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Wed 14 Jul, 2004 11:07 am
Well, an interesting article popped up in my email this morning from a friend. The question posed is "are you lucky or unlucky?" Give us your response after you read the following.
Working Wisdom
What's Luck Got To Do With it? How to get lucky at work and elsewhere
"Some guys have all the luck...some guys have all the pain", so says Rod Stewart in his song entitled the same. Why is it that some people do seem luckier than others? Why is it that some of those "nice guys" really do seem to finish last? Karma? Destiny? Luck? Believe it or not, feeling and thinking yourself "lucky" at work or elsewhere--feeling blessed with good fortune--is a predictor of your level of success and joy in life.
In the 1990's Professor Richard Wiseman of University, of Hertfordshire, England, was so intrigued about this subject that he set out on a "lucky" expedition of his own. Dr. Wiseman placed advertisements in newspapers asking for people who felt consistently lucky or unlucky to contact him. Hundreds of extraordinary men and women volunteered for his research and, over the years, he interviewed them, monitored their lives and had them take part in experiments.
Dr. Wiseman's results reveal that although these people have almost no insight into the causes of their luck, their thoughts and behaviour are responsible for much of their good and bad fortune. It's the 'ole self-fulfilling prophecy all over again!
When it comes to, for example, the case of seemingly chance opportunities, Dr. Wiseman determined that lucky people consistently encounter such opportunities, whereas unlucky people do not. Are these opportunities available to all people? Is it merely a matter of honing one's ability to observe and act on opportunities, or is there really some "magical" aura around some and not others?
To examine these questions further Dr. Wiseman gave both lucky and unlucky people a newspaper, and asked them to look through it and report how many photographs were inside. He secretly placed a large message halfway through the newspaper saying, "Tell the experimenter you have seen this and win ?250." This message took up half of the page and was written in type that was more than two inches high. Another large message also appeared in the newspaper, revealing the exact number of photographs. You guessed it...the people who missed the first message also missed the second!
Although these large print messages stared all participants in the face, those who confessed they felt unlucky, to begin with, tended to miss the messages, while those who declared themselves lucky tended to spot them. Dr. Wiseman reported that unlucky people are generally more tense than lucky people; this anxiety disrupts their ability to notice the unexpected. Are you lucky at work? In private life? What is your current day-in and day-out anxiety level? Could you, by chance (no pun intended) be undermining your own good fortune with career opportunities, projects, business and personal relationships simply because of pent up anxiety? And, perhaps, a better question still...what can you do to reduce your workplace anxiety or stress, and get luckier?
These same unlucky people, who missed the experimenter's big give away, are the same people who miss opportunities because they are too focused on looking for something else. Has that ever happened to you? As Dr. Wiseman suggests, "They go to parties intent on finding their perfect partner and so miss opportunities to make good friends. They look through newspapers determined to find certain types of job advertisements and miss other types of jobs." How many times have you come across colleagues (or maybe even yourself?) who belly ache about their current positions--seeing all which is wrong--to the point where they miss the opportunity to appreciate the valuable work experience and professional lessons they are gaining right then and there?
"Self-fulfilling Prophecy" suggests that what you think about comes about. A Zen-like way of saying this is, "What you think about expands", or, to put it yet another way, "Be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it!" Dr. Wiseman's research illustrated that lucky people are more relaxed and open, and therefore see what is actually there--in their reality...in front of their faces--rather than just what they are looking, imagining or hoping for.
I think the self-fullfilling prophecy thing has something to it. I voted neither lucky nor unlucky. But, scanning the article has me thinking I'm more the unlucky type.
Nice article, c.i.
A friend says some people kick luck when it approaches.
I believe luck is normally distributed.
That is, if you measure luck and number of people, you can build a Gauss Bell, with very few people being very lucky, few people being lucky, most people being neither lucky nor unlucky, few people being unlike and very few people being very unlucky.
The problem is that some people don't realize in what part of the curve they stand.
Where in the world were you born?
Are you reasonably healthy?
Did you have access to education?
You were most likely born in a disfunctional family, but how disfunctional was it?
Have you ever loved?
Have you ever feel loved?
Have you been discriminated against? How?
Have you experienced war?
Have you experienced hunger/famine?
Do you live in a crime-ridden area?
Have you been sexually abused?
Those, I think, are the basic questions to answer.
I am a lucky person.
This almost sounds similar to whether you consider yourself an optimist or a pessimist too.
Linkat, I believe what you say is true; how one feels about optimism or pessimism has much to do with how one sees their own life. It probably influences how other people react to them.
Lucky at love, not so great at cards or the timing on homework assignments.
I'm very stress -filled (unfortunately), but I also can be a bit of a space cadet and get off track. So maybe that is my luck balance? Eh. I hope I get lucky in Vegas!
So far, luck distribution in my life is pretty bizarre
For funny examples: if I am in a group of 10 kidnapped people and they are killing us one by one randomly every hour, I am pretty sure I would be the last, and surely saved by good guys eventually.
However, if I am on the soccer stadium with 15,000 people and bird drops its feces those will surely fall on my head
MOU, Very funny!
Must relate this story. Many years ago when our children were young, we took, them to NYC, Washington DC, and Williamsburg. While in DC, on the mall, walking from one museum to another, I was hit in the head by a atomic bomb. Yuck! My family had a good laugh at my expense.
Unlucky.
I'm wasting time on this website when I could be out finding a cure for cancer or making my first (or second) million.
Equus wrote:Unlucky.
I'm wasting time on this website when I could be out finding a cure for cancer or making my first (or second) million.
On a semi-related note, that's what has always bothered me about MENSA. Let's get together some of the smartest people in the world - not to cure disease, build new revolutions in engineering, discuss radical theory, but to play puzzle games.
Even MENSA folks need some entertainment.
Two quotes come to mind about luck. Thomas Edison said:
"The harder I work, the luckier I get"
In the Book "Caesar" McCoullough wrote:
"Behind luck lay oceans of hard work and deep thought".
Well, what did you expect from an engineer?
Jim, I'm sure "hard work" contributed to some of my luck, because I ain't that smart.
I'm an optomist and lucky. Bear is pessimist and very unlucky. I have noticed the same phenomenon taking place in our lives over the last 16 years... If the car breaks down while I am driving, I calmly solve the problem (get a ride home, call a tow, whatever) and THINK "Gee, that wasn't very pleasant" and go on.
If the car breaks down while Bear is driving he curses, stomps & huffs. His first call is to tell me the car broke down even though there is nothing I can do about it for him. The call is to simply blow more steam about the situation. Then he will solve the problem by calling for a tow, fixing it if he can, or whatever and come home SAYING "Gawd, every time I try to do something blah blah blah blah blah... The event will be relayed to several friends and perhaps even here on A2K so that his "bad luck" continues to be rehashed.
BTW, I won the horsemanship class at the MO State Fair when I was 14 or 15. VERY LUCKY! As I road out of the line up to accept my trophy a pigeon pooped on my hat and it dripped down onto my hand. NOT SO LUCKY! It even appears in the winners circle photo! : )
I´m always lucky, also a lucky person.
squinney, That is funny but memorable event in your life. Accept the good with the bad - and emphasize the good.
This was in my Inbox this morning.
Dr. John Maxwell believes "the difference between average people and achieving people is their perception of and response to failure." And John should know. His best selling book Failing Forward studied and chronicled a large list of well-known as well as unknown "failures."
Haven't read the book, but I like the statement.
That's a mouth-full, squinney. I like it too!
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