How lucky are you?

By Abeer Jabaji
Personal Development Coach and Classical Homeopath

Have you ever noticed that some people seem to be luckier than others? Why is that? What makes them lucky?

It was one of those days. You know the kind, where nothing works from the moment you open your eyes. They even gave it a name; waking up on the wrong side of the bed. First, I bumped my toe against the foot of the dresser. Feeling the excruciating pain, I limped to the bathroom to brush my teeth only to find out that I had forgotten to buy toothpaste the day before. I rinsed my teeth with mouthwash and jumped in the shower while my toe was still killing me. The water was freezing. I went to look for the reason and discovered that the boiler had just broken down. 

I got dressed quickly, feeling down and anxious and rushed to a meeting with coffee in my hand. At the traffic lights, I was contemplating the start of the day when I noticed the car approaching from behind.

The driver was oblivious to the red light and I knew he would hit my car. I couldn’t move forward because of the vehicle in front of me. It all happened in a split second. I braced myself for the hit, and sure enough, it came, spilling the coffee all over me, my papers and the car interior. I couldn’t believe this was happening. I limped out of the car on shaky legs to assess the damage. Thankfully, the driver was fine and all apologetic. I was not! Tears rushed to my eyes, threatening to spill at any moment as I looked at the rear end of my car — it was bad!

While we waited for the traffic poslice to arrive, I discovered that I had forgotten my wallet at home and in it my driver’s license. From there on, the day continued to slide. I got a ticket because I didn’t have my license. The meeting was, of course, cancelled and I never saw the client again. My toe still hurt, and I found out later that I needed to buy a new boiler. That night the COVID-19 lockdown went into effect and I stayed for three weeks without heat or hot water.

You’d definitely call that a chain of unlucky events. Right? Are some people luckier than others? I am reminded of the story of a woman from Louisiana who lost her home to hurricanes five times and the guy who was struck by lightning seven times. Statistically, getting hit by lightning is a three-thousand to one chance. On the flip side, there are the super lucky among us like the woman who won four jackpots worth about JD14 million and the man who won around JD700,000 twice playing scratch cards.

Stories like that make us wonder if some are truly luckier than others, but the truth of the matter is quite simple. Richard Wiseman, who is a professor of psychology at the University of Hertfordshire and the bestselling author of the Luck Factor, has studied over 1,000 people. And, yes, it turns out that some people are very unlucky. The good news is that you can turn your bad luck around. Luck is not something paranormal in nature. It’s something that we create with our thoughts and behaviour.

Consider these five factors if you want to change your luck: 

1.Believing that you’re lucky and expecting good fortune. Believing that you are lucky makes you more likely to be receptive to opportunities around you and it changes your perspective. Having a positive mindset will likely make you try new things, follow through on possibilities and have them succeed if you believe they’ll work out well. Try to pay attention when you get lucky next time, pause and acknowledge it. Soon, you will realise you are luckier than you thought. 

2.Maximising opportunities. Locking yourself up at home and staying put will not help your luck. Lucky people create, notice and act upon the chance opportunities in their lives. Lucky people keep trying things while unlucky people are afraid to try. They worry about every single detail and by the time they decide to act, the opportunity has already gone.

3.Listening to hunches. Lucky people act on their intuitions in many areas of their lives. Almost 90 per cent of lucky people say that they trusted their intuition when it came to personal relationships and nearly 80 per cent said it played a vital role in their career choices. Intuition isn’t magic. Lucky people would often say that if they get a gut feeling about something they usually stop and consider it, while unlucky people get these same feelings but don’t act upon them as they are often anxious about the world around them.

4.Turning bad luck into good. Lucky people aren’t always lucky — but they handle adversity differently than unlucky people. Lucky people see the positive side of their bad luck and are convinced that any ill-fortune in their lives will, in the long run, work out for the best. Lucky people do not dwell on their bad luck, and they take constructive steps to help prevent it in the future. Furthermore, lucky people are very resilient. One lucky person who had fallen down some stairs and broken his leg said that while in the hospital, he met a nurse who became his wife. Things can look bad now, but the long term effect of this might be very positive.

5.Practising gratitude. Gratitude is something you can practise every day. By being more grateful, you will tend to express it more and in the process, attract more good fortune. Others will be more likely to want to do things for you and so would the whole universe as well. To practise gratitude, write down five things you are grateful for in your life. Do it at the beginning or at the end of each day. It can be a job that you love, your family that brings you joy or a friend that supports you.

Additionally, people who feel they are lucky are more charismatic. It feels good to be around them. So go ahead and put a good luck charm in your pocket. Believing in luck might not only be the best way to be positive and optimistic, but it might also be the key to a better life.

As for those people who won the lottery multiple times, one happened to have a PhD in statistics and that might have increased her odds of winning by using her expertise. As for the other person, his lucky streak likely had more to do with perseverance — he sometimes buys scratch cards worth JD100 in one go. As for me, I got a whole free body paint for my car, one which I kept postponing for months, and a brand new boiler for the price of a used one due to the lockdown. In the end, it all depends on how you look at things.

Have a lucky day!

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine