How to Create Your Own Luck

The Power of Positive Thinking

St. Patrick’s Day celebrates the “luck of the Irish,” but you don’t need four-leafed clovers to have good luck in life. Learn how to generate your own luck with the power of positive thinking.

No Such Thing as Luck

Have you ever looked at someone and thought, “everything seems to work out for them! How are they so lucky?” The truth is, they aren’t lucky at all. Richard Wiseman, a psychology professor at the University of Hertfordshire, performed a study into The Luck Factor to solve the mystery of whether luck truly does exist. In the study, he has two groups of candidates; self-professed lucky and unlucky people.

What makes a person lucky?

Wiseman found that lucky people tend to be extroverted, engage in eye contact more, and smile twice as often. Unlucky people tend to be introverted and closed off to meeting new people or having new experiences. One experiment in Wiseman’s study was to count the number of photos in a newspaper as quickly as possible. Lucky people noticed that on the second page, an image read, “stop counting! There are 43 images.” However, unlucky people felt higher stress levels and missed this hint, continuing to count each image.

Create Your Own Luck

Wiseman’s study concluded that there is no invisible force causing people to be lucky. Instead, optimistic and open-minded people are more likely to have things work out for them. So how do you create your own luck?

• Make the most of situations
• Be open-minded
• Stay positive
• Reverse any bad luck

Make the most of situations

Lucky people don’t magically have everything go their way. In fact, they are just as likely as anyone else to have bad things happen to them. People considered lucky take their current situation and make the most out of it. Sometimes the path to your goal may not be the one you expected to take. One example from history is this quote by Thomas Edison, “I never once failed at making a light bulb. I found 99 ways not to make one.” When things go wrong, you learn from your mistakes and adjust your attempt for next time. The key to achieving your goals is not the successes but the lessons learned from failure.

Be open-minded

Sometimes the “lucky” path is the one you least expect. Staying open-minded to new and exciting opportunities increases your chances for good things to come your way. Richard T. James invented the popular toy, The Slinky, entirely by accident. He was at a shipyard and knocked a coiled spring off his desk. To his surprise, the spring slowly walked its way down a pile of books, to his desk, and then on to the floor. Had he not been open to the concept of turning his stabilizer invention into a toy, James would’ve missed out on the investment of a lifetime.

Stay Positive

Unlucky people tend to think negatively more often than their lucky counterparts. If you go in expecting the worst, more often than not, it will come true. Writer Stephen King received 60 rejection letters before selling his short story. King has now written over 50 published books, many of which were adapted into movies and plays. By staying positive and never giving up on your goals, luck will come your way!

Reverse Bad Luck

When negative things happen to lucky people, they remain positive and look for the silver lining. This could mean reshaping your thoughts during bad occurrences. The popular saying, “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade,” is exactly the advice lucky people follow. When things go wrong, look around and make something good happen for yourself.