I’m so unlucky! How many times have you said this to yourself lately? After trying your hardest to achieve your goals, something happens and success slips through your fingers. It’s something that has happened to all of us and will probably continue to happen. However, thinking that there is good luck and bad luck makes us assume the role of victims and, without a doubt, does not lead us to success.
It’s all a matter of locus of control
In Psychology, the term locus of control is used to indicate the way in which we understand life events, attributing them to our own actions and decisions or, on the contrary, to factors external to our will.
There is a locus of control internal , which are people who are convinced that they can control certain events in their lives, take responsibility for their successes and failures and are normally disciplined, confident in their abilities and have good self-esteem.
There is also a locus of control external , which refers to people who are convinced that the events in their life, both positive and negative, are due to factors beyond their control, such as fortune or fate. These people tend to have low self-esteem and a constant feeling of anxiety.
Bad luck is therefore just a decision, or rather, a set of decisions that, in one way or another, have brought us to the point where we are. It is true that there are disasters that we cannot foresee, but to be completely honest, catastrophes occur very rarely throughout life.
Needless to say, people who have achieved their goals in life are those who have a locus of control internal, who know what they want and who fight to achieve it, being aware that there will be obstacles but also that they will be able to overcome them and that these will serve to make them stronger.
In fact, a very curious experiment carried out at the University of Hertfordshire showed that “lucky” people are those who have a more constructive attitude, who are open to opportunities and who follow their intuition.
In the study, a group of people were asked to count the number of photographs that appeared in a newspaper. Curiously, the “lucky” people, with a locus of control internal, completed the task in a few seconds, while those who had a locus of control external and believed in bad luck, took more than 2 minutes. Why?
Simply because the first ones had seen that on the second page of the newspaper there was a large advertisement that said: “stop counting, the newspaper has 43 photographs.”
In a second experiment the test was repeated, only this time the ad read: “Stop counting, tell the experimenter you saw this ad and you will win $250.” Again, only a few people detected it, and always those in the group with a locus of control internal.
What does this experiment tell us?
That predisposition is an important factor when talking about good luck because if we are too tense and worried, opportunities will pass us by and we will not see them.
3 practical tips to fight bad luck
1. Control your thoughts. We cannot hope to successfully deal with the world if we are not first able to control our own thoughts. If you are a victim of your mind wandering incessantly, producing negative and defeatist ideas, you will not get very far. Remember that thoughts are little seeds in the garden of the mind. If you plant good seeds they will grow, but if you do not take care of the garden, weeds will overtake it. Therefore, whenever you catch yourself thinking in terms of good and bad luck, throw these ideas out and put in their place more positive ones that make you feel in control.
2. Take responsibility. We see public figures everywhere trying to evade their responsibilities, so it might seem that running away and denying our involvement is the smartest and most correct decision. However, taking control of our lives also means taking responsibility for the consequences of our actions and decisions. It is not about looking for someone to blame, but about knowing where we have made mistakes and determining what we have done well. Only in this way can we move forward because we feel more powerful, we feel that we can change what we do not like in order to live more fully.
3. Be persistent. Bad luck is just giving up too soon. Success often comes after many failures. There are times when everything goes wrong, it is as if the universe has hatched a plan against us. In those moments, take a deep breath and keep going. Remember that perseverance is the key to achieving the most important goals and, sooner or later, it will pay off.
As a final point, I remind you of an old aphorism that states: “fortune is blind but bad luck can see very well.”
Reference:
Wiseman, R. (2003) The Luck Factor. London: Arrow Books.
Leave a Reply