Why Some People Have All the Luck

Why Some People Have All the Luck
By Professor Richard Wiseman, University of Hertfordshire

Why do some people get all the luck while others never get the breaks they deserve? A psychologist says he has discovered the answer..

Ten years ago, I set out to examine luck. I wanted to know why some people are always in the right place at the right time, while others consistently experience ill fortune. I placed advertisements in national newspapers asking for people who felt consistently lucky or unlucky to contact me.

Hundreds of ext rao rdinary men and women volunteered for my research and over the years, I have interviewed them, monitored their lives and had them take part in experiments.

The results reveal that although these people have almost no insight into the causes of their luck, their thoughts and behaviour are responsible for much of their good and bad fortune. Take the case of seemingly chance opportunities. Lucky people consistently encounter such opportunities, whereas unlucky people do not.

I carried out a simple experiment to discover whether this was due to differences in their ability to spot such opportunities. I gave both lucky and unlucky people a newspaper, and asked them to look through it and tell me how many photographs were inside. I had secretly placed a large message halfway through the newspaper saying: 'Tell the experimenter you have seen this and win $50.'

This message took up half of the page and was written in type that was more than two inches high. It was staring everyone straight in the face, but the unlucky people tended to miss it and the lucky people tended to spot it.

Unlucky people are generally more tense than lucky people, and this anxiety disrupts their ability to notice the unexpected..

As a result, they miss opportunities because they are too focused on looking for something else. They go to parties' intent on finding their perfect partner and so miss opportunities to make good friends. They look through newspapers determined to find certain types of job advertisements and miss other types of jobs.

Lucky people are more relaxed and open, and therefore see what is there rather than just what they are looking for. My research eventually revealed that lucky people generate good fortune via four principles. They are skilled at creating and noticing chance opportunities, make lucky decisions by listening to their intuition, create self-fulfilling prophesies via positive expectations, and adopt a resilient attitude that transforms bad luck into good.

Towards the end of the work, I wondered whether these principles could be used to create good luck. I asked a group of volunteers to spend a month carrying out exercises designed to help them think and behave like a lucky person.

Dramatic results! These exercises helped them spot chance opportunities, listen to their intuition, expect to be lucky, and be more resilient to bad luck. One month later, the volunteers returned and described what had happened. The results were dramatic: 80% of people were now happier, more satisfied with their lives and, perhaps most important of all, luckier.
The lucky people had become even luckier and the unlucky had become lucky.

Finally, I had found the elusive 'luck factor'.

Here are Professor Wiseman's four top tips for becoming lucky:

1) Listen to your gut instincts - they are normally right
2) Be open to new experiences and breaking your normal routine
3) Spend a few moments each day remembering things that went well
4) Visualize yourself being lucky before an important meeting or telephone call.

Have a Lucky day and work for it.

The happiest people in the world are not those who have no problems, but those who learn to live with things that are less than perfect.

From Sex to Superconciousness by Osho

Here's a suggestion which has come from few friends as a book "worth reading". I have read the book many years ago. It definitely is an interesting read.

From Sex to Superconciousness by Osho

This book became world famous, world notorious. This book is not for sex: it is the only book in the whole existence against sex. Osho here says, that there is a way to go beyond sex, you can transcend sex - you can use sex and erotic activity as a valuable tool for self-discovery and transformation. When sex becomes something sacred, not obscene, not pornographic, not condemned, not repressed, but immensely respected, because we are born out of it. It is our very life source.

Originally this is set of Hindi discourses given by Osho's in 1970s.
This is Osho's devastating expose of societys sexual hypocrisy. It is here that
he first talks of the true relationship between enlightenment and the
transformation of sexual energies.

Here's the link to the text in English.

http://www.balbro.com/s2s/

Here's the link to Osho's Bibliography.

http://www.sannyas.org/wiki/index.php?title=Osho_Bibliography_-_English_Language_Publications

Enjoy.

Manish.

Practical Philosophy for day to day living

Hi,
Long Back i had come across this one. Reading it made me smile at the simplicity yet the totally doable practicality of the below 'philosophy'--for want of a better term :-)
Go thru it and adopt whatever you can and add your own ones (i added the last line):

Be patient.
Be open minded.
Savour special moments.
Smile often.

