The 7 Laws of Attracting Good Luck

Luis Manzano is one lucky guy. He is famous as a movie actor and TV host In comparison, Helen Keller seems to be unlucky to the extreme: she was blind, deaf and mute.

But she herself never thought of herself as unlucky – and there lies the crucial secret of her immortality. Helen Keller turned towards the unseen beauty and miracle of life – and she inspired countless millions to lift themselves out of the deadly trap of self-pity.

           

All of us can attract good fortune by learning the secrets of lucky people.

           

Believe that you are lucky. Keep in mind that everything happens for a reason – and something good always comes out of it.

           

“If you believe you are fortunate most of the time, you are likely to exhibit behavior that makes people more responsive to you,” according to Martin Seligman, professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and author of Authentic Happiness.

           

Control your emotions. Self-discipline is one of the pillars of success. Negative emotions like anger, shyness and resentment rob you of peace of mind and destroy you from within like the termites in Boracay Mansion.

           

Of course you are only human like in the Hiram song by Zsa Zsa Padilla, but “It’s one thing to feel these negative emotions and another to show them,” advises Raymond DePaulo, chair of psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and author of Understanding Depression.

           

Keep an open mind. Good fortune is yours for the taking but only if you learn to let go of your prejudices, inhibitions and delusions of persecutions. Stop thinking of yourself as Jason Bourne – the CIA is not after you.

           

“You can improve your luck by training yourself to be more trusting of people and confident that positive outcomes will result from these encounters,” says John Krumboltz, professor of education and psychology at Stanford University.

           

Embrace random events. Get out of your shell and think of the world as yours. Be on the look-out for opportunities but not like those dugo-dugo conmen.

           

Remember: “You are a child of the universe,” as it is written in Desiderata. You are “no less than the trees and the stars – you have the right to be here.”

           

Avoid envy. Envy is tantamount to greed and conjures images of crocodiles carrying sacks marked $. It is akin to gluttony which is one of the seven deadliest sins according St. Thomas Aquinas. The kindest and most diplomatic word to describe envious people is pathetic.

           

Although you can take you cake and eat it too – it’s called “enjoying the fruits of your labor” – you have no class if you gobble up the whole pie.

           

Develop people skills. You don’t have to be a customer service representative to learn how to get along with people. But be not a courtier either. Take the advise of Pops Fernandez and Joey Albert in the Louie Ocampo song: “We play the games of different folks with different strokes and keep our points of view.”

           

Be a Connector: “Most connectors are lucky because they interact with large groups of powerful people who, in turn, share information and contacts just to stay in the loop,” wrote Malcolm Gladwell in The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make A Big Difference. “Sociability, energy and openness breed luck.”

           

Look for the silver lining. Lucky people always see the bright side of every situation. They can discern the blessings in disguise. The only way to fully realize how lucky you are is to be conscious of the good things in your life that seems to be denied to other people.

           

Never forget the Jewish proverb about the fellow who had the blues because he had no shoes – then he saw, on the street, a man with no feet.

           

Lucky you!

Photo courtesy of PinoyShowbiss