Make This Your Lucky Day

I am devoting a great deal of time at present to looking for new work opportunities. I know that I have great skills and a reputation for doing good work. But I am still very anxious – When will I get another contract? Will I ever be able to afford to travel abroad again? (Yeah, I’m a worrier!)

I was “lucky” enough to find an article on how people make their own luck and on how I can improve my chances of being “lucky.”

Richard Wiseman, a psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire, observed 400 people who described themselves as either lucky or unlucky. His research indicates that we can maximize our good fortune through three easy techniques:

"Unlucky people often fail to follow their intuition when making a choice, whereas lucky people tend to respect hunches. Lucky people are interested in how they both think and feel about the various options, rather than simply looking at the rational side of the situation. I think this helps them because gut feelings act as an alarm bell - a reason to consider a decision carefully.

Unlucky people tend to be creatures of routine. They tend to take the same route to and from work and talk to the same types of people at parties. In contrast, many lucky people try to introduce variety into their lives. For example, one person described how he thought of a colour before arriving at a party and then introduced himself to people wearing that colour. This kind of behaviour boosts the likelihood of chance opportunities by introducing variety.

Lucky people tend to see the positive side of their ill fortune. They imagine how things could have been worse. In one interview, a lucky volunteer arrived with his leg in a plaster cast and described how he had fallen down a flight of stairs. I asked him whether he still felt lucky and he cheerfully explained that he felt luckier than before. As he pointed out, he could have broken his neck."

My thanks to O’Reilly Radar for referring me to the article by Richard Wiseman in The Telegraph.