Luck?

I spend a good deal of time in my car....often in silence, with my own thoughts....sometimes I listen to music.....on occasion I listen to 'Oprah and Friends' on XM Radio.

My son gives me a hard time about that.
"Ugh! Oprah! MOM....I can't believe you listen to that! It isn't even Oprah! It's her FRIENDS!!!!"

lol-- but I've heard some pretty interesting things on that station.

The other day someone mentioned an experiment that some researcher had done regarding Luck.....

The premise is that we create our own luck....good or bad.

OK-- I'm talking to compulsive gamblers here....I am NOT talking about a 'win'.....so just to be clear....let's define luck, for the sake of this discussion as your overall circumstances or condition in life and perhaps...to some degree...the chance happening of fortunate or adverse events.

you know....there are some people who seem to have it all....good things just 'happen' to them.....and then others among us who just can't catch a break....

So this British researcher, named Richard Wiseman, has identified four characteristics of people who are 'lucky'...

They are skilled at creating and noticing opportunities.
They make lucky decisions by listening to their intuition.
They create self-fulfilling prophesies via positive expectations.
They have a resilient attitude that transforms bad luck into good.

so here's the experiment they talked about on the radio:

Wiseman selected an unlucky woman named Brenda and a lucky man named Martin.
He rigged a London city block with several hidden cameras leading to a coffee shop, as well as in the interior of the shop itself.
He planted a £5 note on the pavement outside the shop and four actors on the inside. They sat at the shop's four tables, one dressed as a successful businessman and the other three in casual clothes. They were all instructed to behave the same way for both Brenda and Martin.
When Martin arrived at the coffee shop, he immediately saw the money on the pavement and picked it up. Then he went inside, ordered a coffee, and sat near the successful businessman. He offered to buy the man a coffee, and within minutes they were deep in conversation.
When Brenda arrived, she stepped right over the money and went inside. She ordered a coffee, sat next to the businessman, and didn't say a word the entire time.
Later that day, Wiseman asked both of them whether anything lucky had happened to them. Martin told a funny story about how he'd found money on the street and had a chat with a successful businessman. Brenda had nothing at all to report.

Martin had gotten lucky simply by paying attention (finding money) and striking up a conversation (making a potential business contact).

THen....another day, on a different program, on the same radio station, someone told a story about a lady who was had fallen onto a knitting needle....she stood up...this thing i sticking out of her chest...it had punctured her heart.

She goes to the hospital..where the needle is removed, she is patched up and is home in a few days.

Several days after that...a dr. from the hospital calls to say that the CT images taken showed something suspicious...turns out, she had cancer...it was in the early stages...she was treated and has survived it.

There have been times in my own life...where...had this happened to me...I would have thought "what next? a needle in the heart...cancer....how much more can I take?" (ie what bad luck)

but today...I think more along the lines of this woman....who is grateful for the knitting needle accident....because it caused them to find the cancer and get early treatment. (ie, good luck)

same set of circumstances.......but whether it's 'bad' or good'....is all in the way we look at things...



an interesting article by Richard Wiseman:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/3304496/Be-lucky---its-an-easy-skill-to-learn.html