There are a lot of newer books by Richard Wiseman that I could have read instead of this one. I found this one clear, and with references for those wanting to delve deeper into an assertion. The basic premise is not a new one - we get about what we expect out of life. Something I found interesting is that unlucky people put a bad spin on their misfortunes, whereas "lucky" people put a positive spin on theirs.

The book is filled with exercises; some to be done once, and some to be done over the coming days and weeks.

I found it delightful to read and have started practicing the positive thinking (and persistence) that the book recommends. I feel "lucky" already.

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According to The Luck Factor, if you want to improve your luck, you should:
1. Maximize Your Chances
2. Listen to Your Instincts
3. Expect to Be Lucky
4. Look on the Bright Side

Maximizing your chances is one of the top pieces of advice for winning sweepstakes. Enter as often as you can, into as many sweepstakes as you can, and sooner or later you'll win. That advice also applies to everyday life. Dr. Wiseman recommends talking with people that you meet on the street and keeping up with old acquaintances as ways to create a network of luck - people who can support you and let you know about new opportunities.

Lucky hunches are something that everyone has had, but lucky people tend to rely on them more. Your intuition is the result of subtle clues that your subconscious has put together. When it comes to entering sweepstakes, you might have the feeling that you'll win a contest because your subconscious is telling you that you have a great entry just waiting to win.

Expecting to be lucky keeps you motivated to enter sweepstakes. If you're constantly telling yourself that you'll never win, why bother to enter? This is true in other aspects of life, too, like job interviews or dates.

Looking on the bright side helps you feel lucky no matter what. Maybe you didn't win that trip, but you'll win a bigger prize while you would have been gone. If you tripped on the steps this morning, at least you didn't break your ankle. When you're not blaming all of the bad things that happen to you on luck, you're more likely to find ways to improve what you're doing. For example, maybe your lack of wins recently isn't because you're unlucky, but because you haven't been entering enough sweeps.

The above notes from: http://contests.about.com/od/reviewsrecomendations/fr/theluckfactor.htm (a goodreads reviewer 2008)
http://contests.about.com/bio/Sandra-Grauschopf-27105.htm

Exercise 1: Luck Profile Page xviii
(Where 1 no effect to 7 a great deal of effect on my life).

Exercise 2: Your Luck Journal
I feel that luck as had 5. (Where 1 no effect to 7 a great deal of effect on my life).
How I met my partner:
How I came to know my best friend:
A major event that had a positive effect on your life: Do you want to change your answer?

"Interestingly, there was a very strong tendency for people who said that they had been lucky in one area of their lives to induce that they had also been lucky in several others." (p. 11)

Four main differences between lucky and unlucky people
"1. Lucky people constantly encounter chance opportunities. They accidentally meet people who have a very beneficial effect on their lives and come across interesting opportunities in newspapers and magazines. ...
2. Lucky people make good decisions without knowing why. They just seem to know when a business decision is sound or someone shouldn't be trusted. ...
3. Luck people's dreams, ambitions, and goals have an uncanny knack of coming true. ...
4. Lucky people have an ability to turn their bad luck into good fortune. ..." (p. 19)

Your Luck Journal Exercise 3 (p. 21)
Lucky: 4 Somewhat
Unlucky: 1 Not at all

Exercise 4: Life Satisfaction and Luck (p. 23-24)
How satisfied am I with the following:
My life in general
My family life
My personal life
My financial situation
My health
My career
"Lucky people are far more satisfied with all areas of their lives than unlucky and neutral people." (p. 24)

Section 2: The four principles of luck
Chapter: Maximize your Chance Opportunities

"Many other lucky people also reported how they consistently experienced good luck by simply connecting with the people they met on a daily basis." (p. 36)
"Psychologists have noticed that certain people seem able to draw other people towards them. These social magnets often find that whenever they go to parties or attend meetings, strangers initiate conversations with them. When they walk along the street, people frequently ask them for directions or the correct time." For some strange reason, other people just seem drawn to them. And, perhaps not surprisingly, far more extroverts than introverts are social magnets." (p. 37)

"Lucky people are effective at building secure and long lasting attachments with the people they meet. The are easy to get to know, and most people like them. They tend to be trusting and form close friendships with others. As a result, they often keep in touch with a much larger number of friends and colleagues than unlucky people. And time and time again, this network of friends helps promote opportunity in their lives." (p. 38)
Subprinciple 1: Lucky people build and maintain a strong "network of luck." (p. 34)
Subprinciple 2: Lucky people have a relaxed attitude toward life (p 41)

Exercise 5: What chance opportunities have you missed in your life? (p. 48) (Missed chances)

Subprinciple 3: Lucky people are open to new experiences in their lives. ... People who obtain a high score on this dimension like to have a great deal of variety and novelty in their lives. They love trying new experiences, new (kinds) of food and new ways of doing things. They don't tend to be bound by convention and the like the notion of unpredictability. People who obtain a low score on openness tend to be much more conventional. They tend to like to do things the way they have been done in the past. They like the idea of tomorrow being broadly similar to yesterday and today. And they don't enjoy big surprises." (p. 50)
"As shone in the following graph, lucky people have much higher openness scores on the personality test than unlucky people." (p. 50)

Exercise 6: Your Luck Profile Principle 1: 13 (High scores 13-15) (p. 55)

Principle one: Maximize Your Chance Opportunities (p. 56)
Increase the Luck in Your Life
1. Build and maintain a strong "network of luck."

