How lucky are you?

Are you lucky? Do you want to be more lucky? Here’s how….

Let me start by saying I’m not a superstitious person.

I don’t believe in rabbits feet or four leaf clovers bringing good luck nor do I believe walking under ladders or across the paths of black cats bringing bad luck.

If you see a black cat walk in front of you, the only thing it means is that there is a black cat trying to get somewhere, if you have a rabbit’s foot just remember that it wasn’t very lucky for the rabbit!

Having said that some people appear to be much more lucky than others – I bet you know someone who is always winning competitions or raffles, always gets a good hand at poker or just has cool stuff happen to them.

So what sets them apart?

There have been several studies on this and the findings all seem to point to one thing…

Take a chance.

People who appear to be lucky tend to be more social and are open to opportunity. They tend to be more optimistic people who believe that good things will happen, so they take a chance. The more chances you take, the more likely you are that some of them will pay off.

Then a little psychology tends to kick in. Have you noticed that when people remember the past they have a tendency to see it through rose tinted glasses? Summers were always hotter and longer, Christmases were always better, people were nicer and had more respect….Well that’s what we do with opportunities – we remember the one’s that paid off and forget those that didn’t turn into anything.

So imagine a friend that takes a chance every day. Maybe one in 10 of those will pay off – so that’s about 3 good things that happen a month. Now think of a friend who only takes one opportunity a month – they may only have one good thing happen all year. It’s about the same ratio of good to bad but one friend will seem a lot luckier, particularly if they only tell you about the good things that happen.

So, if you want to be lucky say yes to every opportunity that comes your way – who knows where it could lead.

Today I saw an email asking for people to be extras in a zombie movie – I sent them an email and I’m going to be filming at the end of the month!  How cool is that!

What can you say yes to today?

Maybe you might want to follow this blog on wordpress, facebook or twitter – You might find something that interests you and then, who knows where it could lead?

90 day challenge

91 Days ago I set myself a little challenge.

I had started my blog almost a year before and had had posted once or twice a month. I had a few followers – Thank You – but to be honest it was going nowhere fast.

Part of the reason I started the blog was to increase the presence of my Website on the net (it was appearing at about page 9 on Google, or in other words, it was invisible), but the main reason was to share thought and ideas that came up through my Hypnotherapy Practice in Coventry, UK.

When I first started I found it easy to think of things to write about, but after a few weeks I started to struggle with subjects. I created a little plan of posts that I would write and when I sat down to make it I quickly realised that picking topics that I could write about for a week, or every Monday, made it much easier to do. I also found that I would think of things to write about, but when I sat down to blog, I forgot all of the plans I had made and would sit there scratching my head, so I started jotting the ideas down as I had them. Some of these turned out to be my favourite posts.

A lot of inspiration came from other bloggers. Following other people with similar feelings and thoughts gave me a great jump off point for my posts, and by linking to them I found a few new followers and occasionally got a reblog from them which gave me a much bigger audience.

Part of the fun is getting likes, comments, reblogs and followers. It’s great. I really enjoy getting that sort of feedback. It’s like getting a gold star from teacher every day – what’s not to love?

Most of the fun is sharing. I love knowing that I have made someone smile, or given them a bit of help that can make a difference to them. With sharing, with helping, comes personal gains. One of my original goals was to increase the profile of my website – it’s now on page 2 of Google – there’s still work to do, but it’s doing a lot better than it was, but more importantly than that, I feel that what I write is valued and that’s awesome.

When I was struggling to think of things to write, when I was feeling like it was hard work to post and on days when I didn’t really feel like sitting down and writing anything, I thought that the day my 90 days was up I would have a break. Well, as I said at the start, this is day 91, and here I am, writing away.

I have created a habit which I now really enjoy.

So I just wanted to take this opportunity to say Thank You to the 500+ people who have decided to follow this little blog in the last 90 days and to let you know how much I value your likes, blogs, follows and comments.