PDF Summary:The Luck Factor, by Richard Wiseman
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1-Page PDF Summary of The Luck Factor
Is luck real? The scientific answer may surprise you. Psychologist Richard Wiseman conducted extensive research on people who claim to have good or bad luck, and he discovered that lucky people behave in ways that create good fortune.
As a scientist, Wiseman is known for disproving alleged “paranormal” powers, but his research into the nature of luck led him to conclude that it exists, if only psychologically. In The Luck Factor, Wiseman explores the science behind luck and how you can improve yours by deliberately applying the unconscious methods that lucky people use.
In this guide, we’ll cover how people create the luck that governs their lives by trusting intuition, seizing opportunities, and turning bad luck into good. We’ll contrast Wiseman’s views with those of other psychologists and productivity experts, and we’ll suggest practical ways to apply Wiseman’s advice.
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Factor 2: Trusting Your Feelings
The next commonality that Wiseman discovered is that people who think of themselves as lucky tend to trust their intuition more than those who don’t. As a result, they enhance their luck by making, on average, better decisions—both in their personal and professional lives—and are more likely to engage in activities that improve their intuitive skills.
Wiseman says there’s nothing magical about intuition and gut feelings. Rather, hunches and instincts are often the result of your brain’s unconscious pattern recognition skills. A great deal of psychological research has shown that our unconscious minds influence our choices, and our brains developed to work that way for a reason. Intuitive hunches are one way that our brains streamline the decision-making process, and Wiseman’s research found that unlucky people often ignore the warning signals their intuition sends them, whereas people who seem to have luck on their side are more willing to follow their instincts.
(Shortform note: Intuition is a powerful tool, but the drawback is that it isn’t always right. In Blink, Malcolm Gladwell explains that intuition works when your unconscious mind finds patterns based on small snapshots of experience while ignoring superficial details. However, Gladwell says that intuition backfires when your unconscious gets distracted by superficial details, such as deciding that someone is trustworthy because they’re wearing a nice suit. In this way, intuition lets us fall prey to biases we don’t even know we have. Wiseman’s findings reflect that intuition works more often than not, hence the evolutionary advantage it gives our species, but it isn’t 100%—you still have to balance intuition with logic.)
Wiseman cites numerous case studies demonstrating that people who follow their hunches fare better in personal relationships, career choices, and financial decisions. For instance, if you meet someone on a blind date, you may immediately feel an energetic connection—or you might feel that something’s “off” about the person. The same scenario may come up during a job interview—you might get a positive feeling about the other person, or something in the back of your mind might tell you that they’re not someone you want to work with. When following these hunches leads to a good decision, you might attribute your outcomes to luck when in fact your unconscious was just doing its job.
(Shortform note: Though Wiseman focuses on intuition’s “positive” hunches, it may be that your intuition’s warnings are more accurate. In The Gift of Fear, Gavin de Becker argues that human intuition developed specifically to protect us from harm. He differentiates between fear—your instinctive response to threats—and general anxiety, which has its roots in the rational mind and isn’t linked to immediate danger. Whereas Wiseman focuses on listening to your intuition, de Becker suggests that you can deliberately trigger it—for instance, by talking about sensitive subjects and seeing how other people respond. Their reactions give your intuition something to analyze—such as whether you can trust a financial adviser or someone you met on a date—protecting you from the harm, or bad luck, that a stranger may bring.)
Intuition Is a Muscle
Unconscious intuition—like any other skill—requires exercise and practice to grow stronger. In his research, Wiseman discovered that in addition to using their intuition more frequently, lucky people actively take steps to enhance their intuition, whether they realize it or not. They do this by practicing meditation, finding quiet places for contemplation, and regularly clearing their minds in other ways to boost their intuitive skills. In surveys, these individuals report how these techniques have improved their decision-making abilities and overall luck in various aspects of their lives. Therefore, Wiseman concludes that lucky people treat their intuition as a valuable tool and make a point of fostering and listening to their feelings.
