The
Seven Simple Secrets of Naturally Lucky People
By Charles Burke
www.commandmoreluck.com
We've
all seen people who are just naturally lucky. They're the
ones who manage to sail through life with more unexplainable
"lucky breaks" and fewer disappointments than most
people get. Success just seems to come easier for them.
Where
most folks have to struggle just to get ahead, lucky people
regularly have opportunities just plop down in their laps.
Of course, they work hard, but that doesn't fully explain
the special treatment that life seems to reserve for them.
It
almost appears that they were born with the proverbial silver
spoon in their mouths. Or born under a luckier star than most
mere mortals.
Well,
cheer up; neither stars nor spoons are at work here. All they
have is seven simple secrets. These secrets are easy little
things that you can begin applying in your own life. And when
you do, things will start to change for you. Your career will
begin to blossom in unexpected ways. And one day you'll realize
that now everyone has started calling you naturally lucky,
too.
Ready
to command more luck in your life? Here are the seven simple
secrets of naturally lucky people.
SECRET
#1: LUCKY PEOPLE DON'T BELIEVE IN LUCK
I recently interviewed ten unusually successful business people
for a book I was writing about the role luck plays in the
lives of successes.
Nearly
every one of them stated plainly they don't believe in luck.
In
the next breath, however, they told about unending streams
of "serendipitous" or "synchronistic"
events that routinely happen in their daily lives.
I
believe they don't like the word "luck" because
it implies there's no way to control it. They've learned that
there is.
If you prefer to call it serendipity or synchronicity rather
than lucky, that's okay. The message here is not which term
to use. It's about what you can do to get these kinds of things
happening for you. When they do happen, you can call them
anything you want.
SECRET
#2: "BAD" STUFF HAPPENS TO THEM TOO
There are several ways to have good luck. The
most common (and the most useful) is to find opportunities
in problems.
Let's
say you and I are neighbors, and our whole city has a common
problem. Maybe it's infestation with insects. Or it could
be a serious pollution problem from a nearby plant.
While
almost everyone is griping and complaining about the problem,
you might decide: "Hey, if I can solve this problem,
it will help my neighbors, and it can also make a profit for
me." Your
neighbors only saw the problem, but you looked deeper and
found an opportunity.
All
great fortunes have been built upon solving great problems.
That's probably the most common and the most controllable
way to generate your own luck.
SECRET
#3: MORE PEOPLE QUIT THAN LOSE
If you knew ahead of time without a doubt that your success
was guaranteed, how much would you go out and do?
Would
it make any difference in the kind of things you would attempt?
How much higher would you direct your aim?
Well,
a funny thing happened to me a few years back. I was sitting
and feeling sorry for myself one day because of all the failures
that I had been through.
Then
it suddenly occurred to me that one particular case hadn't
been a real failure. I admitted to myself (reluctantly) that
I had simply quit too soon. I had quit before I'd really had
a chance to fail.
Then
I thought of another non-failure. Then another.
And
before long, I was buried under an avalanche of similar cases.
In fact, I couldn't think of a single time when I had actually
kept on trying long enough to fail. In other words, I had
never experienced failure in my entire lifetime.
Only
quitting.
A
realization like that will realign your reality. After that,
it's hard to consider yourself a failure because you've never
failed. Who knows what you might really be, down inside?
I
began to wonder: what would have happened if I had stuck with
even a few of those situations just a little longer? What
if I stopped being so ready to throw in the towel and surrender
too soon? Would I start seeing the number of clear successes
in my life begin to grow?
I
started finding a new resourcefulness within myself. My "keeping-on"
average began to go up, and my "failure" average
started declining.
I
count that one realization among the most important in my
life. Not because it solved a problem, but because it identified
one. Once I could see that the problem wasn't even what I
thought it was, I was then able to work on doing something
else instead.
And
you know what? My luck began improving.
SECRET
#4: BETTING ON LOSING HANDS MAKES LOSERS
Successful poker players don't play every hand they're dealt.
If
you keep count, the hands they fold far outnumber the hands
they hold.
That's
because a good card player knows the odds for every possible
card combination. They know whether a flush beats a full house
and which is more likely to occur. Good players don't bet
on risk, they bet on probability.
Lucky
people are very similar. They know longshots when they see
them, and they may bet, but it's a calculated bet.
Lucky
people are some of the most tenacious people on earth when
it's appropriate. But they're also some of the quickest quitters
when the odds don't favor them. In fact, they'll usually opt
out of most situations before they even begin because they
have learned to recognize and rank opportunities.
