The best ways to get lucky or good fortune is to stay positive and visualize success in your life. If you’d like to know how to be lucky, here are some practical rituals and traditions of life that if you stick to will help you.
1. Be Aware of (and Act on) Opportunities
“I’m a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it” – Thomas Jefferson
How much luck do you think you can look forward to if you stay locked up in your house like a hermit? Probably not much. If you don’t get out there and take action, you’ll find yourself in a sad pit of doom that is devoid of opportunity. Wanna be lucky? Life isn’t a charity, so get to work.
2. Visualize Success
“Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity.” – Lucius Annaeus Seneca
How well do you think you will perform on a date, job interview, or sporting event if your thoughts are filled with reasons you will fail? The odds would not be in your favor. The best athletes see themselves winning a game long before it starts. The best stage actors imagine an audience exploding with laughter and applause before they set foot on stage. If you’re going to a job interview, imagine how thoughtful your responses will be during your drive. If you’re preparing for a date, imagine how classy/handsome/sexy/funny the other person will find you while you get dressed. You must first see success happen before you can make it happen.
3. Focus on the Positive
“The best luck of all is the luck you make for yourself.” – Douglas MacArthur
An unfortunate thing that happened to me: Last week, my car engine died on the road going into my apartment complex. My vehicle didn’t come to a slow stop, but rather a dead halt. Let’s just say the bill from the mechanic wasn’t pretty, so I wasn’t very happy about this. But then it hit me: I was so lucky! My drive home that night included a 30-minute voyage on a crowded interstate. Now imagine how much worse my situation would have been if my car suddenly quit with a vehicle traveling 70 M.P.H. right behind me. I’m happy that I was lucky enough for my car to quit in the safety of my own parking lot, because had it gone out on the interstate, it’s very possible I wouldn’t be here to type this. Look for the good in all things.
4. Listen to Your Gut
“Humor has bailed me out of more tight situations than I can think of. If you go with your instincts and keep your humor, creativity follows. With luck, success comes, too.” – Jimmy Buffett
Look, we all make the occasional bad decision, so it’s in your best interest to be decisive. Trust your gut instinct and allow your intuition to guide you. Of course, you could agonize over every single decision in your life, but there is no guarantee that all that extra deliberation will lead to an increased likelihood of success (odds are it’ll just result in wasted time and opportunity).
5. Brush Your Shoulders Off
“Most of us regard good luck as our right, and bad luck as a betrayal of that right.” – William Feather
NEWSFLASH: No, you can’t have it all. Yes, you will fail sometimes. No, life isn’t fair. Yes, you have to deal with it.
