WHY SUCCESS IS NOT A MATTER OF LUCK

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WHY SUCCESS IS NOT A MATTER OF LUCK
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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?

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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

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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

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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

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RESEARCH FINDINGS

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

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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

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(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

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(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

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(2) LISTEN TO YOUR HUNCHES

• In financial, career, or personal
  relationships, trust to intuition
• Dont 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

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(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

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(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

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(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

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USEFUL SOURCES

• The Luck Factor, Dr Richard Wiseman, Random
  House, ISBN 978-0099443247