Make new friends. Rediscover old ones.
Tell them you love them,
And when you tell them feel it.

Ignore worries. Pardon enemies.
Forget problems. Keep promises.

If you get more than one chance,try again.
Try not to make mistakes, &
if you do, learn from them.
Prize your good ideas.

Be crazy.
Notice where the sun is in the sky.
Appreciate miracles when they happen around you.
Listen to the rain.
Watch for rainbows & falling stars.
Look for the beauty around you.

Smile with your heart.
Give with your heart.
Be gentle always.
Confide .

Hope. Desire. Work hard.
Pray . Have gratitude for the Good stuff and let go of the Bad ones.

A Smile of God

A friend sent me this picture few week's ago titled, “A Smile from God.” A fascinating picture.

Manish.

How We Became United States of France

An interesting article about financial meltdown.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1843168,00.html?iid=perma_share

Vaishnava Jan To Tene Kahiye

Friends,

I have not come across any writing which is as succinct and crisp than this Gujarati bhajan which provides a goal to some one like me who would like to evolve as a better human being during this life time. If I can accomplish 50% of what this bhajan suggests, it would be a huge accomplishment.

Manish.
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Vaishnav jan to, is a very popular Hindu bhajan from Gujarat that was a favorite of Mahatma Gandhi's. It was composed by the Gujarati poet-saint Narsinh Mehta in the 15th century.

Vaishnav jana to tene re kahiye,

Je peed parai jane re;

Par dukhe upakar kare toye,

Mana abhimana na aane re.

Vaishnav jana to…

Sakal loka man sahu ne vande,

Ninda na kare keni re;

Vach kacha mana nishchal rakhe,

Dhana dhana janani teni re.

Vaishnav jana to…

Sama drushti ne trushna tyagi,

Para stree jene maat re;

Jihva thaki asatya na bole,

Para dhana nava jhale haath re.

Vaishnav jana to…

Moha maya vyape nahin jene,

Drudhha vairagya jena mana man re;

Raam naam shun tali re lagi,

Sakal tirath tena tanaman re.

Vaishnav jana to…

Vana lobhi ne kapat rahit chhe,

Kama krodha nivarya re;

Bhane Narsaiyo tenu darshaan karatan,

Kool ekoter taryan re.

Vaishnav jana to…

Here are some relevant links to listen to the bhajan.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSxkG-3s4Rc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycsGJ6SXUys

Can we still make Music?

Imagine this. A concert violinist is performing a difficult piece in front of a large audience. Suddenly there is a loud snap that reverberates throughout the auditorium. The audience immediately knows that a string has broken and fully expects the concert to be suspended until another string, or instrument, is brought to the musician.

But instead, the violinist composes herself, closes her eyes and then signals the conductor to begin again.

The orchestra resumes where they had left off and now the musician plays the music on three strings. In her mind she works out new fingering to compensate for the missing string. A work that few people can play well on four strings, the violinist with the broken string plays on three.

When she finishes, an awesome silence hangs in the room. And then as one, the crowd rises to their feet and cheers wildly. The violinist smiles and wipes perspiration from her brow. When silence returns to the great room, she explains why she continued to play in spite of a broken string. "You know," she says, still breathless, "sometimes it is the artist's task to find out how much music you can still make with what you have left."

We know what she means, don't we? Maybe we've lived most of our lives and we have only a little time left. Can we still make music?

Maybe disease has robbed us of our capacity to work. Can we still make music?

Perhaps a financial loss has left us impoverished. Can we still make music?

Or maybe a meaningful relationship has ended and we feel alone in the world. Can we still make music?

There will come a time when we all experience loss. Like the violinist, will we find the courage to discover just how much music we can still make with what we have left? How much good we can still do? How much joy we can still share? For I'm convinced that the world, more than ever, needs the music only you can make.

And if it takes extra courage to make the music, many will applaud your effort. For some people have lost more than others, and these brave souls inspire the rest of us to greater heights.
Just how much music can you make with what you have left? Let the Music Begin....
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I can't imagine a better example than late Prof. Randy Pausch who embodied this sentiment.

Manish

Heart Touching UNICEF Ad...