(Shortform note: Wiseman’s methods for improving intuition all involve activities we normally think of as relaxing, but in Ultralearning, Scott Young suggests a different approach. He writes that our conscious minds often fixate on surface-level aspects of a problem, and that you can train your intuition to delve into deeper knowledge by challenging your mind instead of relaxing it. You can do this by forcing yourself to struggle when you encounter a difficult problem, questioning what you think you know, and connecting abstract information to concrete examples. For instance, to develop an intuitive mental map of a new city, you should force yourself to work out directions to specific destinations without relying on your phone’s GPS.)
Factor 3: Seizing Lucky Moments
The third factor Wiseman identifies is that lucky people recognize potentially lucky moments and immediately take action when they happen. Once again, this form of luck isn’t magic, but rather stems from certain people’s psychological makeup—they tend to be extroverts who are open to new experiences.
(Shortform note: Despite Wiseman’s observation, not every opportunity may be worth taking. In The Success Principles, Jack Canfield warns that if you follow too many mediocre opportunities, they’ll consume so much time and energy that you can’t take better chances when they come along. Canfield writes that it’s important to say no to “lucky moments” that don’t support your overarching goals. He suggests writing down a list of opportunities that only get in your way, as well as a list that divides your “good” opportunities from your “great” ones. This process requires engaging your analytical skills more than following your intuition, as opposed to what Wiseman says lucky people do, but Canfield says it’s a more effective path to achieving a long-term goal.)
Wiseman writes that extroverts, by their nature, meet many people and put energy into maintaining long-term relationships. The extensive social network an extrovert creates dramatically increases their chances of beneficial chance meetings and connections. Therefore, if you’re looking for a job, a romantic partner, or just a good plumber to work on your house, and you have a wide network of connections, your odds are much higher of “lucking into” someone who can help you. The more contacts you have, the better your odds—extroverts create luck through simple mathematics.
(Shortform note: This particular point of Wiseman’s may sound disheartening to those who don’t find interacting with others easy, but it doesn’t have to be. In Taking the Work Out of Networking, Karen Wickre writes that even introverts have innate qualities they can use to establish and broaden connections. For instance, introverts are adept listeners and observers who are good at understanding other people’s feelings. As a result, an introvert can form deeper connections than a more overtly outgoing “people person.” However, introverts generally need to make a more concerted effort to maintain and grow their network of connections, part of which could certainly be to believe you’ll have good luck when meeting other people.)
Relaxing Into Luck
However large your circle, you have to be open to grabbing chances when they come, and a relaxed approach to life can help with that. Wiseman’s research shows that lucky people tend to have a relaxed attitude and an openness to new experiences. People with lower anxiety are more likely to view chance occurrences with less suspicion, seeing them as opportunities instead of dangers. Likewise, people who seek out new experiences expose themselves to a broader range of opportunities than people who stay in safe, familiar patterns. In short, lucky people's relaxed approach to life lets them capitalize on opportunities that others overlook. Being “lucky” in this sense simply means staying open to the world around you.
(Shortform note: One exemplar of Wiseman’s point was award-winning physicist Richard Feynman, whose autobiography Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! says hardly a word about his scientific achievements and instead highlights the crazy adventures he had while seeking new experiences, such as playing drums with a Brazilian marching band or learning how to draw on a dare from a colleague. Feynman never concerned himself with luck, but he lived in pursuit of happiness, which Wiseman equates to being much the same thing. For Feynman, the secret to happiness was not feeling responsible for the world while viewing it with wide-eyed curiosity, both of which increase your chances for the kind of luck that Wiseman describes.)
Factor 4: Reversing Your Luck
Despite the strategies listed above, luck is still largely a matter of chance, so why don’t “lucky people” have as much bad luck as good? The secret is that they do—but Wiseman points out that people who identify as lucky turn their bad luck around by recasting it in a positive light. They achieve this via several techniques such as reframing situations, avoiding rumination, and taking precautions to prevent bad luck from repeating itself in the future.
