Richard Wiseman takes apart the idea that luck just happens by chance! He clearly explains the main principles involved in becoming a luckier person and gives you exercises and plans to help you develop your luck.

1. Book: The Luck Factor
Author: Richard Wiseman
Category: Self-help & Motivation
Summary: Luck is not something that
happens by, well, chance! It’s something
you can actively create.
Rating:
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2. The very convincing argument of this book
is that you can increase your luck and
become a luckier person in general by
following specific principles.
Each principle is accompanied by real world
examples and exercises on how to
implement these principles in your own life.
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3. The Power of luck and lucky people
Many successful people have put their success down to seemingly trivial,
chance encounters or events as opposed to skill and preparation. This book
opens with examples from the lives of President Truman, Warren Buffet, Mel
Gibson, Kate Moss and others.
It also looks at the fact that people seem to feel that they are consistently
lucky or unlucky. The writer sets out to discover whether there are any ‘rules’
behind the luck people experience.
He then identifies 4 characteristics of lucky people:
 They constantly encounter chance opportunities who have a benefificial
effect on their lives.
 They make good decisions without knowing why.
 Their dreams, ambitions and goals have an increase chance of coming true.
 They have an ability to turn their bad luck into good luck.
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4. Principle 1: Maximise your chance opportunities
Lucky people create, notice and act upon the chance opportunities in
their life.
Being in the right place at the right time is about being in the right
state of mind.
Of the five main dimensions to our personalities, lucky people
generally display higher levels of openness, neuroticism and
extroversion.
 Lucky people build and maintain a strong ‘network of luck’.
 Lucky people have a relaxed attitude towards life.
 Lucky people are open to new experiences in their lives.
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5. Principle 2: Listen to your Lucky hunches
Lucky people make successful decisions by
using their intuition and gut feelings.
 Lucky people listen to their gut feelings
and hunches
 Lucky people take steps to boost their
intuition (meditation, return to the
problem later, clearing the mind, finding
a quiet place).
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6. Principle 3: Expect good fortune
Lucky people’s expectations about the future help them fulfil their
dreams and ambitions.
 Lucky people expect their good luck to continue in the future.
 Lucky people attempt to achieve their goals, even if their chances of
success seem slim, and persevere in the face of failure.
 Lucky people expect their interactions with others to be lucky and
successful.
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7. Principle 4: Turn your bad luck into good
Lucky people are able to transform their bad luck into good fortune.
 Lucky people see the positive side of their bad luck.
 Lucky people are convinced that any ill fortune in their life will, in the long
run, work out for the best.
 Lucky people do not dwell on their ill fortune.
 Lucky people take constructive steps to prevent more bad luck in the
future.
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8. Luck School
“Superstition doesn’t work because it is based on out-of-date and incorrect
thinking. It comes from a time when people thought that luck was a strange
force that could only be controlled by magical rituals and bizarre behaviours.”
Make a “luck declaration” that you intend to incorproate some of the
techniques already described into your life.
Actively try to increase your luck using these techniques.
Keep a luck diary to keep track of things that happen to you throughout the
day.
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9. Learning to be lucky
The author then chose a group of people
and asked them to implement the principles
outlined in his book, while keeping a luck
diary, and then followed their ‘progress’,
80% of those who attended his ‘Luck
School’ stated that their luck had increased
after implementing the principles.
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10. The results of Luck School demonstrate
that people can live happier and more
successful lives by thinking and behaving
like a lucky person.
Read the book and good luck!
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