Lucky Me!

I called my ex boss to wish him on his birthday. He has been a mentor and a guide. Apart from huge respect, I also have gratitude for being given so many opportunities that helped me become a  better professional. It makes a lot of difference specially if its at the beginning of one's career.

Generally the catching up time has been his birthday where we exchange the happenings in our lives. Did the same this year too. He mentioned to me that I had always got things on a platter. He was referring to my career and how I was lucky to have my in laws there for me so personal life was sorted too. He has seen me right from graduation days. Having known him for over 20 years, he literally knows the way my life and career have shaped up or  progressed. I certainly don't think I am an achiever or a star performer but I guess am happy with everything.... Optimist you see!

He telling me that I have been lucky and that had got things on a platter, made me think. Its not that I've reached the moon but all's been fine, rather I feel that I am living a balanced life and did things that my heart really wanted to. That makes me grateful and humbled for almost everything that's there in my life, family, friends,  career, colleagues etc. But I don't think that things came on a platter.

Its like telling the best actor that there's no effort. Infact a good actor is one who rehearses so much that the piece or his role looks very natural and effortless. He certainly works harder than others.

Who knows one's journey  better than the person himself. No one else can judge the path. I believe to get 100% from any relationship or a situation one needs to put in a 1000%. All have to do it, but when it comes to women the efforts will certainly need to be 1000% plus. 
It takes me to the book review that I read recently 'The Luck Factor' by Richard Wiseman. I haven't read the book though, it looks good! Will certainly grab a copy soon. 

Excerpts from the book, Psychologist Richard Wiseman conducted a study that lasted about 10 years, to determine Why some people were luckier than the others.  

He shared his results including the four critical elements that could help each one of us to become that Lucky Person.

In his interview with The Telegraph, he says,"My research revealed 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".

To launch his study, He placed advertisements in national newspapers and magazines, asking for people who felt consistently lucky or unlucky to contact me. Over the years, 400 extraordinary men and women volunteered for my research from all walks of life: the youngest is an 18-year-old student, the oldest an 84-year-old retired accountant.

He gave both lucky and unlucky people a newspaper, and asked them to look through it and tell me how many photographs were inside. On average, the unlucky people took about two minutes to count the photographs, whereas the lucky people took just seconds. Why? Because the second page of the newspaper contained the message: "Stop counting. There are 43 photographs in this newspaper." This message took up half of the page and was written in type that was more than 2in high. It was staring everyone straight in the face, but the unlucky people tended to miss it and the lucky people spotted it.

For fun, he placed a second large message halfway through the newspaper: "Stop counting. Tell the experimenter you have seen this and win £250." Again, the unlucky people missed the opportunity because they were still too busy looking for photographs.

Personality tests revealed that unlucky people are generally much more tense than lucky people, and research has shown that anxiety disrupts people's ability to notice the unexpected. 

And so it is with luck - unlucky people miss chance 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 as a result 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.

He then asked a group of lucky and unlucky volunteers to spend a month carrying out exercises designed to help them think and behave like lucky people. A month later, the volunteers returned and described what had happened. The results were dramatic: 80 per cent of people were now happier, more satisfied with their lives and, perhaps most important of all, luckier.

Wiseman goes on to explain that part of luck is very much played-out in the mind. As a result, people who view themselves as unlucky tend to fail at following their intuition when making a choice. Whereas lucky people respect those internal hunches and reap the rewards. Unlucky people also regularly follow routines, whereas lucky people introduce variety into their lives, possibly increasing the likelihood of those lucky opportunities.

When someone appears lucky, remember he or she has created that factor around him or her!... rarely its luck by chance!!

PS Pictures are taken from Google with due credits for representational purpose.