SOME people seem to have been born lucky, while others spend their lives
dogged by misfortune.

But is it really just a matter of fate? And is there anything unfortunate folk
can do to change the hand that life seems to have dealt them?

Professor Richard Wiseman, a top UK psychologist, says that if you want to be
luckier in life then you have to change the way you approach it.

He spent ten years studying the behaviour and attitudes of 1,000 people who
seem either incredibly lucky or unlucky.

And he concluded that our fortunes are massively influenced by our state of
mind.

He explains: “For the most part people make their own luck. Lucky people are
open to new ideas and are unafraid of change. They spot an opportunity and
seize it.

“While the unlucky tend to be fixed in their ideas and are quick to give up
when things go wrong. They become convinced that the universe has something
against them and keeps sending bad luck their way, and so don’t even notice
the lucky chances that are under their noses.”

So, how do you change your luck? According to Prof Wiseman, the first thing
you need to do is to expect good fortune, which often becomes a
self-fulfilling prophecy.

Then you must work on your personality and start thinking and acting like a
lucky person.

He said: “Unlucky people don’t mix much with others, they are inflexible and
they don’t rely on their instincts.

“They cope badly when things go wrong and they’re not optimistic.

“That adds up to a big bundle of failure. But the good news is that if you
flip all those characteristics over you have the personality of someone who
is lucky in life.

“By focusing on your mental outlook you can create more luck for yourself.”

HERE are Prof Wiseman’s four principles of luck, with tips on how you can
stop being one of life’s losers:

OPPORTUNITY

Fortunate people aren’t luckier than most — they are just quicker to spot an
opportunity and act on it.

In an experiment, Prof Wiseman asked people to read a newspaper and tell him
how many photographs were inside. Inside he had placed a message halfway
through that read: “Stop counting — there are 43 photographs in this
newspaper.”

The lucky people tended to spot it in seconds but the unlucky ones, who were
anxiously focused on the task they’d been set, didn’t notice the message
because it was unexpected.

Prof Wiseman said: “Lucky people are more relaxed and open and so they see
what is there. They notice opportunities that pass other people by.”

He found that lucky people also mix with a wide circle of people, which means
they have a large pool of supporters to call on for help and advice.

He said: “If you’re socially isolated you have fewer people on hand to help
you improve your fortunes — it’s as simple as that.”

Lucky Tip 1 – Social network: The more people you know the better
— you’re more likely to have chance encounters that might bring luck your
way. This can be online or by mixing with people in your local community.

Be open to chatting to the people who cross your path throughout the day and
strike up a conversation whenever you can. The woman queueing next to you in
the Post Office today could turn out to be the person interviewing you for
that new job you’ve applied for tomorrow.

By joining a social networking site, you can quickly build relationships with
people from all walks of life who you can turn to the next time you need
help or advice.

Lucky Tip 2 – Break with routine: Take a different route to work;
start your shop in a different part of the supermarket; listen to a
different radio station than usual.

By breaking with how you normally behave, it helps you become more flexible
and open. That way you’re more likely to first notice and then take hold of
an opportunity when it comes your way.

RESILIENCE

Lucky people tend to see the positive side of their ill-fortune. They imagine
how things could have been worse and so feel better and more positive about
what just happened.

Lucky Tip 1 – Always try to turn a negative into a positive: One
person in Prof Wiseman’s study who considered himself lucky arrived with his
leg in a plaster cast and described how he had fallen down a flight of
stairs.

He said this incident had made him feel even luckier because he could have
broken his neck but had only damaged his leg.

Lucky Tip 2 – Count your blessings: Lucky people tend to have a glass
half-full mentality.

INTUITION

Unlucky people tend to rush from one activity to another and surround
themselves with noise and distractions that stop them from listening to
their inner voice.

Lucky people often spend time each day sitting calmly and thinking about what
they want from life.

Lucky Tip 1 – Calm down: At least once a day sit in a quiet room
and dwell on the way your life is going. If you have a problem, take time to
explore in your head different ways you might fix it. Ask yourself whether
the approach you want to take is the right or wrong thing to do and then
follow your own advice.

Lucky Tip 2 – Trust your gut instinct and act on hunches when it comes to
people and situations: This is your inner voice trying to tell you how
to act and more often than not it will be right. Lucky people listen and act
upon what their gut tells them — they also use it as an alarm bell and a
reason to consider their next move.

OPTIMISM

Unlucky people think that the universe has something against them, and have a
victim mentality when things go wrong. They also expect bad luck to come
their way. Lucky people are eternal optimists — they presume they will
succeed and. if they don’t, they are able to shrug failure off with an “it
wasn’t meant to be” attitude.

Lucky Tip 1 – Imagine yourself being lucky before an important meeting or
phone call: If you believe in yourself and have a positive outlook then
good luck is more likely to come your way.

Lucky Tip 2 – Remember bad things do happen to lucky people but what is
important is the way they react: They consider unlucky events to be mere
bumps on the road of life rather than disasters that will ruin them. And
they believe their next dose of good luck is around the corner.

Prof Wiseman is working with HBO to celebrate the release of Luck, a series
starring Dustin Hoffman which was released on DVD and Blu-Ray on December 3.