This post is somehow related to the previous post “How to get people NOT to work”

Mr. Richard Wiseman wrote a book called “The Luck Factor” in which he examined what distinguishes very Lucky people from very Unlucky people.

He did an experiment where he asked Lucky & Unlucky people to tell him how many pictures there are in a newspaper he prepared.

• It took Unlucky people about 2 minutes to come up with an answer.
• It took Lucky people on average only a few seconds to come up with an answer.

Why? Mr. Wiseman implemented a message in the newspaper on the second page which read: “Stop counting. There are 43 photographs in this newspaper.” The letters were 2 inches high.

Unlucky people were to anxious to find the answer, so they ignored everything that did not look like a picture.

Lucky people were open to any new input.

Out of fun he placed an ad in the middle of the newspaper that read: “Stop counting. Tell the experimenter you have seen this and win £250.” Again, the unlucky people missed the opportunity because they were still too busy looking for photographs.

The part that connects this post with How to get people NOT to work is the following quote from the telegraph.co.uk article:

In one experiment, people were asked to watch a moving dot in the centre of a computer screen. Without warning, large dots would occasionally be flashed at the edges of the screen. Nearly all participants noticed these large dots.

The experiment was then repeated with a second group of people, who were offered a large financial reward for accurately watching the centre dot, creating more anxiety. They became focused on the centre dot and more than a third of them missed the large dots when they appeared on the screen. The harder they looked, the less they saw.

Good explanation why money is not a good motivator. It creates anxiety to get that one thing done. It creates anxiety to fail on the one task, and reduces chance to spot other opportunities.

4 characteristics that create luck are:

1. Opportunities: actively look for them, or create them yourself
2. Imagine yourself being lucky all the time, make a vivid picture in your mind
3. Once you have convinced yourself that you are lucky → Listen to your intuition, it will guide you
4. Find the positive side of everything (even the unluckiest events)

Another post that supports the notion of think it and you will get it is about increasing serotonin levels in the brain.

If you want to find out more about the how to be lucky you can buy the book from amazon via this link: The Luck Factor

Be lucky - it's an easy skill to learn, 4.0 out of 5 based on 1 rating