To ask if you see yourself as lucky or unlucky?

[WeirdArchitecture]

I read something (sorry, can't remember where) about studies done on nuns, who, because they shared a similar lifestyle and diet, etc, were observed in terms of health, happiness and so on, and they found a correlation between those who had a positive mindset and a happier, longer life.

Could be they were seeking the answers they wanted but it made me think about how we perceive ourselves - so we feel lucky or unlucky? And does it have any actual effect on our lives.

There are a few things in my own life that cause me a fair bit of stress, and I wonder if my attitude towards them changed first then my outcomes would be different. Like would accepting something you dislike or fear actually assist you in overcoming it, rather than focusing on how much you hate or fear it?

I know that confidence and positivity are well known to boost potential, but I'm thinking here of whether we can affect our own luck depending how we think.
I remember seeing something on the tv back in the 90's where several people were interviewed and asked how they perceived their luck. It did seem that the 'lucky' ones did fare quite well in life.

I'm NOT including loss, disability, famine or anything like that here, just the type of stuff we can generally alter ourselves.

Do you consider yourself lucky or unlucky? And does it have an effect on your life?

Oooh I didn't expect this thread to get so many replies, I had to go out yesterday evening so didn't catch up!

Will read now.

Does anyone worry their luck is going to run out? If you're lucky with lots of small things do you worry your luck will run out for the big things? I've been worrying about that this week! I think I'm using my luck up.

No, I think that's just a kind of superstition, and I don't do superstition. There's no 'store' of luck. Things just happen - through a mixture of chance and consequence.

I'm very lucky in some ways. Dreadfully unlucky in others.
On balance, things could always be worse, most of the time. I try to focus on the positives.

Some great replies, thanks for contributing everyone.

Personally I have never settled on either, so must see my life as a mixed bag. I do have a feeling (and this is just me) that my thoughts affect how I feel, so my feelings affect outcomes. In some sense, perhaps our beliefs are the most crucial element of all - how we judge and see the world makes us who we are...

I don't particularly think 'hard work' brings luck or fortune, but as a pp said, creativity and openness does seem to drive us forward into positions that may benefit us. Many people work hard and fail, many are rewarded. So I believe it is not so much the work as the mind behind it!

I have also wondered about this in relation to poverty, but it is too much of a murky area with so many contributing factors.

It's also fascinating to read how many of you perceive luck so differently!
For instance, I am a renter, and at my age many people would feel unlucky not to own. However, I have never seen it that way and have lived in lovely houses with great landlords and tend to feel really lucky about that. My family and friends all own, but I was never tempted.

And when my lovely cat died at 18 yrs old I cried with utter joy at how wonderful a time we'd shared and thought we were incredibly lucky to have all of those long years!

So, some of us see different things as lucky or unlucky, I wonder how much of it is informed by society (what it tells us is good, bad, etc) or simply our own true perception.

I have a friend who's motto is "expect the worst, and hope for the best"

I couldn't live like that, it seems so very defeatist. That said, she's had some decent luck in her life!

My cousin is very superstitious, too (relating to someone who mentioned it up thread), and joins dots before things even happen so that she can say she'd known it would turn out bad. In her case, she does seem to have a lot of horrendous luck. She strongly identifies as unlucky, as if the universe is either conspiring to punish her or or else 'good things don't happen to her'.

"Does anyone worry their luck is going to run out? "

It is all about having a positive state of mind and attitude .Life is not always smooth ,simple ,full of happy moments. Bad and unfair stuff happens but the difference is how you deal with and move on from a setback. I believe that if you concentrate too much on the negatives you end up not noticing and appreciating the positives.

I think this video shares alot about being lucky and unlucky from a social equality perspective. But ultimately even those who are considered unlucky can win the race.

I don't know, the person in my life who I would immediately think of as being incredibly, overwhelmingly lucky and fortunate, is also the world's biggest whinger and complains constantly.

I think I’m lucky. Everyone always says I’m lucky. I win lots of things. But I also enter lots of things… because I believe I’m lucky. If I didn’t enter so many things, I wouldn’t win them.

Being lucky or unlucky is quite a self-fulfilling prophecy, I think.

I think I'm both.

I'm very lucky in that I have a wonderful husband and a beautiful son. I have steady work. I'm not rich but I'm not poor. I have a lovely dog and cat, and I have great friends and family. I don't take any of that for granted.

However I also have an abusive ex husband whose sole purpose in life is to make mine as miserable as possible. My health isn't great, and neither is my Ds's. I had a difficult childhood, my father died of alcoholism and I don't own a house.

I think that overall I'd say I'm lucky but I can also be unlucky. Its a real mix and I also believe that its like that for most people.

