make this happen:
(i) They listen to their gut feelings and hunches: This one is all about our subconscious and it simply involves listening to our inner voices and what they are trying to tell us. At the very least, treat it as an alarm that causes you to stop, pause and think through a situation or decision carefully.
(ii) They take steps to increase their intuition: There are a couple of things that we can do to increase our intuition. One which we have discussed in a previous post is to engage in simple meditation to help clear our minds. Another idea is to stop ruminating about a problem and come back to it later with a fresh mind.
(3) Expect Good Fortune
Burns makes an interesting point and one that makes total sense with respect to the attitude of lucky people.
He says: “Unlucky people are certain that their future will be bleak and there is nothing they can do about the situation. Lucky people are the complete opposite. They are certain that the future is going to be wonderful, and that great things lie in store for them.” 1
Make it actionable:
There are a few ways they make this happen:
(i) Expect your good luck to continue into the future: this one is all about expecting great things to happen and having an optimistic attitude. A lot of times being in an optimistic frame of mind gets you in a great mood and makes you more attractive to others.
(ii) Attempt to pursue your goals even if the odds of your being successful seem slim and continue to persevere in the face of failure: Many times, the road to success contains bumps and detours. The idea is to realize that success doesn’t happen overnight and that it is often necessary to persevere through the tough times.
(iii) Expect your interactions with others to be successful: Expecting your interactions with others to be good often become self-fulfilling prophecies. Others can sense your positive attitude and disposition and usually respond in kind.
(4) Turn Your Bad Luck into Good Luck
Lastly, Burns discusses how lucky people are able to turn their bad luck into good.
Make it actionable:
There are several ways they make this happen, they:
(i) See the positive side of their bad fortune: In other words, look at how it could have been worse. Or look for the bright spot in the bad fortune.
(ii) Believe that any bad fortune in their life will turn into good in the long run: This is having an attitude that something bad may have happened but if you keep doing the right thing everything will work out in the long run. Focus on the process!
(iii) Don’t dwell on their bad fortune: Do not focus on what has happened, rather think about what is to come. For example, the quarterback who has just thrown an interception needs to have a short memory and focus on the next play. Or a team who has just lost a game cannot afford to dwell on it too long or risk losing to the same team twice.
(iv) Take steps to prevent bad fortune for re-occurring in the future: This one is one that we have talked about many times on this blog. The idea is to learn from your past mistakes by learning from them and correcting things in the future.
On that note…
I have my own hypothesis that I am going to test now.
I am wondering if Dr. Wiseman’s 4 principles for how to be lucky also work for how to get lucky. Let’s see how it goes… 😉
Have a great day guys and smile, life is too short not to!
Until next time, use these ideas for how to be lucky…and get lucky and as always…PYMFP!
–Rick
P.S. Wanna know more? Check out the entire book.
Use It or Lose It – How to Be Lucky
The 4 principles and associated sub-principles that Wiseman gives for how to be lucky which lucky people practice are:
(1) Maximize your chance opportunities
(i) Build and maintain a robust ‘luck network’.
(ii) Have a relaxed attitude toward life.
(iii) Be open to new experiences.
(2) Listen to your lucky hunches
(ii) They listen to their gut feelings and hunches.
(ii) They take steps to increase their intuition.
(3) Expect good fortune
(i) Expect your good luck to continue into the future.
(ii) Attempt to pursue your goals even if the odds of your being successful seem slim and continue to persevere in the face of failure.
(iii) Expect your interactions with others to be successful.
(4) Turn your bad luck into good luck
(i) See the positive side of their bad fortune.
(ii) Believe that any bad fortune in their life will turn into good in the long run.
(iii) Don’t dwell on their bad fortune.
(iv) Take steps to prevent bad fortune for re-occurring in the future.
When to Use It
Use these ideas for how to be lucky often in your life.
What Do You Think?
What do you think of these ideas for how to be lucky? Do you have any other ideas for how to be lucky? Please share your thoughts in the comments below!
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I do think a positive attitude is important and that many negative situations can be turned around with the right attitude and the right people. Thanks!
Hi Eileen, Yeah I really loved the book and some of the ideas in it. And I do believe by putting yourself in certain situations and doing certain things you can create your own ‘luck’ or at least bring opportunities your way! Thanks and hoping you create your own luck today! Rick
You cannot predict luck, but you can leverage the chances to be favorable, which is what professional poker player do. Just like the song – Know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em, know when to walk away, know when to run”.
In the popular Calvin & Hobbs comic strip, Calvin is just hanging around on the sidewalk. Hobbs asks him what he’s doing. Calvin’s answer “I think I found the right place, now I’m just waiting for the right time.”
Luck runs both ways. There’s also the wrong place at the wrong time. Which is why I always try and avoid traffic.
Positive attitude + opportunity = luck.
So,,,,,,did you get lucky?
Hi Dave, Great analogy with poker! Love the Calvin and Hobbs reference, hadn’t seen it. Be good (and lucky!) Rick