WHY SUCCESS IS NOT A MATTER OF LUCK

IMPORTANT QUESTIONS  Is success just a matter of luck?  What kinds of behaviour are likely to increase our chances of achieving our goals or to find success in education, work or relationships?  What sorts of attitudes and values do those who have been successful have compared to those who have not?

IS SUCCESS A MATTER OF LUCK?  Clearly some of us experience more than our fair share of negative things by chance, often caused by events outside our control: illness, accidents, loss of those near to us  This is true of good fortune too. Chance encounters and ‘good luck’ can lead to our unfair share of happy outcomes

THE RESEARCH OF DR RICHARD WISEMAN  Studied 700 people who either considered themselves to be ‘lucky’ or ‘unlucky’  He interviewed them and put them through experiments to try to find out if the personal characteristics of lucky people were different from unlucky people. Some people do SEEM to be luckier than others:

THE RESEARCH OF DR RICHARD WISEMAN  SUSAN fell and broke her arm. Soon after she broke her leg, crashed on her driving test and then had eight car accidents in a 50 mile journey  LEE was saved from falling onto lethal moving spikes when the brand new stainless steel link between tractor and plough broke and saved him from being impaled

RESEARCH FINDINGS  Lucky people do seem to have chance encounters which create opportunities  Lucky people make good decisions without knowing why  Lucky people’s dreams and ambitions have the knack of coming true  Lucky people have the ability to turn bad luck into good fortune

HOW TO BE SUCCESSFUL  We can create our own luck  ‘Life is not a like a lottery. Often our expectations make a difference. They make a difference to whether we try something, how we interact with others and how others interact with us.’ Richard Wiseman  It is a question NOT of luck but how to be successful

(1) MAKE THE MOST OF CHANCE OPPORTUNITIES  Being in the right place at the right time is about the right state of mind  Successful people are more sociable, meet more people and keep in touch  Successful people smile, make more eye contact, show ‘open’ body language  Successful people build secure and long lasting attachments

(1) MAKE THE MOST OF CHANCE OPPORTUNITIES  Successful people have a relaxed attitude to life  If you are calm and relaxed you will be able to make the most of opportunities. Anxiety will cause you to miss them  Successful people are open to new experiences and introduce variety and new experiences into their lives

(2) LISTEN TO YOUR HUNCHES  In financial, career, or personal relationships, trust to intuition  Don’t deceive yourself into believing what you want to believe. Listen to your inner voice and do not indulge in wishful thinking and self-denial  Boost your intuition: meditate/ relax, return to problem later, find a quiet place, clear the mind

(3) EXPECT GOOD FORTUNE  Successful people also expect good fortune to continue in the future and persevere in the face of failure  They believe unpredictable and uncontrollable events will work out  Unsuccessful people are believe events are outside their control  Positive expectations become self-fulfilling prophecies

(4) TURN BAD LUCK INTO GOOD  Successful people see the positive side of failure: at least you survived the accident, does failure to get promotion really affect your quality of life, compare yourself with others less fortunate  Failure will work out for the best in the long run: use it to learn from the experience

(4) TURN BAD LUCK INTO GOOD  Successful people do not dwell on any failure but move on and distract themselves: do something you really enjoy, take exercise, think about something successful that happened to you, socialise  Successful people take steps to avoid failure in the future: take control, consider your options, act now, do not drift

USEFUL SOURCES  ‘The Luck Factor’, Dr Richard Wiseman, Random House, ISBN: