Make your own luck - with help from other people

17/09/2009 Tracy Dempsey from Soul Ambition has written an interesting article...... Make you own luck - with help from other people If you believe you are lucky, you are more likely to BE lucky. Research ...
Tracy Dempsey from Soul Ambition has written an interesting article......

Make you own luck - with help from other people

If you believe you are lucky, you are more likely to BE lucky. Research shows that optimists achieve more, live longer and enjoy better relationships with people. So whilst there are times when it pays to be pessimistic (when consequences of an action or decision will be severe, for example), a prevailing optimistic attitude is generally preferable for most people.

Pioneering psychologist Martin Seligman outlines the differences between an optimistic and a pessimistic viewpoint in terms of scope and timespan.

Consider the following example:

Clare is invited to speak to a group at a networking event. She does her talk and the group receive it well; they laugh in the right places and clap loudly when she finishes.

She is followed by Richard, who finds it hard to keep the group's attention, and cuts his talk short early as a result.

If Clare's an optimist, she's likely to reflect on her talk with thoughts such as 'I'm a natural at public speaking, I always get a good reaction from my audience'. Her scope is wide - public-speaking in general - and her timespan is permanent.

If, however, she's pessimistic, she's likely to tell herself 'That was a one-off; I was lucky to get that crowd tonight - they were in such high spirits anyone could have made them laugh.' Her scope is narrow - that particular group of people - and her timespan is temporary.

If Richard is a pessimist, he's likely to think 'I'm terrible at public speaking, I always bore the audience'. Wide scope, permanent timespan.

If he's an optimist, conversely, he'll probably shrug off the less-than-great event, thinking 'It was a tough crowd tonight; I think they were getting hungry for the post-talk refreshments. Next time will be better'. Narrow scope, temporary timespan.

So, optimists tend to view positive, past events as universal and permanent, and negative, past events as specific and temporary.

Pessimists tend to view postive, past events as specific and temporary,and negative, past events as universal and permanent.

Now clearly this shouldn't be taken to extremes. If we are wildly optimistic with no sense of personal responsibility, openness to constructive criticism or appreciatation of others' help, we are living dangerously at worst, and limiting our growth at best.

The ideal is to take credit for your own efforts, recognise the efforts of others and if you think good fortune prevented a negative result, plan how to do even better next time.

So, aside from healthy optimism, how else can you create luck in your life?

CONNECT WITH PEOPLE

For further information go to www.soulambition.co.uk

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