Is there such a thing call ‘Luck’?

                                                           

I came across two articles which talk about ’luck’ from the scientific and religious point of views respectively: 

Scientifically

Many people think that luck is like a quality somebody has. For example my aunt thinks she keeps on loosing at backgammon because she is unlucky and this influences somehow the dice. I tried to explain her that it’s not the dice’s fault, it’s the fact she’s such a lousy player, but with no avail.

However, in a certain sense, luck is a property; people feeling lucky have a certain state of mind that may help them in various situations. Luck may be another name for the fact that some people unconsciously make better choices than others. To explore issue of luck scientifically, experimental psychologist Richard Wiseman created a “luck lab” at the University of Hertfordshire in England.

He began by testing the paranormal concept of luck, like my aunt’s. He gave 700 subjects a questionnaire to determine whether they felt lucky or unlucky and it turned out that some people felt twice more confident than others they could win the lottery. However, when these people actually bought lottery tickets, it turned out that there was no difference between them in term of actual winnings. Lucky people aren’t more likely to win at gambling.

Then Wiseman turned to the psychological and social effects of feeling lucky. Are self-characterized “lucky” people more likely to encounter various advantages in life or is it that their over-optimism often leads them astray?

When he tested the participants to see how satisfied they are with their family life, personal life, financial situation, health and career he found a stark difference between “lucky” people and the rest: “Lucky people are far more satisfied with all areas of their lives than unlucky or neutral people,” wrote Wiseman in his book The Luck Factor. The feelings of satisfaction are not determined exclusively by the actual material situation, they are more a consequence of how the individual interprets his or her situation. And people who think of themselves as lucky tend to interpret their lives positively; they expect good things to happen so when things are actually happening their attention focuses on the positive aspects.

Weiseman also tested the correlation between feeling lucky and other psychological characteristics such as “agreeableness,” “conscientiousness,” “extroversion,” “neuroticism” and “openness.” He found that lucky people are not friendlier than the rest nor are they less careful. However, they tend to be more extraverted and acting like “social magnets”, less anxious, and more open to new experiences. “They don’t tend to be bound by convention and they like the notion of unpredictability,” Weiseman wrote.

So, although randomness doesn’t and cannot a priori favor anyone and no one can have any special personal relation with it, people who delude themselves that they have such a special relation, often end up happier than the rest.

Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news

Religiously

The dictionary defines luck as ‘believing that whatever happens, either good or bad, to a person in the course of events is due to chance, fate or fortune’. The Buddha denied this belief completely. Everything that happens has a specific cause or causes and there must be some relationships between the cause and the effect. Becoming sick, for example, has specific causes. One must come into contact with germs and one’s body must be weak enough for the germs to establish themselves. There is a definite relationship between the cause (germs and a weakened body) and the effect (sickness) because we know that germs attack the organisms and give rise to sickness. But no relationship can be found between wearing a piece of paper with words written on it and being rich or passing examinations. Buddhism teaches that whatever happens does so because of a cause or causes and not due to luck, chance or fate. People who are interested in luck are always trying to get something,usually more money and wealth. The Buddha teaches us that it is far more important to develop our hearts and minds. He says:

Being deeply learned and skilled; being well-trained and using well-spoken words – this is the best good luck. To support mother and father, to cherish wife and child and to have a simple livelihood – this is the best good luck.

Source: http://www.buddhanet.net/

My Take:

It is very often that we hear friends around us complaining about how ‘unlucky’ they have been and that things just seem to go wrong one after another. However, if we really do recall, we might realize that it is often only certain people that always ‘happen’ to be the unfortunate ones. But in truth, were all these events predetermined and were beyond his or her control? Quite unlikely.

If we observe hard enough in our daily life, we probably notice that successful ‘lucky’ people have several characteristics in common. Often, the ‘unlucky’ ones would not hesitate to attribute their fates due to reasons beyond their control and have missed out the whole big picture of why things have turned out that way. ‘Lucky’ people on the other hand, often take charge of the circumstances that are in.

In summary, I have compiled the following 4 tips that I believe would help to enhance your ‘luck’:

- ‘Good luck’ goes most to people who are clear about their goals and seek to achieve them.

The more focused someone is towards his goals, the higher the chance that he would succeed. If you do not even know what you want to start with, it is unlikely that you have clear directions to achieve them. By having an end in mind, half the battle has been won. All else is wasted efforts if the goal was ill-defined.

- ‘Good luck’ is bestowed to genuinely sincere people

By the universal law of reciprocation, one would feel obliged to help another if he has received help from that person before. Therefore, the more people one helps, the more people would be willing to help him. Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. If you want to have some ‘good luck’ in times of need, do give others that kind of ‘luck’ first when they need it too. It is in giving that we receive. 

- ‘Good luck’ is something rewarded to those who try hard enough

Failures are often the stepping stones to success. Even if you do not see immediate results in the short term, it doesn’t mean that you are not closer to success. You can’t expect to get instant gratification for everything that you want in your life. Do what you think is right and take the ‘leap of faith’. You’ll find that you get ‘luckier’ each time more you try due to the acquired knowledge and experience.

- ‘Good luck’ finds its way to people with a good internal locus of control

By having a high level of internal locus of control, it means that one believes that the majority of the outcomes were due to the efforts that were given. When something bad happens, he would not attribute it to external factors, but rather evaluate on what he could have done to make the situation better.

Feel free to try some of my tips and you might find yourself getting ’luckier’ each new day! 

~ by Ng Zhi Wei on March 28, 2008.