Shine With Grace

No no no, wearing more lucky charms is not on our list here.  Nevertheless, it is worth noting that lucky people do approach life in some particular ways and therefore, you can enhance your luck by adopting their thinking patterns/practices. 

Indeed, we have far more control over events than we thought.  

~ Prof. Richard Wiseman

What I’m going to do is introduce to you a couple of scientific proven exercises that can help you boost your luck: 

1. Maximising your chance opportunities - Connect four 

The more people you connect with, the greater opportunity you have a chance encounter.  Therefore, each week in the coming month, strike up a conversation with at least one person who you don’t know very well, or don’t know at all.  By doing so, you can train up your social skills, while increasing your chance opportunities.  Sounds a bit scary?  The following tips should be useful:

• Do not try to chat with people who make you feel uncomfortable, find those who look friendly and approachable.
• Capitalise on a naturally occurring situation, e.g. when you are sitting next to someone in the train/plane.
• Break the ice by asking for information or help.  
• Use open questions.
• If the person seems friendly, elaborate on your opening gambit.
• Most important:  don’t be afraid of rejection and keep trying!

2. Listen to your lucky hunches - Visit the old man in the cave

Lucky people make successful decisions by using their intuition and gut feelings.  Next time if you find that the evidence and your feelings are not in line, you may try this “visit the old man in the cave” exercise to get in touch with your inner voice:

• Imagine you are being magically transported to a cave on a remote mountain, in which sat an old man of wisdom.
• Describe your options to him, be honest and tell him how you feel about each of the options - what feels right and what feels wrong.
• Remember that the old man is not interested in listening to the facts, logic, reasons and other people’s opinions.  Therefore, stick to describing your feelings.
• Observe what you said to the old man, especially how you describe your feelings.
• If the evidence and your feelings align, you have found your answers.
• If not, listen more closely to your inner voice before deciding which way to follow.   

 Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity.

~ Oprah Winfrey 

 3.  Expect good fortune - Set lucky goals 

Remember the self-fulfilling prophecies?  Positive outlook of life does help!  Therefore, you may want to document how well you are doing on achieving your goals and you will soon have a lucky track record:

• Create a luck journal and set your lucky goals (preferably including short-term, medium-term and long term goals) in all aspects of your life.
• Make your goals specific.
• Make them achievable!  Or, you can break down a large goal into small steps so as to make them more attainable.   (Don’t scare yourself off by mission impossible…)  
• Give a deadline to each goal.
• Monitor your progress - and you’ll find that you achieve more than you are aware of! Lists work!!

4.  Turn bad luck into good - Take five steps to the solution

One door closes, another opens…

Problems make us stronger.  When facing difficulties, try the following five steps:

• Adopt a “can do” attitude.  Don’t assume there is nothing you can do, or else you fail on the spot.
• Do something new NOW.
• Make a list of various options.  The more creative, the better.
• Examine each of the possible solutions - their viability, the likely outcomes etc.
• START solving the problem.  (Note:  If the solution involve waiting, wait!  Just don’t make up excuses to procrastinate.)

The above exercises are adopted from Prof. Richard Wiseman’s book, the Luck Factor.  Besides the above, and the information mentioned in my two previous posts on the subject, the book reports extensively Prof. Wiseman’s research result and useful tips on the luck factor.  Do grab a copy if you are interested to know more.    

In addition to the luck factor, Prof. Wisemen has also carried out research into several unusual and quirky areas of psychology, including deception, humour and the paranormal.   Check it out at:  www.richardwiseman.com.  You will be amazed.

Don’t miss:

• Prof. Wiseman’s luck research on BBC Online
• The luck factor in business in The Fast Company

Related Posts:

• How Lucky Are You? - Take A Test
• How Lucky Are You? - I Am A Lucky Magnet 
• Celebrate The Closeness Of The Match

Popularity: 7% [?]

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!