03 May Positivity, happiness and…good luck
Being Positive Can Bring You Good Luck…
…how's that for an enticing headline? I came across the work of Richard Wiseman several years ago and have been fascinated by his research and an admirer of his work ever since. More recently, I found this nice, short summary of one of his theses and thought you might enjoy reading it here
Would you like to be lucky? It turns out that you can create your own luck. Research by Dr. Richard Wiseman, author of The Luck Factor, shows that “lucky” people think and do things differently from “unlucky” people. And it just so happens that many of the things lucky people do are the same things that positive people do. Here are a few:
Focus on the positive
Lucky people view things in a positive light. When something bad happens, they think about how it could have been worse. If they are in a car accident they think how lucky it was that no one was badly hurt. An unlucky person would think about what bad luck it was to be in an accident.
Research shows that Olympic bronze medal winners tend to be happier than silver medal winners. That’s because the silver medal winners think about how they just missed getting the gold medal, whereas bronze medal winners consider how close they were to getting no medal at all.
By focusing on the upside, positive people maintain high expectations that good things will happen in their lives. This keeps them open to possibilities and increases the likelihood that their luck will continue.
Stay open
Staying open is key because luck comes from seeing opportunities. People who are positive are more open-minded; seeing things that people who are focused by negativity miss. This helps positive people to have more luck.
Dr. Wiseman did one study where he asked people to look through a newspaper and count the number of pictures. It took unlucky people about two minutes to finish the exercise. Lucky people finished in a matter of seconds because there was a message on the second page that said, “Stop counting: There are 43 photographs in this newspaper.” Unlucky people were too focused on the task to notice the message. Lucky people were open enough to notice what was there.
Vary your routine
Another suggestion for increasing your luck is to change your routines. By doing things differently, lucky people are more likely to discover new opportunities. They talk to different people, read unfamiliar magazines, try new restaurants, etc. Positive people are more likely to vary their routines because positive emotions make them feel safe, which increases their willingness to try something new.
So being lucky is yet another benefit of positivity!
As noted above, you can read the original article HERE but what I'd most like to know is how, exactly, these ideas might help you to boost your happiness and wellbeing?
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