4 Traits All Lucky People Have In Common

Psychologist Richard Wiseman conducted a ten year study to determine why some people are luckier than others. Over at The Telegraph, he shares his results, including the four critical elements that can help us turn our own luck around:

My 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, and adopt a resilient attitude that transforms bad luck into good…

I asked a group of lucky and unlucky volunteers to spend a month carrying out exercises designed to help them think and behave like a lucky person…One month later, the volunteers returned and described what had happened. The results were dramatic: 80 per cent of people were now happier, more satisfied with their lives and, perhaps most important of all, luckier.

Wiseman goes on to explain that part of luck is very much played-out in the mind. As a result, people who view themselves as unlucky tend to fail at following their intuition when making a choice. Whereas lucky people respect those internal hunches and reap the rewards. Unlucky people also regularly follow routines, Wiseman found, whereas lucky people introduce variety into their lives, possibly increasing the likelihood of “lucky” opportunities. According to Wiseman’s research, we really do make our own luck.