As 'luck' would have it, we control our own destiny
Stop the search for a four leaf clover because a recent study has revealed we make our own luck.
Everyone always has a 'lucky' friend, who seems to consistently be on the receiving end of good things coming their way whether it be winning a school fete raffle with their one ticket against your ten books, right through to landing a top job with zero qualifications when they were up against ten others who were highly qualified.
We have always believed that some people are simply born 'lucky', but a recent study has set out to prove that we can create our own luck.
Many psychologists and experts in the field are now finding that it is how we deal our cards which makes the difference and not necessarily the cards we are dealt which matter.
Richard Wiseman, Ph D., a psychologist from the University of Hertfordshire and author of The Luck Factor has spent the past decade researching the topic only to conclude that ''What we think of as chance and luck are not at all the same thing,". From his many years of researching, Wiseman has found that as little as ten per cent of life is actually completely random or pure chance and the rest is determined by the attitude you have towards life.
Wiseman's study involved placing some money on a pavement in the paths of various different people – some who claimed to be lucky, and other who considered themselves to be unlucky.
Interestingly it was the 'lucky' people who noticed the money and picked it up, and the 'unlucky' group who walked straight past it without noticing.
Many other studies looking into the matter have also found that it is people who consider themselves as lucky who actually tend to be.
It is the positive thinkers in life who tend to keep their eyes wide open for unplanned situations which could end in their favour and thus they are more likely to pounce on them when they arise.
Carol Sansone, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at the University of Utah, agrees: "What appears to be luck is really the result of perceptions, personality traits, choices, and actions. And all of that is within your control."