For a long time, I have been wondering why some people are consistently lucky whilst others encounter little or no luck. Is luck some magical force or just the result of random chance? Are few people born under lucky stars or are our thoughts and behaviour responsible for much of the fortune?
People have long recognized the ability of fortune in transforming lives. They have always been searching for an effective way of improving the good fortune in their lives. Lucky charms, amulets, and talismans have been found virtually in all civilizations throughout the recorded history. Our obsession with astrology, numerology, Zodiac, Vastu have all been an exercise to enhance the good fortune in our lives.Superstition is the manifestation of this obsession. It represents people’s attempts to control and enhance this most elusive of factors. Some of the most important determinants of life's paths often arises through the most trivial of circumstances.In short, Goddess Fortuna and her wheel of fortune exerts dramatic influence over our lives. It has the power to transform the improbable into the possible, failure into success and grief into happiness.
So is luck just an external factor out of our control? Well, I believe we can really enhance our chances of being lucky by altering our behaviour and thought. I think lucky people are skilled at creating and noticing opportunities. They make lucky decisions by listening to their intuitions. They have a positive outlook towards life and view glass as half full rather than half empty. This optimistic and positive attitude helps them transform bad luck into good.
Lets take the case of opportunities. It is believed that lucky people consistently stumble upon opportunities whereas unlucky people do not. For example, i went out for a play with one of my friends who is perceived to be lucky. At the reception of the theatre, some company's PR agent asked us to fill a feedback form and lucky draw winners would get a gift hamper. He filled the form and i didn't, thinking why waste time and there is no chance, we'll win. Guess what? he won the lucky draw. So should I label him lucky and myself unlucky or was his openness to the idea of winning, responsible for him actually winning the hampers. This is a mild example, but there are several other occasions where I have seen that his idea of being open to possibilities has helped him to be what we call “lucky”.
I think unlucky people miss opportunities because they are too focused on looking for something specific. Sometimes a opportunity is staring at them but they miss it because they are busy looking for something else. Unlucky people goes out with preconceived notions. They go to parties with the intent on finding their perfect partner and so miss opportunities to make good friends.Lucky people are more relaxed and open, and therefore they see what is there rather than just what they are looking for. By this open attitude, they introduce themselves to the potential for new opportunities.
But a lucky life is not just about creating and noticing opportunities. It is also about the way we reflect on our life. A popular example among psychologist illustrating this is that of Olympic medallist. Who among the silver or bronze medallist should be more happy? Logic says that since silver medal is better than bronze medal so silver medallist should feel more happy. But on the contrary, it is observed that bronze medallist feels more satisfaction. The silver medallists focuses on the notion that if they had performed slightly better, then they would have perhaps won a gold medal. In contrast, the bronze medallists focus on the thought that if they had performed slightly worse, then they wouldn’t have won anything at all. This ability to imagine what might have happened, rather than what actually did happen is very crucial to the idea of feeling lucky in life.
Lucky people have the ability to imagine spontaneously how the bad luck they encountered could have been even worse and, by doing so, they feel much better about themselves and their lives. This helps them to stay positive and optimistic about their life and increases the likelihood of them continuing to live a lucky life.
Note: - Few ideas have been taken from Richard Wiseman's “The Luck Factor”. Here I am not discussing extreme circumstances, where luck can play a huge factor.
People have long recognized the ability of fortune in transforming lives. They have always been searching for an effective way of improving the good fortune in their lives. Lucky charms, amulets, and talismans have been found virtually in all civilizations throughout the recorded history. Our obsession with astrology, numerology, Zodiac, Vastu have all been an exercise to enhance the good fortune in our lives.Superstition is the manifestation of this obsession. It represents people’s attempts to control and enhance this most elusive of factors. Some of the most important determinants of life's paths often arises through the most trivial of circumstances.In short, Goddess Fortuna and her wheel of fortune exerts dramatic influence over our lives. It has the power to transform the improbable into the possible, failure into success and grief into happiness.
So is luck just an external factor out of our control? Well, I believe we can really enhance our chances of being lucky by altering our behaviour and thought. I think lucky people are skilled at creating and noticing opportunities. They make lucky decisions by listening to their intuitions. They have a positive outlook towards life and view glass as half full rather than half empty. This optimistic and positive attitude helps them transform bad luck into good.
Lets take the case of opportunities. It is believed that lucky people consistently stumble upon opportunities whereas unlucky people do not. For example, i went out for a play with one of my friends who is perceived to be lucky. At the reception of the theatre, some company's PR agent asked us to fill a feedback form and lucky draw winners would get a gift hamper. He filled the form and i didn't, thinking why waste time and there is no chance, we'll win. Guess what? he won the lucky draw. So should I label him lucky and myself unlucky or was his openness to the idea of winning, responsible for him actually winning the hampers. This is a mild example, but there are several other occasions where I have seen that his idea of being open to possibilities has helped him to be what we call “lucky”.
I think unlucky people miss opportunities because they are too focused on looking for something specific. Sometimes a opportunity is staring at them but they miss it because they are busy looking for something else. Unlucky people goes out with preconceived notions. They go to parties with the intent on finding their perfect partner and so miss opportunities to make good friends.Lucky people are more relaxed and open, and therefore they see what is there rather than just what they are looking for. By this open attitude, they introduce themselves to the potential for new opportunities.
But a lucky life is not just about creating and noticing opportunities. It is also about the way we reflect on our life. A popular example among psychologist illustrating this is that of Olympic medallist. Who among the silver or bronze medallist should be more happy? Logic says that since silver medal is better than bronze medal so silver medallist should feel more happy. But on the contrary, it is observed that bronze medallist feels more satisfaction. The silver medallists focuses on the notion that if they had performed slightly better, then they would have perhaps won a gold medal. In contrast, the bronze medallists focus on the thought that if they had performed slightly worse, then they wouldn’t have won anything at all. This ability to imagine what might have happened, rather than what actually did happen is very crucial to the idea of feeling lucky in life.
Lucky people have the ability to imagine spontaneously how the bad luck they encountered could have been even worse and, by doing so, they feel much better about themselves and their lives. This helps them to stay positive and optimistic about their life and increases the likelihood of them continuing to live a lucky life.
Note: - Few ideas have been taken from Richard Wiseman's “The Luck Factor”. Here I am not discussing extreme circumstances, where luck can play a huge factor.
2 comments:
Assuming that Luck is a force out of our control and authority, it is always better to try out more things (take chances, that is) and be optimistic about a favourable outcome.
Great article !!!
Well done Ankit.
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