'You Really Do Make Your Own Luck' says scientist

Ananova ^ | 1-3-2003

[blam]

'You really do make your own luck' says scientist

New research suggests people are not born lucky but create and improve their own good fortune as they go through life.

Psychologist Dr Richard Wiseman spent 10 years looking for the elusive "luck factor" and trying to understand the psychology behind good fortune.

Dr Wiseman, who heads a research unit at the University of Hertfordshire, studied the lives of 400 of the luckiest and unluckiest people.

He found that those with charmed lives are, without realising it, using four basic principles to create good fortune for themselves. The first principle of the lucky is that they maximise their opportunities.

They are skilled at creating, noticing and acting upon chances through networking, adopting a relaxed attitude to life and by being open to new experiences.

Secondly, Dr Wiseman discovered that People who appear to have good fortune tend to make effective decisions by acting on their intuition and gut feelings. They also take steps to boost their intuitive skills, such as clearing their mind of other thoughts or meditating.

Thirdly, lucky people go through life expecting good fortune and in the certainty that the future will be positive.

These expectations become self-fulfilling prophecies by helping lucky people persist in the face of failure and shape their interactions with others in a positive way.

The fourth principle Dr Wiseman found is that lucky people have the ability to turn bad fortune into good luck. They usually employ various psychological techniques to cope with and often even thrive upon any ill fortune that comes their way.

Story filed: 07:11 Friday 3rd January 2003

[error99]

So tell me punk, do you feel lucky?

[qvack]

And then again, some people are, well, just lucky.

[Mark]

Psychologist Dr Richard Wiseman spent 10 years looking for the elusive "luck factor" ....

Oh, B.S.! He just got lucky.

[Mark]

Little Dicky Gephardt knows how to handle those who win lifes' lottery.

[dalereed]

"Little Dicky Gephardt knows how to handle those who win lifes' lottery"

Tax the hell out of them to give to his low life constituants!

[TightSqueeze]

How do you spell LUCK, I'll tell you J-E-T-S!

Gimmie a J

Gimmie a E

Gimmie a T

Gimmie a S

Whats that Spell! JETS!

Whats that Spell! JETS!

[onedoug]

Attitude and experience enhance the odds. Statistics are real.

[Stefan Stackhouse]

What this research is about is the difference between prosperous and impoverished people. "Luck" has nothing to do with it. Prosperous people are not better off than poor people because they are "lucky", but because they have the bundle of skills and attitudes that enables them to make the most of their opportunities.

Now being born with a horrible deformity or good looks, or into a poor or rich family, now that IS mainly a matter of luck. And obviously, such has consequences that follow one throughout life. But there are also plenty of examples of people who rise above misfortune and really make something remarkable of themselves and their lives. There are also plenty of beautiful people from rich families that have made nothing but a mess of their lives.

[lsee]

I'm sure the Colts know how to spell JETS, JETS, JETS! Ouch -- what a beating.....

[cricket]

"Psychologist Dr Richard Wiseman spent 10 years looking for the elusive "luck factor" and trying to understand the psychology behind good fortune."

. . .reminds me of the Wizard of Oz and all our friends, Dorothy, the Tin Man, the Lion and the Scarecrow heading down the Yellow Brick Road. . .

Trying to figure what Dr. Wiseman really expected to find, and where. . .

[Queen Jadis]

can we have any hope that the "lucky" (e.g. overpaid drug addicted actors) will take responsibility for their destruction of their good fortune? Oh I forgot they turn their deplorable narcissistic behavior into a cash cow tell all!

[Doctor Stochastic]

Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.

[Benrand]

And Mike Sherman did the opposite of everything in this article...just like George Costanza...hmmmm.

[Queen Jadis]

Agreed! That should have been MY post. (just get sick of those spoiled people who have the luck of ruining their luck and then making $$$ from it....sigh would that I were so "lucky")

[Doctor Stochastic]

I think the quote is from someone I read a long time ago. Unluckily, I cant' remember who.

There are some people attempting to make their own luck in Las Vegas. The lucky ones end up in jail.

Or in the words of Grandpa Jones (et.al.): "If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all."

[smoking camels]

interesting. I agree.