Watson, who runs her own research firm, and Heather Summers, the book's second co-author, interviewed people who either run their own successful business or whose business failed. They found that the prosperous people had some things in common.
In the first place, the lucky ones were responsible for their actions and their lives and never blamed others for it. "When we talked to people whose businesses failed and asked them if they were to blame for this or some other situation, they all blamed external factors. "On the contrary, I believe that one of the key factors in luck is to consider the part of the responsibility that one has when something goes wrong, if one made the right decisions and if one did something to prevent the unfortunate outcome of a situation," Watson points out. .
A second characteristic is composure, obsession. The lucky ones continued while the others had already given up. Also, those who were more cautious often left opportunities to be lost in contrast to the "lucky ones" who took risks for their careers and their social life.
What is very important is that lucky people have an optimistic attitude towards things. As Watson herself says, "Some people have the ability, when a situation does not develop as they would like, to turn things around and find their positive side."
"In order to continue to be unlucky, one must maintain the same attitude towards life, not expand one's social circle and always pass the blame on to someone else. Each of us can be lucky. I know people who have had surprisingly bad luck and could not do anything about it, but they changed their lives, took a different approach and created a successful life. ”
For more than 10 years, psychology professor Richard Wiseman has been studying the behavior of 1.000 volunteers who consider themselves either lucky or unlucky. "I believe that people who consider themselves lucky live happier and have more successful lives than those who consider themselves unlucky, so in a sense, there is luck," says the professor, author of The Luck Factor. (The Luck Factor). "But when you have to deal with something that is purely a matter of luck, like a lottery, I do not think there is a difference between a group of people."
According to Wiseman, there are four behavioral techniques that are scientifically proven to be able to attract good luck. The first is to maximize your chances for opportunities. "We found that lucky people had a more relaxed attitude towards life and had a global view of things. Many of the unfortunate people were very anxious and anxious with a limited perception of the situation. And as the lucky ones were calm, they were able to see the opportunities that others were missing out on. ” An example of such behavior is when researchers asked volunteers to go to a specific cafeteria. The lucky ones were the ones who found the banknote that had been deliberately "lost" on the sidewalk outside the cafeteria, while the unlucky ones, on the other hand, were so focused on finding out if this was the right cafeteria that they missed the opportunity to find the coin.
Like Watson and Summers, Wiseman advises listening to our instincts. "Many unfortunate people say that they never have a premonition of a relationship or a business deal, their instinct does not tell them whether it is right or wrong. On the contrary, lucky people trust their instincts. "Often, what we call a premonition or instinct is the result of an experience we have gained and we choose to ignore it at our own risk."
A third behavior that attracts good luck is to expect exactly that - good luck. Expectations are vital in explaining why the dreams of lucky people often come true while those of the unlucky rarely, as they have the power to be self-fulfilling prophecies. Those who expect to do well in something try even harder in the event of a failure.
The fourth principle is to turn one's bad fate into good luck. "Lucky people are very flexible, so when something bad happens they see that things will get better the next day, and they leave the bad behind. "Unfortunate people, on the other hand, are trapped in the past and constantly think about what went wrong."
In another experiment, Wiseman asked 120 people they thought were unlucky to attend a "school of fortune" in an effort to make them think and act like lucky people. During this "training" in addition to following Wiseman's four principles, he was given positive support and was also asked to keep a diary of what happened to them, in order to make them focus on the positive situations.
Overall, 80% of those who participated in the training said that their luck increased. "We watched their development two years later and saw that there were long-term changes in their behavior. "They were as lucky then as they were right after the training," said Wiseman. "The reason such training works is that it feeds itself. "Once people change the way they perceive themselves and some positive things happen to them, then they build on that and change even more things in their behavior for the better."
Wiseman concludes: “I believe that because there are so many of us in the world, there are some people who will naturally go through the unfortunate and unfortunate events of their lives. But when one is always unlucky or always lucky on a daily basis, then it has more to do with the person's psychology than purely with his luck. ”
Source: ygeianews.gr