Wanna Be Luckier? Tips from The Luck Factor by Richard Wiseman

Hi, everyone.  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and in today's video, I'll share some tips on how to improve your luck from the book The Luck Factor by Richard Wiseman.

About a year ago, I read an article that referenced this book, the Luck Factor, and have thought about it pretty regularly since then. I just got around to reading the actual book and I thought I’d share my thoughts and takeaways with you.

This book is about luck. Most people consider luck to be something that is entirely out of our control. Some people have good things that happen to them, some have bad.

However, in his studies on luck, Wiseman find that people who consider themselves lucky have a lot of things in common. Note that this is people who consider themselves to be lucky -- which is important to differentiate from actual luck. He makes no attempt to determine whether people are objectively lucky or not. He simply asked them to rate themselves on a scale with very lucky on one end and very unlucky on the other.

This is an important distinction because some people have rotten things that happened to them: illness, death of loved ones, injuries.  In no way do I want to minimize or victim-blame those folks. In fact, it turns out that some of the people who have the worst things happen to them can also consider themselves to be lucky. See why the distinction is important?

OK – just a note about the author. Richard Wiseman is a research psychologist, who was formerly a professional magician. In fact, he began studying psychology to figure out how magicians, con-men, and fortune-tellers use human psychology to get folks to believe them.  In other words — the psychology of deceit. This eventually morphed into his current interest in luck. All that to say, he is a creative and interesting researcher -- as you'll see from the way he designed many of his unique experiments.

So -- to start off, he asked people whether they considered themselves to be lucky or unlucky.  He then has a bunch of profiles in the book that detail somewhat annoyingly the lives of lucky people and their great fortune in relationships, contests, employment, and finances. Likewise he has somewhat depressing stories of the unlucky and their numerous injuries, failed relationships, dwindling job prospects, and general unhappiness.

After Wiseman used the self-rating to sort folks Into lucky and unlucky groups, he proceeded to put both groups through a series of experiments.  For example, he put a 5 pound note on the sidewalk (he’s British) and had lucky people and unlucky people walk by it. Turns out, the lucky people noticed the money and picked it up, the unlucky people did not.  He performed an experiment where he asked folks to count the number of photographs in a section of newspaper. On the second page in giant type he had written out “Stop Counting -- There are 43 Photographs in this Newspaper.”  Just as before, the lucky people saw the notice and stopped counting, unlucky people continued on to the end of the section. How is this possible? Is good fortune just innate?

It turns out, people who consider themselves to be lucky have some things in common. For one, out of the big five personality traits, they appear to share 3 of them. There are many ways of measuring personality, but the big 5 is the only one that is grounded in factor analysis. People who consider themselves to be lucky tend to be more extroverted, less neurotic, and more open to new experiences.  Versus people who consider themselves to be unlucky who are more introverted, more neurotic, and less open. So, is is that it? You’re either born with those lucky personality traits or you’re not?

I can’t help but conclude that some people ARE actually blessed with luckier personality traits, but Wiseman points out that you CAN strategically work to change just those parts of yourself that are most likely to bring you more luck.  Based on his experiments, he has identified four ways that lucky people behave — he calls them luck principles. In addition, he has given some tips on how you can acquire these skills or traits. I'll go through each one and tell you a couple of ways he gives to enhance your skills in each area.  

Principle 1: Maximize Your Chance Opportunities

Okay -- so this one states that lucky people tend to make more opportunities for themselves than unlucky people do.  For example, he profiles a woman who wins on average 3 competitions a week -- but here is the kicker, she enters about 130 competitions in a week.  Can't win if you don't apply, right? Outside of competitions, how do you maximize your chance opportunities? Wiseman gives three ways: have a enormous network of people who can alert you to new opportunities, be more relaxed and easy going so that you can spot the opportunities when they arise (reference the 5 pound note on the sidewalk), and be open to new opportunities -- after all if you do the same things every week, your opportunities will remain limited.  You can see where the personality traits of extroversion, openness, and low neuroticism come into play on this principle, right? Extroverts are going to naturally meet more people, people who are open are going to gravitate towards new opportunities, and people who are not neurotic are going to be less stressed out and more likely to notice new possibilities.

