Make Your Own Luck
It’s not just on St Patrick’s Day that you can feel lucky.
Years ago, I read an interesting study that planted the seeds of “lucky” versus “unlucky” in the brains of unsuspecting coffee drinkers. Now give me a little leeway here because I’m going from memory, so I might not have the details of this exact. However, the results of the study stuck with me because it challenges the notion that our beliefs are true, fixed and relevant. Really, our beliefs are often untrue, malleable and simple reflections of what we have been exposed to and/or focus on.
The experiment? Baristas at a local coffee shop were trained to prime a person to feel more or less lucky and then researchers outside the shop planted money on the sidewalk and tracked who noticed the money and picked it up.
What happened? Well, the baristas smiled and made little comments like “it’s your lucky day, I can totally make you a ______!” or frowned and said something like “you’re out of luck, we don’t have ______ today. ”Then the “lucky” people went outside and were a zillion times more likely to see the money on the sidewalk, pick it up and then tell the researcher who stopped them that they were super lucky, using the money as proof of their luck.
The “unlucky” folks, meanwhile, mostly passed by the cash and even if they did see it, dismissed it as a fluke instead of as a core trait (luck) that they possessed. When stopped by the researchers, they would use NOT seeing the money as proof of their unlucky nature.
The next time you are locked into a belief about yourself, I wonder what it might be like to challenge that firm hold you have about it being true, fixed and relevant? What if some of the very things you are using to “prove” a belief could be discarded?
Here’s a formula for how to discard a negative belief: Instead of directly challenging it (and unleashing the part of your brain that will dig in to prove your belief is true, fixed and important), try just looking for the opposite. This opens up your brain to the possibility of something new and our brains love to prove things, so let’s prove the positive.
To make your own luck today, be on the lookout for small (or large) lucky things happening. When your brain tries to pull you back into old stories like “I never win anything” or “I’m not lucky, this is stupid” just notice that thought and then refocus on finding something lucky. Maybe you’ll get 2 green lights in a row, or someone holds a door open for you, or your favorite coffee shop has one of your favorite pastries left just for you.
You know, you’re so lucky!
