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who said luck was needed?!
mood: 
lethargic
lethargicThe Electric New Paper :
You can be your own lucky charm
Research shows luck is not in the stars, but in behaviour
BLACK CATS, the number 13, lucky coins, finding a taxi at 6pm on a rainy day, meeting your one true love while waiting for the MRT - some call it luck, but is there some science to superstition?
By Chua Wei Yng
25 February 2008
BLACK CATS, the number 13, lucky coins, finding a taxi at 6pm on a rainy day, meeting your one true love while waiting for the MRT - some call it luck, but is there some science to superstition?
Professor Richard Wiseman, a psychology lecturer at the University of Hertfordshire in Britain, has spent the last 14 years exploring the phenomenon of luck. He even wrote a book - The Luck Factor - about it.
ProfWiseman makes a distinction between luck and chance. Chance is when you win from playing 4-D or find $10 on the street.
However, when people say they are lucky, it seems to be a turning point in their lives. For instance, luck may mean meeting their future spouse, having a winning business idea or being at the right place at the right time.
In 1993, he started The Luck Project, where he invited people who considered themselves exceptionally lucky or jinxed to come forward. He ended up with 400 volunteers.
He told The Age: 'I thought the differences between lucky and unlucky people would be shown to be delusional.'
One unlucky volunteer, a 54-year-old publisher, said he had been bankrupt, unemployed and suffered a heart attack. His only lottery win turned out to be a printing error.
Another, a 27-year-old flight attendant, said she had a reputation for being jinxed. One of her first flights made an unplanned stopover due to an abusive passenger, another was struck by lightning and a third was forced to make an emergency landing.
On the other hand, lucky volunteers had similar stories - they got their dream job, a loving family and were happy in all aspects of their lives.
At the end of the 10-year project, ProfWiseman concluded that no one is born lucky. However, the volunteers who considered themselves lucky had four basic principles in common and were using these to generate a chain of fortunate events.
1)Make the most of your opportunities
In one of the experiments, ProfWiseman gave volunteers a newspaper and asked them to count all the photos inside.
The unlucky subjects took about two minutes to complete the test, but almost all the lucky volunteers saw a half-page advertisement on page two with large text that read: 'Stop counting. There are 43 photos in this paper.'
Another ad, deeper in the paper, read: 'Stop counting, tell the experimenter you have seen this and win $250.'
All those who considered themselves unlucky missed both ads, as they were fixated on looking for photographs.
He therefore concluded that lucky people are more flexible in their thinking and open to new experiences and places.
'They have no goal in mind,' he said. 'A lucky person fires an arrow in the air, and where it lands, they draw a target. 'Oh, look,' they say, 'another target'.'
2)Listen to your intuition
ProfWiseman found that 90 per cent of his lucky volunteers trusted their inner voice when it came to relationships and 80 per cent said gut feel was vital in their career choices.
Cognitive psychologist Gary Klein studied firemen and nurses across the United States for their knack in making life-saving decisions in crucial situations.
He found that, for example, intensive care nurses in Miami 'just knew' when a newborn was at risk for sepsis, despite the fact that the early symptoms are extremely subtle.
'Ultimately, it is all about perception and recognition,' he told Fast Company magazine.
In the best-selling book Blink, author Malcolm Gladwell explores the power of rapid cognition and how people can make snap judgements that are ultimately proved right.
3)Expect the best
Playwright Tennessee Williams once said luck is believing that you're lucky. ProfWiseman agrees. He found that while all 400 volunteers experienced setbacks in their lives, the lucky ones dealt with them better.
Lucky people believe that their future is going to be awesome, and this becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy that helps them through difficult times and shapes their relationships with others.
He said: 'Unlucky people often use words like 'this always happens to me' or 'every time I go to the supermarket, I get the slow queue'. There's an absoluteness built into their language which is a mark of their inflexibility.'
ProfWiseman's tip? Spend a few moments each day remembering things that went well and visualise yourself being lucky before an important event.
Interestingly, in a separate online study a few years ago, ProfWiseman found that lucky people tended to carry out superstitious behaviours designed to bring them good luck. These included touching wood, crossing their fingers and carrying a lucky charm.
However, unlucky people believe in superstitions that bring bad luck, like breaking a mirror or walking under a ladder.
4)Turn bad luck into good
Lucky people have more ways to deal with ill fortune. For instance, they imagine how things could be worse or they try not to dwell on it and take control of the situation.
ProfWiseman asked his volunteers to imagine they were in a bank when an armed robber fires a shot and a bullet hits them in the arm. Would this incident be lucky or unlucky?
The unlucky people said it was bad luck that they were in the bank at the wrong time. The lucky people felt the situation could have been much worse.
One commented: 'It's lucky because you could have been shot in the head. Also, you could sell your story to the newspapers and make some money.'
ProfWiseman had his own brush with bad luck when he started out as a magician. He lost his entire bag of tricks while on tour in the US. That night, he bought two packs of cards and went back to his hotel room.
He recalled: 'That night, I found out the true meaning of the saying, necessity is the mother of invention. I worked into the early hours, figuring out new tricks using the material I had on hand.'
Two of the tricks he invented that night were later awarded prizes for their originality.
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so who dares to sae u r unlucky all the time cos blah n blah happens, or lucky cos this and that took place. its all in ur attitude towards dat incident or event. nv believe in luck!
ecstatic
determined
moody
jubilant