Seeing bad luck in a good light isn’t easy, but Wiseman explains that many of his “lucky” research subjects make a habit of imagining how the bad things that happen could have been even worse. For example, suppose you get really sick just before a big convention you’d looked forward to attending. Though anyone would be understandably upset, a lucky-minded person might imagine how much worse it would have been to get sick right before the vacation they’d planned for one month later instead. Wiseman argues that this type of perspective helps lucky people maintain a more positive outlook even on unpleasant experiences.
(Shortform note: Reframing negative occurrences in the way Wiseman describes does more than help you through short-term hardships. In The Happiness Advantage, Shawn Achor explains that training your brain to be positive creates a virtuous cycle: When you repeatedly turn negatives into positives, you create a pattern that increases your a) happiness, which leads to better performance; b) gratitude, which elevates your energy while decreasing anxiety and depression; and c) optimism, which makes you set more ambitious goals, persevere in the face of obstacles, and manage stress and challenges more effectively. Reframing creates emotional momentum to lessen the effects of bad luck so that you more easily notice the good.)
Another trait Wiseman discovered is that lucky people let go of past misfortunes and focus on the future. As stated before, lucky people tend to have faith that circumstances will generally get better over time, whereas many psychological studies have shown that ruminating on the past can create a downward spiral of negative emotions and memories. By keeping an eye on the long-term future, many of the lucky people in Wiseman’s research attributed unexpected benefits to the seemingly unfortunate events in their lives. For instance, a flat tire might make you late for work, but it could also lead to meeting a good mechanic who you come to rely on for maintenance and repairs.
(Shortform note: The problem with focusing on the future is that many people feel anxiety about future events as much as they feel confined by the past. This future focus can impede your ability to appreciate what’s going well for you now and stops you from engaging with your life in a meaningful and joyful way. Therefore, in How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, Dale Carnegie says the answer is to give “today” your full attention. He says that since the only thing you can control is the present moment, the most effective way to prepare for the future is to live to the best of your ability in the now. Over time, a daily commitment to doing your best creates successful results—and opportunities for good luck—that can alleviate your future worries.)
Bad Luck Is a Teacher
The last commonality that Wiseman uncovered was that lucky people view any bad luck as a learning opportunity. Instead of giving up when something bad happens, a lucky-minded person will ask why things went wrong and what they can do to improve their odds in similar situations. For example, you might ask why your tire blew out—had you gone too long without having it checked? Lucky people’s proactive approach to bad luck helps them minimize the chances of experiencing it again and often leads to creative solutions to the problems caused by their current misfortune. On the other hand, Wiseman finds that unlucky people tend to chalk their bad luck up to sheer chance and don’t make as much of an effort to prevent it.
(Shortform note: Wiseman’s final point about lucky people highlights a flaw in the way most of us think about learning. In Limitless Mind, educator Jo Boaler writes that we’re often taught from an early age that failure and mistakes are signs of mental weakness, but that’s exactly when the most powerful learning takes place. Brain scans prove that students who spend time correcting mistakes exhibit more mental activity than students who get the right answers on their first try. Therefore, when you have to fight through a problem or work out how to overcome your bad luck, you create more connections in your brain than you would have otherwise. Struggling while learning increases your mental capacity, so bad luck is a boon to mental development.)
How to Be Lucky
Now that we’ve established the life strategies and personal traits that make lucky people lucky, the question becomes, “Can they be replicated?” Wiseman says they can if you incorporate strategies to improve your luck into your daily attitudes and routines. Throughout his recommendations, Wiseman emphasizes the power of your expectations to shape your reality. He says to experiment with different techniques, since different methods may work better for different people. The overall goal is to cultivate a more positive and expectant outlook on life, which—fingers crossed—might bring you good luck.