OP, I think you'd enjoy the work of Richard Wiseman, Professor of the Public Understanding of Psychology at the university of Hertfordshire. He's a very entertaining speaker if you ever get the chance. He ran a long study of people who self-identified as either particularly lucky or particularly unlucky. I won't spoil it for you, he's very google-able if you want to know more.

I feel lucky my children and healthy, have good friends and do well at a good school.
It makes me feel their future is more secure.
Money-wise everything goes wrong for is but I don’t see that as unlucky, I just accept it happens to a lot of people and it’s just the way things are

Neither tbh. Life just happens, I don't really believe in luck or unluck.

Luck / unluck (or rather than events / situations / circumstances that individuals perceive to be 'lucky' or 'unlucky') just happens, I don't want to rely on something so beyond my control to make me happy / unhappy.

I can be grateful though, that's a positive choice that is within my control.

I am objectively extremely unlucky - anything that can go wrong for me does go wrong. Everyone who knows me comments on it. Some things are minor, like ripping my tights on my way to an interview, and some are major like being abducted and raped by a stranger, my DF dying when I was a child, fertility problems, being disabled, etc. But I’m a very positive cheerful person and don’t give up just because I encounter setbacks, and I’ve achieved almost everything I’ve wanted in life.

I just have a very belt-and-braces approach to organising things because I assume that eg if I go on holiday the train will break down, the flight will be delayed, it will rain all week and the hotel will have double-booked my room. So I’ll have contingencies for everything. Plus I’m now financially secure enough that I can often throw money at smaller problems like those (obviously doesn’t help with infertility or rape). Which is obviously very lucky for me.

I have a friend who's motto is "expect the worst, and hope for the best"

I prefer "hope for the best, plan for the worst" which is a bit more proactive! Negative visualisation can be used in a positive way, so when the shit hits the fan (as it inevitably does some times) one is mentally prepared for it.

I regularly have moments when my children and husband are all messing around together when I wonder how I got to be so lucky. I feel overwhelmed with my beautiful family. But then sometimes that also makes me feel terrified to lose them or like my luck will run out one day and something bad will happen. I try not to think about it but I find since I’ve had more precious things in my life I’ve felt more scared to lose them

Lucky. I have a very outgoing personality & see the sunny side of things. I’ve never had any mental health issues, apart from circumstantial, which I’ve got through. Not that many bad things have happened to me, either...
I’ve never planned anything in my life & leave everything to chance. It’s worked for me, so far... I’d like to be more organized sometimes, but then I also know that leaving myself open to fate has got me where I am. I’m happy.

Holy shit I am supremely lucky!

I thank my lucky stars every single day and can’t quite believe it.

I am by nature a very positive person.

I have the sun shining as a representation of my luck which far outshines the dark clouds of shit times of which there have been lots.

All day long, lucky.

@ArabellaStrange

Very fucking unlucky but also I do things that fuck me in the arse later on. Self sabotuire extrodinaire...

Yes! Me too.

@HerRoyalNotness

Unlucky. I often feel that the universe made a box and said you there, that’s where you’ll stay and no matter how we try to get out of it we can’t. More dreams unrealised I suppose and feeling very stuck in life. Also financially, for example we’ll get a 4K tax return and think yahoo, we’ll put that in savings for a holiday. The following week the a/c will shit itself and the bill will be 4K. True story

Now you see, I would think how lucky to have had that windfall to cover the emergency!

@Sunshine1235

I regularly have moments when my children and husband are all messing around together when I wonder how I got to be so lucky. I feel overwhelmed with my beautiful family. But then sometimes that also makes me feel terrified to lose them or like my luck will run out one day and something bad will happen. I try not to think about it but I find since I’ve had more precious things in my life I’ve felt more scared to lose them

It’s a single edged sword, isn’t it?

I feel so so blessed that I have two beautiful, healthy and thriving children.

But then terrified that it might be snatched from me one day

“Double edged sword”

Very lucky... I lack the emotional baggage that would make it too difficult for me to have a positive outlook.

I have super low expectations, which helps. If you genuinely expect loads of mess then life's a delight when the mess didn't happen.

I'm a bitch because I'm very frustrated with people who are so trapped in chronic mourning for what they lost (things like great health, cheating partner, etc) that they struggle to enjoy opportunities to live now.

I consider that overall I have been lucky in my life. My husband thinks he has been unlucky. We have been married for 54 years. We have shared the same life, in the main. It’s a matter of perception.

When I tell people that I won the super-duper telly thats on the wall in our lounge I get "Oh you're so lucky I never win anything" But those people are always, the ones who never enter competitions, you really make your own luck whatever your background, its very much down to how you view the world, whether you focus onthe downs/drawbacks or the ups/ opportunities.