"I'd rather be lucky than good"
Monday, October 19, 2009 at 2:22PM 
Let me ask you all a question.
Which would you rather be: lucky or good? I'll give you a minute. . .
As the market (and the world) continues to transform, right before our eyes, everyone is trying to figure out how to manage these changes. Trying to figure out how to successfully navigate the new landscape. Thinking about what should the next move be (hoping it's the right one. . .maaan sooo hoping it's the right one).
As Lefty Gomez said, "I'd rather be lucky than good," maybe being lucky is the way to go about figuring things out. One problem though. You can't walk around trying to be lucky as a way to go from point a to point b. Or maybe you can. . .
I came across this interesting article written in 2003 by a British psychologist named Richard Wiseman in which he says this:
A decade ago, I set out to investigate luck. I wanted to examine the impact on people's lives of chance opportunities, lucky breaks and being in the right place at the right time. After many experiments, I believe that I now understand why some people are luckier than others and that it is possible to become luckier.
As a result, Wiseman's research revealed that lucky people generate good fortune via four basic 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.
- Adopt a resilient attitude that transforms bad luck into good.
In the wake of his studies, Wiseman details three easy techniques that can help to maximise good fortune:
- Unlucky people often fail to follow their intuition when making a choice, whereas lucky people tend to respect hunches. Lucky people are interested in how they both think and feel about the various options, rather than simply looking at the rational side of the situation. I think this helps them because gut feelings act as an alarm bell - a reason to consider a decision carefully.
- Unlucky people tend to be creatures of routine. They tend to take the same route to and from work and talk to the same types of people at parties. In contrast, many lucky people try to introduce variety into their lives. For example, one person described how he thought of a colour before arriving at a party and then introduced himself to people wearing that colour. This kind of behaviour boosts the likelihood of chance opportunities by introducing variety.
- Lucky people tend to see the positive side of their ill fortune. They imagine how things could have been worse. In one interview, a lucky volunteer arrived with his leg in a plaster cast and described how he had fallen down a flight of stairs. I asked him whether he still felt lucky and he cheerfully explained that he felt luckier than before. As he pointed out, he could have broken his neck.
After reading this I'm definitely looking at lucky a little bit differently.
Reader Comments (5)
For me, intuition is everything. Even my bad decsions are good...because somehow they take me on exactly the path I'm supposed to go down to become the woman I'm here to BE. My intuitions know way better than ME what's good for me.
I think that connects with the idea of perception (i.e. "to see the positive side of their ill fortune"). Because I have such a strong belief in my intuition...have the sense that even the things that "LOOK" like mistakes or unnecessary pain...will eventually lead to a LIGHT that I cannot yet see. So, when bad times comes...there is a shift in perception. No longer to I wonder (JUST) "Why this suffering, why this pain?" ...I also wonder, "What is this going to LEAD TO?" ...what amazing Journey might this be the beginning of? So, I'm still scared and I suffer...but it's tinged with excitement and anticipation...and HOPE.