5 Strategies for generating "Luck"

Looking for new opportunities or increased sales?

Of course you are. Everyone is. I could have just as easily called this article "5 Strategies for identifying opportunity". Let me explain.

I read a fascinating article the other day that was reporting scientific findings that point towards why some people literally are "luckier" than others. The featured study found that those people who thought they were "lucky" actually were more fortunate and those that thought they were "unlucky" were not as fortunate. Furthermore, the study identified what the differentiating factors were and how the "unlucky" could learn how to be "lucky". Intrigued? Read on.

Lucky people being lucky

One of the experiments carried out involved observing the "lucky", the "unlucky" and a control group within a particular scenario. Subjects were observed in a social setting such as a cafe where a ￡10 note had been placed on the floor. The "lucky" people were significantly more likely to spot the ￡10 note than the control group and the "unlucky" people were significantly less likely.

The experimenters went a step further and they set a task for subjects to count the advertisements in a newspaper. On an early page (3 or 5) one of the adverts simply said "Stop counting. There are 147 advertisements in this paper" (or words to that effect). And yes, you guessed it, the people who described themselves as lucky spotted this advert and stopped counting. The unlucky ones continued counting.

So what does this mean?

We make our own luck

We all know this phrase and usually we take it to mean that good things happen to those who act in a positive way - self-belief, determination, imagination, going for it etc. However, there is clearly more to this.

Those who didn't see the ￡10 note were not necessarily lazy or negative or lacking in drive. Likewise with the advertisement counting. The unlucky people did as they were asked. They showed diligence in performing the task. They were asked, after all, to count the advertisements, not read them.

An open mind and peripheral awareness

The lucky then, and many entrepreneurs and innovative people, are more likely to spot things in the periphery. They have an open mind. This opens the doors to opportunity. It is a kind of magic eye. Highly successful people are often highly intuitive, almost appearing to be psychic in their ability to tune into the people they talk to and the world around them.

"Ah well. That's not me. I'm not intuitive..." - Not true! We can learn to be lucky!

Some people are naturally more intuitive and pay more attention to the periphery than others. They dream and wonder, imagine what ifs and allow every possibility to enter their mind. What about those that don't? Well arguably, in our childlike state we all have the intuitive lucky mindset. Somewhere down the line, it is programmed out of us while we focus on a path that those in our society feed us. I call this the "2 + 2" way of thinking. It is tunnel visioned. The "what can I do with..." or "what if..." type of thinking is much more lucrative.

We can all enhance our intuition, our open mindedness and ultimately our luck. Needless to say, coming from me, and this is backed up by the scientists who carried out the study into luckiness, meditation plays a large part.

Here are 5 strategies for generating more luck:

1. Meditation enhances intuition

Meditation is a really easy practice to learn. Most of us have meditated without realising and children often do it naturally. Watching TV or listening to the music we like is a form of meditation however it is not one that really benefits us in terms of enhancing intuition. When people watch TV they enter a kind of trance and a whole range of messages pour straight into the subconscious from the square box.

When we make a small effort to do meditation properly in silence or with quiet and smooth music - sit or lie still, allow our breathing to settle and shift our focus into a receptive, watchful state, becoming more aware of our inner thoughts and feelings, and more aware of some of the sounds around us, we become more sensitive. The more we meditate, the more we are able to feel, the more intuitive we become, picking up on the subtle things that we would have missed before.

2. Have an open mind

This is easy. We have a choice. We can either dismiss ideas that don't immediately make sense to us or we can consider them with an attitude of being rigorous and systematic. Even if somebody suggests an opportunity to us that provokes an immediate feeling of "no" within us, while we are not necessarily in control of that gut reaction, we can override it and be open minded.

I recently wrote an article about "creative bravery" where I asserted that not to openly express an idea (even a bad one) is the wrong attitude to have. It is a kind of conceptual theft. Once an idea is explored - any idea - it causes repercussions and secondary ideas and thoughts. We never know what positive ideas will grow from the consideration of a bad idea.

Lucky people are open minded. You can be open minded too.

