feeling lucky?

Interesting article from the Good News Network by the author of The Luck Factor. Richard Wiseman researched luck- why some people feel lucky and other people feel unlucky- and found that lucky people-

generate good fortune via four basic 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.

After his research, he enlisted several people- both lucky and unlucky- to spend a month practicing skills that would help them increase their "luck".

One month later, the volunteers returned and described what had happened. The results were dramatic: 80 percent of people were now happier, more satisfied with their lives and, perhaps most important of all, luckier. While lucky people became luckier, the unlucky had become lucky.

One of the points brought up in the article that I particularly appreciated was "Lucky people tend to see the positive side of their ill-fortune." Every cloud has a silver lining and all that. I like this too because it is similar to the Zen story Maybe and really comes back to examining our own perceptions. What is truth? What we perceive, how we view ourselves, others, life, defines our world view and what we think is possible. If we don't think something is possible, we are less likely to go for it. Less likely to see opportunities to make it happen. Less likely to see good things where we would otherwise see bad.

Each time I go deeper into these concepts I come back to these same ideas about our individual perceptions and the stories we tell ourselves about them. We make our perceptions, enforce them, give them meaning. Why not, then, choose perceptions that help us feel good. Choose a way that lightens our spirit, a way that gives our life meaning and opens us up to expansion. Big smiles. Running through fields. Guinea pigs hopping. Gorgeous pink trees against blue skies. New ideas. New opportunities. And catching each one as it passes by. Really noticing the goodness that is this life. And seeing how the act of noticing the goodness around us can impact our lives for the better. Whether this is luck or not, Wiseman's research shows how this goodness is open to all of us. Right now. As usual.