Monday, December 12, 2011

Luckyy

The luck factor

Richard Wiseman states near the end of his article that much of good and bad fortune we encounter is a product of our thoughts and behavior. I thought this article was great and it was very interesting to read some actual scientific research on “the luck factor”. Some of the best positive stories one may view on television or encounter in public pertain to somebody being lucky. I agree with many of the points that Wiseman brought up about luck. In the case of the participants who were lucky looking through the newspaper and taking no time to find the note telling them how many pictures were in the paper; opposed to the unlucky participants spending much more time actually counting is very intriguing.

Wiseman broke down luck into four basic principles pertaining to good fortune and luck: 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 resilient attitude that transforms bad luck into good. I also found the information relating to the personality testing of unlucky people to be very informing relevant information. As one may observe out in society, people who see themselves, or are perceived as unlucky are much more tense and anxious, and Wiseman states that anxiety disrupts people’s ability to notice the unexpected. I guess “the unexpected” when it happens in a good way could be a way to define luck.

Overall this article could be a very effective reference for anybody that believes they are not lucky. Going along with my beliefs, it seems as if having an open mind, reducing stressors, making the best of situations, and disrupting the normal schedules and doing things out of the norm increase ones luck factor. It is not surprising that peoples thoughts, have a great impact on something external such as luck. However cliché this may sound it truly is about seeing the glass half full.

1 comment:

  1. I too, enjoyed this article as well. It can be an effective source for anyone who firmly believes that they are not lucky. Some of the lucky stories were interesting to say the least. Like the notable psychologist Bandura golfing with a lady that became his wife. Love the article.

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