(Shortform note: For any of Wiseman’s strategies to be effective you have to ingrain them as regular habits, which is a process in itself. In Atomic Habits, James Clear lays out the steps of habit formation, which involve 1) a cue to trigger your brain to notice a chance for reward, 2) a craving attached to that cue, 3) the response you take to satisfy your craving, and 4) a reward for performing the response. If the reward you’re after is some form of good luck, then you can expect your rewards to be infrequent—sometimes they’ll happen, sometimes they won’t—but you’re in luck. Psychologists have shown that intermittent rewards are far more powerful at building habits than consistent, predictable rewards.)
Brighten Your Outlook
To get the ball rolling on developing a positive attitude toward the future, Wiseman says to set realistic but ambitious goals for the short, medium, and long term. Achieving short-term goals will give you a boost toward your next rung on the ladder, and if “bad luck” gets in the way, you can turn short-term misfortune into a way to practice perseverance. Wiseman suggests that when faced with a setback, you can engage in lucky-minded thinking by weighing the cost of trying again—whether to double-down on your bet on yourself—against the benefits of your eventual success. You’ll often find that your short-term bad luck is tiny compared to the rewards of long-term persistence.
(Shortform note: Though Wiseman divides goals into three tiers, in When They Win, You Win, Russ Laraway adds a fourth—your ultimate aspiration. This is your overall purpose in life—a longer-than-long-term goal that might take decades to achieve, if ever—such as making the world a better place for your children. Though at any given moment, you’re probably working toward one of the short-term goals on your list, Laraway explains how the goals in each tier support the ones above it, with everything moving the needle on your aspirational goal in some way. When bad luck jams the gears on your short-term goals’ progress, your highest aspiration might be more motivating than even the long-term goals on your list.)
In addition to cultivating the belief that luck will eventually turn your way, Wiseman writes that you should adopt practices to boost your intuition. Since Wiseman’s research shows that lucky people often do so by engaging in meditation, finding quiet places, or taking breaks from problems to clear their minds, he suggests trying whichever of these methods appeal to you the most and observe the effects. Keep in mind these activities don’t produce immediate results—they require patience and become more effective with regular practice.
(Shortform note: Wiseman discusses meditation as a singular practice, but there are actually many different techniques you can engage in. The Master Guides: Choosing a Meditation Practice provides an overview of the most widely used approaches, from those associated with Buddhism, Hinduism, and Christianity, to more secular-oriented Western meditation practices. Regardless of which meditation style you select, you should start small with short meditation sessions, perhaps in conjunction with a class or support network, and—if quiet meditation is hard—try combining your practice with a low-intensity physical activity such as walking.)
Broaden Your Horizon
In addition to suggesting you adopt a forward-thinking perspective, Wiseman recommends taking concrete steps to increase your chances of lucky moments and encounters. The first is to build a larger personal network, like those of the lucky people in his study. One way is to deliberately initiate conversations with several strangers each week, whether in line at the grocery store, at meetings for work, or during social gatherings. You can also reconnect with people with whom you’ve fallen out of touch, if only to have a brief catch-up conversation. Most interactions won’t turn into strong connections, but the more you interact with other people, the more likely you are to luckily stumble into a valuable new contact or future lifelong friend.
(Shortform note: At the time of Wiseman’s writing, social media was in its infancy, though today it’s become the tool of choice for expanding your network in the digital age. In Never Eat Alone, Keith Ferrazzi explains how to leverage social media effectively. First, use direct messaging to make your connections more personal. Second, inspire social media users to approach you by creating content that piques people’s interest. No matter what type of content you create, make sure it reflects your authentic personality, not a fake social media version of yourself. That way, when you need your online network as a pool of potential lucky connections, people will connect with the real you and not your phony digital persona.)
Wiseman says that along with enlarging your social network, you should emulate lucky people by increasing your range of experiences. Every new interest, hobby, and aspect of life you explore increases your chances of lucky encounters that might benefit your career, your personal life, or open a window to opportunities you’d never considered. If you’re not sure where to start, Wiseman suggests that you literally roll the dice: Write a list of six things you’ve never tried and randomly roll for which one you’ll pursue. Make expanding your life into a game, and approach it with a child-like perspective, free from expectations. That openness, Wiseman insists, is vital to spotting lucky moments when they happen.
