Forget lucky coins, magical boxer-briefs, or a crusty rabbit’s foot, because your luck is about to change. Whether you’re cursed in finding opportunities or prone to strike-outs with beautiful women, the key to finding your lucky charm is a mixed bag of opportunity and hard work.
» By Jack Busch
That big opportunity with that company you’ve always wanted to work for. A date with that girl from the library who you’ve been eyeing for the past year. That invitation to go to the game with your friend who had two extra front row tickets. Boons like these can easily be called lucky breaks. But whatever your good fortune brings, don’t chalk it up to chance. Believe it or not, you earned all of these seemingly random blessings. How? Thomas Jefferson (allegedly) said it best: “I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.”
Jefferson was being somewhat tongue-in-cheek with that comment, but it raises an interesting question: Which successes do we attribute to hard work and which ones to dumb luck? In answer to that question Richard Wiseman, professor of psychology and author of The Luck Factor, would explain that there is no such thing as “dumb luck.” Luck, he says, is distinct from chance because it is something that we build through our actions. In an interview with FastCompany.com, he stated:
Chance events are like winning the lottery. They’re events over which we have no control, other than buying a ticket. They don’t consistently happen to the same person. They may be formative events in people’s lives, but they’re not frequent. When people say that they consistently experience good fortune, I think that, by definition, it has to be because of something they are doing.
So what is this “something” you can do to increase your luck? After nearly a decade of study, Wiseman distilled four principles that contribute to a lucky existence:
(1) Maximize Chance Opportunities
(2) Listen to Your Lucky Hunches
(3) Expect Good Fortune and
(4) Turn Bad Luck Into Good.
Of course, these sound somewhat vague and, in the case of the last two, a bit new-age-y. But when you get into the specifics of increasing your luck, things start to make sense. Wiseman explains:
One way is to be open to new experiences. Unlucky people are stuck in routines. When they see something new, they want no part of it. Lucky people always want something new.
They’re prepared to take risks and relaxed enough to see the opportunities in the first place.
Being lucky, according to Wiseman, is mostly about creating opportunities and having the confidence to take them. He doesn’t go as far as to mention zen or any other enlightened states of mind, but he does have a point: being lucky has more to do with being open to opportunities than it does with preferential treatment from the universe.
In this way, luck is somewhat of a self-fulfilling prophecy: those who feel lucky seem to have better luck, simply by virtue of their being open to new experiences that may lead to good fortune. So what can a guy who’s looking for a new job, a new outlet for his creativity or a new female companion do to boost his luckiness? Why not try a few of Primer’s proven luck hacks:
Keep a Luck Diary
In his appearance on Wiretap with Jonathan Goldstein, Wiseman prescribed a “luck diary” in order to help unlucky folks turn around their misfortune. The idea is that unluckiness, too, is a self-fulfilling prophecy. People who feel like the cards are stacked against them are less likely to take the necessary risks that will open windows of opportunity. A luck diary puts you in the mindset to break the cycle of misfortune.
For the very pessimistic, it can be difficult to find something to feel lucky about every day – but that’s okay. You can start small. On day one, maybe you’ll consider it lucky that you got the last cannoli at the bakery. The next day maybe you’ll get lucky by getting a seat on the early bus, rather than having to wait 30 minutes to stand on the next one. The day after that, you can count yourself lucky for being the one to hold the elevator door open for the president of your company, who now knows your name and face. A month from now, you’ll find yourself in the lucky position of being top of mind when it comes to promotions.
Going through this diary after a week or so, you’ll begin to notice a more fortunate portrait of yourself being painted. Life will seem a bit more just and you’ll begin feeling better about yourself, more optimistic. You’ll feel luckier, and will feel more open to taking on new risks, exploring new opportunities and you’ll be more pleasant to be around in general. Which leads to the next point:
Read on at Primer Magazine.
