In his book, The Luck Factor, Richard Wiseman describes luck in terms of choice. In his research working with more than 400 individuals, he found several key attributes of those who describe themselves as “lucky”:

1. They harness the power of curiosity well. They are creative and curious, in some instances insatiably curious to increase their knowledge and understanding.

2. They make good decisions without consciously knowing why or how they did. They make much better gut decisions.

3. They have dreams and ambitions that have a knack of coming true. Lucky people expect the best outcomes, despite any negative past experiences, whereas unlucky people allow past events to dictate future expectations.

4. They turn their bad fortune into food luck or opportunity. Weisman describes two primary ways people turn bad luck into good luck. Basically, they interpret the bad as “could have been much worse.” And when they reflect on past events, they spend a greater amount of time visualizing and selectively remembering the positive. In other words, the bad wasn’t all that bad, and the good was really good.

Basically, people who consider themselves lucky put themselves in the position of having the chance encounters that lead to interesting new possibilities and opportunities, see the upside of the experience, and harness the power of curiosity to be creative. Everyone can be lucky in this way.

My own experience is that attitudes and behaviors of many people demonstrate the self-fulfilling prophecy, for better or worse. To paraphrase Henry Ford, whether you think you’re lucky or think you’re unlucky, you’re probably right.

* * *

Richard Wiseman is Britain’s only professor for the Public Understanding of Psychology and has an international reputation for his research into unusual areas including deception, luck, humour and the paranormal. He is the psychologist most frequently quoted by the British media and his research has been featured on over 150 television programmes in the UK. He is regularly heard on Radio 4 and feature articles about his work have appeared prominently throughout the national press. His other published works include The As If Principle: The Radically New Approach to Changing Your Life (2013), Paranormality: Why we see what isn’t there (2011), and 59 Seconds: Change Your Life in Under a Minute (2011).