The ‘lucky’ mindset shift for a positive outcome

Whether you believe that there are forces at work that we cannot measure with the sciences, such as the law of attraction, or whether you are sceptical and scientific – with this article, I aim to open your mind to the importance of positivity.

If you don’t know the author Professor Richard Wiseman, he is a well-known sceptic of all things ‘woo woo’. Some of his popular work has been about demonstrating the psychology and human behaviour behind the otherwise unexplainable – luck is a great example of this.

We all know people who claim to be ‘just unlucky’. You know who I’m talking about; it’s never their fault, the universe just conspired against them, again. I think this is very unlikely to be the whole story, in the same way that those of us who get a lucky break rarely get it out of nowhere.

Results, good or bad, don’t just fall out of the sky. Nothing in our reality exists in a void.  The outcomes we get are created by a combination of external factors; some we can influence and some we cannot.

Let’s start by looking at the type of factors we can influence.

In Professor Wiseman’s book, The Luck Factor, he studied two groups of people. The ‘lucky’ group participants were all people who believed themselves to be lucky. Although something like good fortune is subjective, there was a clear trend that showed the members of this group all getting more of what they wanted from life. 

The lucky group shared that they were presented with job offers, business meetings, and just greater opportunities in general. Professor Wiseman noted that all of these people were coming at life from a positive mindset. The logic here is that when you are positive and approach life with a good attitude, you put yourself in the way of more opportunity.  You network, you make connections, and people warm to you because you are positive. What follows may be invitations for these opportunities.

Of course, this logic works both ways. Everything you can influence positively, such as creating more opportunities for yourself, you could just as easily influence negatively for yourself if you approached life with a negative mindset.

I’m sure I don’t need to explain in detail what Wiseman found to be happening in the ‘unlucky’ group of participants!

So how about those external factors that we can’t influence?

It’s certainly not the case that painting a smile on and singing a happy song will sort your world out. Negative things still happen to positive people. However, the ‘lucky’ ones among us are in a stronger position to bounce back, due to our positive disposition. Plus as an added bonus, if you have been in the ‘lucky/positive’ camp for a while then you are likely to have better support around you to help you cope with life’s dramas – friends, a good job, connections to help you out, and so on.

The best thing about this, is that we all have the power to choose which group to be in. Outside of Professor Wiseman’s study groups, we are all living life from either a more positive or more negative stance. When we wake up to the choice that we have over this, and to the improved outcomes we will experience, we can start to work on shifting our approach to life.

You can start really easily by making little shifts. Life coaches and others in psychological roles have been preaching the power of gratitude for a good reason. Something as simple as moving your focus from the annoying queue in the post office, to your gratitude for a sunny day, is how many people get started.

Why not try to change your mindset a little, just one small shift at a time? You might start to create your own ‘luck’ sooner than you expect!