Lucky
We all sometimes think about luck and its role in our lives. We wonder whether luck determines our success, whether we are really in control. We look at other people's results and wonder whether and how much luck played a role. We joke about a preference for luck over skill. Now psychologist Richard Wiseman, who conducts research on the subject of luck, has published The Luck Factor. He analyzes why some people seem lucky and others unlucky and what can we do to improve our luck.
In some ways, the notion that we are unlucky is comforting. If we believe that our failures arise from random chance, we feel no guilt. If we believe that we can't control our fate, we don't feel responsible for our lives. So some people won't like to hear that we make our own luck, that we can improve our luck by improving our behavior.
Wiseman summarizes his research with four ways to improve luck, to make ourselves lucky. I'll write about some of the other ideas in future columns but the most important seems to me to be recognizing that things can always be worse. He notes that unlucky people focus on bad things but lucky people notice that there is good fortune in everything, no matter how bad it seems at the moment.
A senior lawyer I worked with many years ago used to say there are no problems, only opportunities. He argued that when the worst things happen a successful person will see the opportunity to solve problems, make things better, work through the issues and finish with success. Also, the person who achieves a good result in the face of adversity will be viewed, by himself and others, as more successful than the person who achieves the same result in fair weather. This is another way of stating Wiseman's principle that the lucky see the good in every situation.
If we can look for the good, treat the bad as an opportunity and continue cheerfully in the face of adversity we will be lucky, we will make ourselves lucky. Be cheerful no matter what happens. You'll feel better about yourself and make others feel better too.
7-21-03
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