Six Ways To Create The Luck That's Alluded You.

None of us are lucky all of the time, but there’s not doubt that some people tend to be luckier than others. You might say, it’s not fair. Or you might take a look at how they look at life and ask yourself whether it’s the way they see the world that is helping them get luckier in it. The truth is that lucky people aren’t lucky by sheer accident. They’re lucky because of the mindset they bring to life. A mindset that accepts bad luck as inevitable but good luck as something we create by sheer hard work, bravery and optimism.
As Martin Seligman, the founder of positive psychology once wrote, “Optimists endure the same storms in life as pessimists. But they weather them better and emerge from them better off.”
And so it is with luck.
You may not be able to control the economy, the weather, the stock market or the universe, but research shows that you can create your own good fortune. It’s a long game but with a strong pay off. Lucky people weather the storms of life by seeing hidden opportunities, trusting themselves and taking bold action. When troubles arise, they are buoyed by help from supportive friends. You can change your luck this spring with the same strategies. Here’s how.

1. Trust Your Intuition

Too often we lean too heavily on left brain logic alone.  So if you’ve made a few unlucky decisions think about where you could be tuning in more to your intuition and asking yourself “Does this feel right?”  Of course it’s not about throwing out the logic-baby with the bathwater, but it’s about tuning into that ‘sixth’ sense rather than ignoring it.
As research shows, when it comes to the really big decisions in life, over analysing things can actually lower your odds of making the best decision. Research has found that your brain discerns subtle, complex patterns go beyond conscious understanding.  Those indecipherable insights can help you make better decisions. Don’t ignore a hunch or silence your internal alarms just because you can’t explain them. Lucky people act on these instincts.

2. Take Risks

The lucky breaks people have nearly always stem from brave action; from taking a risk . They aren’t luck at all. They’re the result of courageous action; rising above our innate aversion to risk that’s wired into our DNA.  That is, we’re programmed to focus more on what we have to lose than on what we have to gain.  Acting in concert with this is our inability to accurately predict the cost of inaction. It explains why so many people stick with situations that leave them miserable rather than leaving the security of the known for the unfamiliarity of a better unknown.

Of course there are many valid risks in life and we need to be mindful of them but dwelling on risks can keep us from seeing opportunity. As I wrote in my first book Find Your Courage, “Push yourself outside your comfort zone and lay your vulnerability on the line for something more important than your pride and short term safety.” Nothing worthwhile is ever created without a risk. The key - don’t wait to feel brave before you start acting as though you were!

3. Expect Good Things To Happen

People who expect things to happen to them attract more good things. Call it woo woo positive thinking fluff, but there is a lot of science behind the ‘law of attraction.’  The truth is that what you put out you get back…  not instantly, not every time, but over time when you expect good things to happen you’ll find they generally do.
In my new book Brave, I recounted the time that I was held up in an armed robbery when I was 19 weeks pregnant with my first child. Then ten days later finding out that my unborn baby had died. My world turned on its axis for awhile because I just thought bad unlucky things like that didn’t happen to me. Yet, alas, they clearly did. But I remember in the months that followed making a very conscious decision not to buy into the idea of being a victim. Sure, I’d had two pretty  unlucky things happen back to back, but they would not define my future.

Life truly is a self-fulfilling prophesy.  What you expect to happen often does – for better or worse. Your beliefs about the future have a way of making it happen.

4. See The Glass Half Full

A setback for one person can be a wonderful opportunity for another. It’s not about what happens, but how you interpret it and the opportunity you find in it. As Napoleon Hill once wrote, “In every adversity is the seed of an equal or greater benefit.” When you choose to look for opportunity in your adversities, you are guaranteed to find them If you can’t, look harder. But you’ll never find good fortune in things if you are only looking at what’s wrong and what you don’t have. As I wrote in Stop  Playing Safe,  “By being optimistic we can find opportunity in adversity and take actions that our pessimistic friends wouldn’t bother to take. In turn we create new opportunities for ourselves.”

5. If At First You Don’t Succeed, Keep At It

No one – I repeat no one – is lucky all the time. We all have setbacks. We all have disappointments. We all have our plans rained on from time to time. Such is life. But the people we often think of as lucky don’t let bad luck stop them from trying to create more good luck. “Lucky people’s high expectations motivate them to persist,” even when they don’t succeed, says psychologist Richard Wiseman, Ph.D., author of The Luck Factor.

6. Hang Out With Lucky People

Let’s face it, the people we hang out with impact our outlook on life. So if you’r hanging out with a lot of whining, complaining people who are down on their luck then chances are you’ll soon be down on yours.  Emotions are contagious. Optimism. Pessimism. Fear. Confidence. Ambition. Resignation.
Be intentional about spending more time with people who have a positive outlook on life and less time with people who don’t.  It may well be one of the most critical factors to your future luck. That said, be the change you want to see in others. Look on the lighter brighter side of things. Be cheerful. Share an encouraging word. Offer a helping hand to make someone else feel lucky.  Turn those lemons into lemonade. Stand tall, put a smile on your face and step into the rest of your day with a look on your face that tells people you expect to have a good one… regardless of what’s happening around you!

forbes.