Like clockwork, the big daddy of all weekdays has arrived. Irregardless of my theories that the global corporate hegemony plants extra hours, and (more insidiously) extra days in our workweeks in order to increase their profits and productivity, Friday shows his sunny face once again. This has been one of those weeks where I didn't know it was coming. I didn't hope for it, I didn't long for it, I didn't wish for it, and I didn't pine for it... I just got up every day without thinking about it.
Which is almost exactly how I feel about luck. Most of the time I don't think about it at all. Then one day, it'll pop into my head in various ways..."Man, I'm so lucky!" (rare-but cool) Or, more usually, "Where's the luck man? Jeezzus!" I might even quote the only reference to luck (I can recall) in the Warner Brothers Cartoons when Sylvester says, "If it wasn't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all."
Anyways, when I start thinking about luck, I always ponder how I'd like to be more lucky. (sure, who wouldn't?) Like, would I be any more lucky if I was born 35 seconds before I actually was? Well, it's possible that could actually make a difference! But hey, being born isn't exactly up to you, for the most part, being born is *ahem* up to chance. However, a while back I read about a pretty good study. A guy who decided to study luck.
Richard Wiesman has conducted research for a number of years, and came up with this...
My research eventually revealed that lucky people generate good fortune via four principles.
They are skilled at creating and noticing chance opportunities, make lucky decisions by listening to their intuition, create self-fulfilling prophesies via positive expectations, and adopt a resilient attitude that transforms bad luck into good.
...I Know I know, you're all saying, "Fuck Tsunami! Of Course Lucky People are Skilled at all that - BECAUSE THEY'RE LUCKY!"
Well kids, that is true, however, when Weisman took groups of people who were "Lucky" and others who were "unlucky" and had them run thru some "luck building experiments" he found...
One month later, the volunteers returned and described what had happened. The results were dramatic: 80% of people were now happier, more satisfied with their lives and, perhaps most important of all, luckier.
The lucky people had become even luckier and the unlucky had become lucky.
Pretty cool huh? And the funny bit is, the exercises are totally easy. You can start today!
Here are Professor Wiseman's four top tips for becoming lucky:
Listen to your gut instincts - they are normally right
Be open to new experiences and breaking your normal routine
Spend a few moments each day remembering things that went well
visualize yourself being lucky before an important meeting or telephone call. Luck is very often a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Anyways, lucky, unlucky - Happy Friday.
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