3. Be curious

Open mindedness leads to a kind of curiousness. "What if...?" is one of the most productive questions anybody can ask. It allows us to explore avenues and appraise possibilities.

Speak to any intellectual property attorney or patent attorney and they will tell you that some ideas that are patented are straight out of the ether, brand spanking new and original, and it takes a special kind of mind to create such ideas.

However, they will also tell you that patents include taking the discoveries of others and reapplying them in a different way, or integrating them with something else to create a new solution to a problem. Innovation only happens when we are curious.

4. Reach out

As well as being curious and open minded in terms of our thinking, this needs to be reflected in our actions. Sorry, but shy kids don't get the sweets. Think about it and it makes perfect logical sense. If we don't have an open mind to consider possibilities or the curiosity to discover ideas that we can have an open mind to, we miss out on the kind of thinking that can enrich our lives. Surely the same goes for how we respond to people and events that reach out to us, and how we reach out to them.

Every single person I ever met was a miracle. Even the ones that burnt me taught me something and every human interaction carries enormous potential. Look at what people are capable of. So if somebody reaches out to you and you dismiss them without good reason, it is your loss.

Take a moment to reflect on some of the people you met by chance - that initial choice to maintain a connection with them, and what it led to. Think about the new things that you tried and the roads that such activities took you down.

5. Listen to AND act on intuition

Meditation enhances our intuition and to some extent gives us more of an ability to hear it but we need to actively listen to it in situations. This is completely different than instinct. Instinct can be a barrier to success and good fortune. Instinct is where fear, aggression and flight/fight/freeze all live.

Intuition is much more subtle and informative. We get a hunch based on our subconscious mind's ability to process the whole spectrum of stimuli immediately in front of us much quicker than our conscious intellectual mind can draw a conclusion.

Acting on intuition - a true story

Listen to it and act on it. Here's a true story. In 2005, I had started teaching Japanese sword. It was a tiny class that I had inherited and I was sharing the floor with another instructor. At the time I was also involved in media sales.

Picture the scene - a business meeting

I went to see the Commercial Director of a creative agency for a meeting. As the meeting progressed, I got an increasing sense that I was talking to an advanced martial artist and a fellow instructor. Not one word came out of his mouth that suggested this. Not. One. Word. Neither did he have anything on display in his office that would suggest it.

An intuition I couldn't ignore

The feeling I got became so strong that I could bear it no longer. "Excuse me, Dave," I said. "There is something really eating away at me and I have to ask," I continued as he looked at me a bit bewildered, as you can imagine. "May I ask what you do outside of work?"

An intuition that proved to be correct

He sat back, an enormous sense of pride lightened up his face and he said, "I'm a martial arts instructor."

I had KNOWN this. Why, I don't know, but I had known it. Immediately, I responded with an impassioned and authentic "I knew it. I am also an instructor of Japanese sword."

An excellent outcome

That one bold move in the middle of a meeting formed a bond with that man that lasted years. Not only that, but he introduced me to the head of his association - an association that had numerous clubs around West Yorkshire. I was invited to teach Japanese sword to a closed group of their most senior instructors. From there, I started assisting with the karate instruction of their students and learning their style of karate (wado ryu) which was quite different from mine (goju ryu). I also became the Chief Instructor for Traditional Weapons for the association, and have taught literally hundreds of people through them.

I didn't get the advertising sale!

Final note

"5 Strategies...." seemed like the easy title for this article but there are far more than 5 things you can do to become more lucky, more successful and encounter more opportunity. For a start, don't assume. To assume is to have a closed mind. To assume will stop you reaching out or allowing others to connect with you. To assume ends all curiosity. And to assume would mean that I decided that "Dave" was a martial arts instructor or not, and to have acted on assumption, it may have led to a different outcome. I felt a strong intuition. I asked the question. Bingo. Result. I was very lucky.

Make your own luck, starting now.

About me

• Writer - ghostwriting/editing, books, blogs and other content
• Coach - I use a mix of coaching, mentoring and training, including mindfulness, to help people progress
• Mindfulness based trainer - working with schools and businesses to help people develop a range of skills from emotional intelligence to leadership

If you would like to know more, connect with me and drop me a line or call 07954 584980