The research on luck is clear: you can make your own
Let’s start with this: “luck” is an ambiguous term. As a society, we use “luck” to account for the randomness of life. We also use luck to account for the opportunities that arise out of openness to experience, and that’s primarily where we focus on the four steps to getting luckier.
Psychologist Richard Wiseman is considered the expert on luck. According to his website, here are the four basic principles that lucky people use to create good fortune in their lives:
Principle One: Maximise Chance Opportunities
Lucky people are skilled at creating, noticing and acting upon chance opportunities. They do this in various ways, including networking, adopting a relaxed attitude to life and by being open to new experiences.
Principle Two: Listening to Lucky Hunches
Lucky people make effective decisions by listening to their intuition and gut feelings. In addition, they take steps to actively boost their intuitive abilities by, for example, meditating and clearing their mind of other thoughts.
Principle Three: Expect Good Fortune
Lucky people are certain that the future is going to be full of good fortune. 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.
Principle Four: Turn Bad Luck to Good
Lucky people employ various psychological techniques to cope with, and often even thrive upon, the ill fortune that comes their way. For example, they spontaneously imagine how things could have been worse, do not dwell on ill fortune, and take control of the situation.
Today and into this weekend, practice serendipity: be open to new experiences, both large and small. You don’t have to join a new group or meet all new people at a party; changing your luck could be as easy as taking a new route to the same grocery store—just be open!