My weekly posting on Lifehack.org deals with the feelings some people have that they are dogged in life by bad luck.
Is this truly the cause of their misfortunes? I don’t think so.
Any “luck” has to be random, and the essence of randomness is that it doesn’t conform to any kind of pattern.
Here’s a brief extract from the article:
No one is habitually luckier or unluckier than anyone else. It may seem so, over the short term (Random events often come in groups, just as random numbers often lie close together for several instances€”which is why gamblers tend to see patterns where none exist). When you take a longer perspective, random chance is just . . . random. Yet those who feel that they are less lucky, typically pay far more attention to short-term instances of bad luck, convincing themselves of the correctness of their belief.
The best way to to improve your fortune is to decide that what happens is nearly always down to you, then focus on what works and what turns out well, not the bad stuff. Your €œfate€ depends on the choices that you make. When random events happen, as they always will, do you choose to try to turn them to your advantage . . . or just complain about them?
You can read the rest of the article here: Do you suffer from bad luck?
