Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Principle Number Four

The fourth and final principle is "Turn Bad Luck Into Good." Lucky people are able to turn their occasional bad luck into good fortune.

According to Dr. Wiseman, sometimes even lucky people encounter bad luck and negative events (I can vouch for that). His research into how lucky people deal with bad luck revealed that they have an uncanny way of transforming their misfortune into amazing good fortune.

One example of this is Olympians who win medals. The winner of the bronze medal is often happier than the winner of the silver medal. Studies show that the winner of the silver medal is thinking if they had just performed a little better, they would have won the gold. The bronze winner is thinking how grateful they are that they performed as well as they did or they would have won nothing. Psychologists refer to this kind of thinking as "counter-factual thinking."

Dr. Wiseman found that lucky people tend to use counter-factual thinking to come up with how things might have been worse, thus making them feel more empowered to turn their bad luck into something good. You might call this looking on the bright side. Whatever you call it, it seems to be the happier side of life. Won't you join me on the bright side?

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