Chapter 4: Principle Two: Listen to your lucky hunches (p. 63)

Exercise 7: The Role of Intuition in Your Life
"Times when I was glad I followed my Intuition"
"Times when I failed to follow my Intuition and regretted it"

Suhprinciple 2: Lucky people take step to boost their intuition (p. 79)
- Meditation
- Return to the problem later
- Clearing the mind
- Finding a quiet place

Exercise 8: Your Luck Profile: Principle 2

Suggested Exercises: Affirm Your Luck (p. 123)
Start each day by repeating the following affirmations to yourself out loud:
"I am a lucky person and today is going to be another lucky day."
" I know that I can be even luckier in the future."
"I deserve good luck and will receive some good fortune today."

short-term goals (1 month)

Medium-term goals (6 months)

Long-term goals (1 year or more)

Now produce three lists... include personal and professional. Be specific. Make them achievable with realistic deadlines.

Suggested exercise: Carry out a Cost-Benefit Analysis
First write down your goal in your luck journal. Then draw a vertical line down the center of the page and write the heading "Benefit" at the top of one column and "Costs" at the otp of the other.
Now imagine how ...When most people complete this exercise they realize that the benefits far outweigh the costs and find themselves thinking that it is time for action.
( )

If you want to know the different between lucky people and unlucky people in a scientific, survey backing way, this book is for you.

No bullshit. No woo woo theory. No lie about universe care about you as the universe really doesn't give a flying fuck if you live or die.

This book analyze the main different between lucky and unlucky persons. How they think, how their expectation that guide their behavior to bring good fortune for themselves.

I'm on the chapter that unlucky people rarely learned from their past mistakes. Also, unlucky people are more superstitious than lucky people. That make a whole of sense.

The part on approaching problem. Lucky people will stay on long to try longer because they expect to be successful eventually. Also, they approach problem in a more creative manner that make them think outside of the box, while unlucky people tend to give up too easily.

The best bit is how the book might help you. He updated the materials and added the part that he set up a luck schools and asked unlucky persons to participate and see if it could increase their luck. A few weeks later, the unlucky persons reported back that the program made them luckier. The success rate is around 80%. Also, the program spin off to help lucky persons become even luckier. So there is a big chance that it could help anyone who is unlucky in love, in finance, in work, in life to improve their luck.

That's really helpful. Highly recommended it.

Good luck. ( )

I'm thinking the sub-heading should have been "...Or, Duh." It's not so much about luck as keeping a positive outlook. It reminded me rather a lot of "The Power of Positive Thinking" by Norman Vincent Peale. I suppose if one were utterly un-self-aware, this might shine some light, but it mostly irked me. He never even addresses that the REAL luck in one's life is into what world one is born. Being born a middle class white person in America is a far luckier stroke than being born low-caste in Pakistan. Most of what he calls "luck" is actually "making good choices." And, like most self-help books, it was about 20 pages of idea stretched out to book. Meh. ( )

Most people think luck is just random, but the premise of this book is that there are actually behaviors that can increase your luck. He didn't just come up with this on his own--he actually conducted experiments and studies that are detailed in the book. From this he has developed four principles of luck and he explains how they create luck and how the reader can develop these qualities in his or her own life. The principles make a lot of sense when you look at them, and the true life stories really show how people's attitudes, thought patterns, and behavior can affect their luck. Give it a read, you just might be on your way to experiencing more luck in your own life! ( )

This is the third Richard Wiseman book I've read this year, and I think I'm upto date with all his published work! But as popular psychology it's really enjoyable to read, and you feel like you are learning something as well.

The basic premise of the book is that everyone can be lucky - it's just a state of mind. Wiseman presents scientific studies to support his ideas about how we can be lucky.

He puts forward the idea that there are four principles to luck -

1. Maximise your chance opportunities
2. Listen to your lucky hunches
3. Expect good fortune
4. Turn your bad luck into good

Each one is explained with examples, and then in the next part of the book he gives practical ways of increasing your luck, in fact throughout the book you are encouraged to take part in tests and tasks.

I've always considered myself to be lucky, but I truly do think that some of the ideas in this book will help me increase my luck.

In fact it's already had an affect. Whilst sitting on a train to Manchester reading about 'maximising your chance opportunities' I looked up and noticed that the woman sat opposite me was familiar. More than familiar I realised that although I didn't know her personally I did know that she was an archaeology lecturer at a local university. Within minutes we were talking, and was telling her about my photography business, before we parted when I got off the train she asked me to email details of my website and she would forward them to all the staff in the department - result!!

The other main idea from the book that will stay with me is the notion of 'turning bad luck into good'. This is about perception, believing that what at first appears to be bad luck will probably turn out to be good luck. In my case this is things like being made redundant (both times have actually ended up being the best thing that ever happened!) and my parents dying so young and so close together (obviously terrible, but also had some very positive outcomes for me).

As with Richard Wiseman's other books I would certainly recommend this one - as you can see, I'm becoming a bit of a fan of his!

Bought on Green Metropolis
10th - 24th December 2009