What
makes a good opportunity? First, does it solve a WIDESPREAD
problem? Second, do the people with the problem have enough
money to pay for solving that problem? Third, is it easy to
reach the people with the problem? Fourth, is the solution
a really good one?
If
they don't find all four factors, a lucky person will walk
away because they know it's a losing hand, no matter how much
they personally love the idea.
So
if a lucky person sees he's holding a losing hand, he quits
quickly and cuts his losses.
SECRET
#5: MOST GOOD LUCK COMES THROUGH OTHER PEOPLE
Good luck almost never happens in a vacuum.
Several
years back I read a book by Max Gunther titled "The Luck
Factor." Most
of the details in that book have dimmed, but I've never forgotten
the core idea: Most lucky breaks are brought to you by other
people.
Few
people find significant amounts of money on the street or
buried in the backyard. Perhaps even fewer win lotteries.
Instead, luck comes more often in the form of opportunities.
You're
with a group of ladies (or guys) who are sitting around complaining
about how it's hard to find respectable men (women) to date.
Everybody is really getting into the problem.
The
person next to you leans over and whispers, "Don't you
wish everyone would just quit whining?" But
instead of complaining about all those complaints, a little
lightbulb clicks on in your head. You realize a good computerized
screening service for romantic introductions would fill a
real need here.
You
don't say anything, but weeks later, when you announce the
new service, and you're flooded with calls from singles all
over the city wanting safer introductions, all your friends
whisper, "She's so lucky. Where did she get that great
idea?"
You
know where the idea came from, but you're not telling.
A
great deal of "good luck" is manually created out
of discomfort often someone else's.
SECRET
#6: GOOD LUCK FAVORS THOSE WHO HAVE PREPARED
Let's say you're appearing in an amateur play in a little
theater in your neighborhood. A
big-name producer from Hollywood is visiting a sick relative,
hears about the play, and for a bit of distraction decides
to attend.
She
sees a spark of something special in your performance, asks
to meet you, and offers you a screen test. Okay, freeze the
frame for a second.
Are
you prepared for this big break? Have you done all the study
and the practice and the foundation work it takes to be a
professional? Will you have the technique and the skills necessary
to do the job?
Or
are you going to try and fake your way through it?
If
you're prepared, you're likely to do well. This means a giant
step toward your dreams.
And
if you're not prepared... well, good luck with your day job.
SECRET
#7: YOU CAN ATTRACT GOOD THINGS, TOO
All this talk about finding opportunities in "bad"
events and developing your skills is important, but there's
a more sunny side to luck as well.
Internet
entrepreneur Joe Vitale terms it his "Magic Escalator
through Life," and award-winning author John Harricharan
has titled it "The Power Pause."
I
interviewed both of these men recently, as well as eight other
fascinating people, about how they manage to stay so consistently
successful.
Every
single one of them has techniques for keeping their mind tuned
to the things they want. And they attend to this "mind
tuning" every day. They're not casual about this. Oh
no, they put regular effort into it. Their successes and their
luck are not accidents.
If
you're tempted to greet this with a dismissive, "Oh yeah,
I've read those positive thinking books," then you need
to think again.
The
hardest part of Secret #7? Taking responsibility for the bad
stuff in your life. If you've got uncomfortable situations
right now, you'll never have the power to change them until
you accept the fact that you created that mess... exactly
as it is right now.
Admit
to yourself that you created your own problems, down to the
last tiny detail, and only then will you take command of the
power to change those problems. Fortunately, it's not as impossible
as it sounds at first.
Your
mind is like a bucket. If the bucket is filled with muddy
water, all you have to do is start a steady flow of clear,
fresh water into the bucket.
Soon,
the bucket (or your mind) is filled with clear, fresh contents.
Steady
daily input of clear, fresh thoughts will change the things
that appear in your life, without the need for major renovation.
It just happens. You work on the inside, and the outside takes
care of itself.
This
means you don't fight the old thoughts. You give them minimum
energy. You don't resist, you don't struggle. Instead, you
put your attention as much as possible on the good things
you want to appear in your life.
The
lucky things you spend your time thinking about just start
happening for you, and one day you wake up and realize, "Hey,
I'm a pretty lucky person now. When did that happen?"
Charles Burke is the author of "Command More Luck,"
a book offering powerful suggestions for getting more cooperation
from life, luck, and your own mind. Whether you call it synchronicity,
serendipity, or just plain old luck, you CAN become more "naturally
lucky." Learn more at www.CommandMoreLuck.com
