***Are You Lucky? - Make Your Own Luck by Judi Moreo

Are you lucky? Do good things just come your way? Do you always seem to be in the right place at the right time? Are you the person who gets the promotion, the great deal or the perfect mate? If not, you might want to consider making some changes in your habits.

Richard Wiseman, head of the University of Hertfordshire’s (England) psychology research department, together with his colleagues at the Perrott-Warrick Research Unit have actually studied what makes some people lucky and others not. After thousands of interviews and hundreds of experiments, they determined that “luck” isn’t due to coincidence or karma, it is our thinking and behavior that create good fortune in our lives.

Sound familiar? For years, we have heard phrases like “Change your thinking, change your life,” “What the mind can conceive, and the heart can believe, you can achieve,” or “If it is to be, it’s up to me.” Many of us dismiss these ideas because of negative programming in our past. We tell ourselves we’re not smart enough, good enough, thin enough or tall enough to get what we want…that no matter what we think, we will never achieve our dreams. Good things are true for other people but not for us. We feel unlucky. The world passes us by. Is it because we aren’t enough and just unlucky or is it that we are not recognizing our own worth and making our own luck?

Researchers have found that “lucky” people have several things in common. While they are usually those who work hard, stay focused and push on in the pursuit of their goals, they are also flexible. When we are willing to see obstacles as opportunities, detours as a new path and change as a choice, we begin to open ourselves up to new ideas, new ways of doing things and frequently find a shorter, more direct route to our destination. Being prepared to change, take risks and grab opportunities is a key to becoming lucky.

Lucky people are also awake and alert. They see everything around them, not just the task at hand. People who are lucky observe and listen. Life-long learning is part of their nature. The more they learn about the world around them, the more they can use to their advantage. Like any other habit, we are unconscious of it acting in our lives, but the more we use our powers of observation, the more we learn. The more we learn, the easier it becomes to make quick decisions with positive outcomes.

Positive, future focused expectation of good is part of the make-up of “lucky” people. Brian Tracy said, “Whatever you believe with feeling becomes your reality.” If we are focused on our good and expecting miracles in our lives, we will most likely find good things happening and experience miracles all around us. If we believe that our lives are full of pain, frustration, and struggle, we generally speak in negative terms about our expectations. Our thoughts, words and feelings have the power to bring into our lives what we are focused on. Whether we experience our lives as lucky or unlucky is a direct result of our expectation and actions.

Luck is a matter of perspective. Lucky people look at every situation differently than those who consider themselves unlucky. While it may seem somewhat optimistic to look for the good in every situation, it is this outlook that opens doors of opportunity that we may not otherwise have seen. By taking control of a situation and looking for the lesson, the opportunity or the good that can come out of it, we create our own luck.