(Shortform note: Several years after The Luck Factor’s publication, the term “bucket list” entered public awareness as a list of daring things you’d like to try before you die. Creating a bucket list encourages people to broaden their experiences by considering their mortality. One way to design one is to begin by daydreaming about what you’d like to do without any time or money constraints, writing down all your ideas. Divide them into long and short-term goals, identify any items that you can also do with others, pick your top three favorites from the list, and start the planning process to achieve them. It may be less random than Wiseman’s dice game, but the dreams involved on a bucket list are often too big to accomplish on the spur of the moment.)
Turn Your Luck Around
The last and most difficult new skill to learn is to not think of “bad luck” as bad luck at all. When things are going bad, “look on the bright side” might be the last thing you want to hear, but Wiseman insists that’s what lucky people do. To more easily adopt a positive perspective, he suggests you take time to picture different ways your supposed bad luck might have saved you from something worse. For instance, you might imagine that your last flat tire saved you from being in a traffic accident a few minutes later due to a drunk driver. You should also imagine how bad luck in the past may have led to a positive chain of events. For example, bad luck during one job interview might open the door to a different, better position later.
(Shortform note: The type of thinking Wiseman describes is also something we’re used to doing in reverse—often to negative effect. In The Paradox of Choice, Barry Schwartz explains that we can easily trigger feelings of regret if we think about current or past situations in terms of how they could have gone better. A 2017 study confirms this idea by showing a correlation between this type of rumination and instances of depression. Though reframing negative incidents in a positive light as Wiseman recommends may indeed be beneficial, many psychologists recommend that you avoid ruminating on the past altogether in favor of living in the moment.)
Likewise, Wiseman agrees that you shouldn’t dwell on your prior bad fortune. Instead, if you find yourself ruminating on the past, distract yourself with activities like exercise, watching funny movies, listening to music, and spending time with friends. If you can’t avoid thinking about the past, you should reminisce about positive events, reminding yourself of the good luck you’ve had to counter any recent bad luck you may be feeling. These activities shift your focus away from negative experiences, painting a more balanced portrait of your life—one in which your so-called “bad luck” doesn’t loom as large as it may at first seem.
(Shortform note: When shifting away from the past, keep in mind that your memory isn’t a perfect record. In Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman explains that your memories of past events are colored by two factors—the peak intensity of the experience and how you felt when it ended. Therefore, your negative memories of a past vacation may be heightened by one bad experience. In the same vein, any positive memories you form about new activities you engage in today—such as kayaking down a nearby river—will largely reflect the most intense part of the trip. In short, when you follow Wiseman’s advice to look away from bad luck by creating good experiences, you only need a few, not an endless stream of positivity.)
Rule Your Luck—Don’t Let It Rule You
While Wiseman shows that belief in good luck is overwhelmingly positive, belief in bad luck is destructive because it makes you feel helpless to control your circumstances. Therefore, his final recommendation is to take charge of your life when bad luck strikes. Whatever misfortunes arise because of “luck,” you should immediately brainstorm solutions, decide on a course of action to take, and implement your solution right away. Instead of blaming external factors, focus on what you can learn and do differently whenever bad luck swings your way. If you can change and grow in some way as part of dealing with your misfortune, then perhaps your luck wasn’t as bad as you believed.
(Shortform note: Tying back to our discussion of aspirational goals, the way to follow Wiseman’s advice is clearer if you have an overarching purpose for your life. In The Laws of Human Nature, Robert Greene expresses this in terms of finding your purpose and using it to guide your actions. Greene writes that any purpose will do—as long as it’s internal and personal, you’ll be energized by your inherent talents and character. Once you find your purpose, you’ll know how to act when confronted with good or bad luck. Also, when following your purpose, you’ll find that some negative emotions, such as self-doubt and anxiety, are replaced by more productive emotions, such as passion and persistence.)
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