So, if you are not any of those things -- how do you cultivate those skills that might make you more lucky?  Here are 2 exercises Wiseman proposes: 1) talk to strangers and 2) commit to engaging in new activities. I'm not someone who normally strikes up conversations with strangers -- I usually have my nose in a book and may (purposefully) seem a bit stand-offish.  But it is true that the person I'm sitting next to on a plane might offer me my next job, buy my company, or give me an interesting tip about a project I'm working on. But how would I know if I don't talk with them? Wiseman recommends talking to at least 1 new person per week and really being curious about them.  Also, in order to cultivate these new relationships, pay attention to your body language and adopt more open, encouraging stances rather than a closed, stand-offish posture. Also, look for and engage in 1 new activity each week if you can swing it. Basically, work to make your circle of friendships and activities wider and more diverse.

Principle 2: Listen to Your Lucky Hunches

The idea behind this principle is that we have deep forces at work in our subconscious letting us know to approach or avoid opportunities.  Gavin de Becker talks about this in his book The Gift of Fear. Apparently, lucky people listen to their intuition and generally follow it -- unlucky people second guess themselves.  This certainly applies to business or relationship opportunities to pursue, but it is probably MORE important to listen to your gut when it is telling you what to avoid. The unlucky people in Wiseman's studies stayed way too long in relationships that had red flags to begin with.  They took jobs where they had major misgivings. And they didn't listen to their own fear when they should have. I have some issues with this principle since I also think this is where our deep-seated prejudices and biases are housed, but I do think it makes sense to get in touch with your own intuition.

So, how do you boost your ability to listen to your "inner voice"?  Meditation and mindfulness. I won't get into the specifics of how to meditate here, but apparently Wiseman found that lucky people were 20% more likely to meditate than unlucky people.  Meditation has all kinds of benefits, but apparently making yourself lucky might be one of them!

Principle 3: Expect Good Fortune

So, this is really just an extension of self-fulfilling prophecy.  If you think terrible things are going to happen to you, that is probably what will happen and vice versa.  The trick is getting yourself to actually believe that good things are going to happen. So, is that just sending good vibes into the universe, or what is really at play here?  The bottom line is -- even though many things seem to be out of our control, there are always some things that fall within our control. People who expect the worst end up sabotaging the small things that they can do to positively influence their situation.  If you never think you are going to meet the right person, you might adopt a closed body posture, not smile as much, and not be as open to new experiences or new connections. You can see how those things would significantly decrease your ability to find the right person.  The other thing lucky people do is persevere in the face of failure. Lucky people are much more likely to continue working on a difficult problem than unlucky people, who believe that failure is inevitable. So, think positive thoughts and try and try again.

Here are some exercises that Wiseman proposes to boost your expectations:

• Affirmations. Anyone who has ever done this can attest to how stupid it feels and yet, how well it works. Every day you repeat some affirmations OUT LOUD to yourself before the day begins. In this case, it would be "Today is going to be a lucky day and I will have good fortune." Okay -- yes, that feels dumb -- particularly the out loud part, but it actually works to change your view about things that might happen to you. Another exercise is
• Positive Goal Setting. He suggests splitting them into Short, Medium, and Long-term goals and making them extremely specific and achievable. So not -- I will be happier, but maybe in one year, I will be in a job that I enjoy. And finally, before an interview, date, or event
• Visualize Good Fortune. See the encounter working out well and it boosts the chances that it actually will. And finally,

Principle 4: Turn Bad Luck into Good

This is really just trying to see everything in the most positive light possible.  It's the glass half full effect. Lucky people tend to see even their worst misfortunes in a positive way -- sure, I broke my foot falling down the stairs, but I could have injured my spine!  I lost that job last year, but I was able to find a new job, which I like so much better. In addition, when things go poorly, lucky people want to know why so that they can change things next time.  They genuinely look for feedback on how to do better and incorporate that feedback into their lives.

So, how can you see things more positively?  Here are some exercises:

• Practice -- try to find the silver lining in everything -- it could have been worse, others have it worse, etc.
• Don't Dwell -- we all know people who dwell on their bad luck. Obviously, everyone needs to be able to vent, but after that, do to distract yourself and move on to
• Constructive Problem Solving. Always assume there is something you can do about a problem or how you feel about it. Make a list of all of your options. Concentrate on finding a solution rather than fixating on the problem.

I found Wiseman’s study of luck and people who consider themselves to be lucky to be fascinating.  I also like the practical steps to make yourself into a more lucky person. At the end of the book, he talks about a Luck Academy that he runs and by engaging in some of these exercises, almost across the board people felt over 50% luckier and became happier people.  It's worth a try! Let me know what you think. Comments are always appreciated and thanks for watching!