成功靠運氣嗎?他們憑什麼成爲最幸運的人

We tend to think of a bout of good fortune as a random act of kindness from the universe. Certainly that is sometimes true: Serendipity or (depending on your belief system) random chance can be the reason you narrowly miss an airport closure or get the last cab in a rainstorm.

我們一般都認爲好運氣是造化的偶然。當然，某種程度上的確是。幸運或者是（取決於你的信仰）偶然也許可以解釋你爲什麼差一點就碰上機場關閉或者在暴雨中打到了最後一輛出租車。

But many of the life events we consider "lucky" are not so random at all. Instead, they are directly related to the actions we take and the worldview we embrace. After all, even winning the lottery requires buying a ticket. As businessman Bob Miglani wrote:

但生活中我們以爲“幸運”的許多事情並非那麼偶然。相反，它與我們的行爲和信奉的世界觀直接相關。畢竟，中彩票也得先買票啊。正如商界人士鮑勃•米格蘭尼（Bob Miglani）所言：

So many successful people I met -- from couples in blissful long-term relationships to successful career women to billionaires to profoundly happy people who have very little -- became "lucky" because they think differently and take certain actions.

我遇到過很多成功人士——從關係長期和睦的夫婦、成功的職業女性、億萬富翁、到家徒四壁卻十分幸福的人，他們之所以“幸運”，是因爲他們思維迥異，並且有所行動。

Indeed, research shows that people who consider themselves lucky behave differently than those who self-identify as unlucky. In a 10-year experiment, Dr. Richard Wiseman -- a psychology professor at the University of Hertfordshire and author of "The Luck Factor" -- examined the behavior of self-identified lucky and unlucky people who answered a newspaper advertisement. Not only was there a significant difference between the way lucky and unlucky people approached their lives, the unlucky people benefited from learning to approach life using behavior gleaned from lucky people. In other words, luck isn't a rote life-orientation, but a viewpoint that can change with some personal adjustment.

沒錯，研究表明，自認爲幸運的人與自認爲倒黴的人行爲上有區別。赫特福德大學的心理學教授、《運氣因素》一書的作者理查德•懷斯曼博士（Dr. Richard Wiseman）在一個歷時10年的實驗中研究了自認爲幸運和倒黴的人的行爲，他們都去應徵了報紙上的一則招聘廣告。自認幸運和倒黴的人不僅面對生活的方式有顯著差異，而且自認倒黴的人學着用幸運的人的行爲方式面對生活時受益無窮。換言之，幸運不是生搬硬套別人的生活方式，而是通過個人的調整改變自己的觀念。

Here are four ways we can all harness the power of so-called "lucky" people:

通過以下四種方式我們大家都可以利用所謂“幸運”者的力量：

Seize the day

只爭朝夕

"Time is relentlessly unkind," writes psychiatrist Mark Banschick in Psychology Today. Lucky people make the best use of time, they don't let opportunities pass them by with assurances that they'll start over tomorrow. They show up for networking events, even if they don't feel like it. They write the email now, not later.

“時間無情，”精神病學家馬克•班斯奇克（Mark Banschick）在《今日心理學》中寫道。幸運的人最充分地利用時間，不會因爲信誓旦旦地準備明天開始行動而錯失良機。他們涉足社交活動，即使並不喜歡。他們現在就寫電子郵件，而不是推到以後。

As Banschick writes, "An event that you turn down now is an event that will never -- ever -- happen again. There may be a similar opportunity in the future but it is not same opportunity -- and you are not the same person. Time changes us."

正如班斯奇克所寫的那樣，“事情現在不做就永遠、永遠不可能再做。未來可能會有類似機會，但不是這個機會——而你也不再是同樣的自己。時間會改變我們。”

Consider yourself lucky

自認幸運

People who think of themselves as lucky approach situations with greater optimism and openness. And that, in turn, puts them in a better position to accept the twists and turns of life as happy accidents. As Wiseman wrote in Reader's Digest of the unlucky subjects who learned to behave like lucky ones: "80 percent were happier and more satisfied with their lives -- and luckier. One unlucky subject said that after adjusting her attitude -- expecting good fortune, not dwelling on the negative -- her bad luck had vanished."

自認幸運的人處理問題時更爲樂觀和開朗。從而使他們更善於把生活的曲折視爲愉快的意外。懷斯曼在《讀者文摘》中這樣描述那些學會了像幸運兒那樣行事的倒黴的傢伙：“80％的人更快樂了，對自己的生活更滿意了——也更幸運了。一名倒黴的被測人員說，她調整了態度——期待好運氣，不去想倒黴的事兒——於是她的黴運消失了。”

Don't confuse luck with randomness

運氣和偶然不可混爲一談

"People often use the term luck and randomness interchangeably," financial strategist Michael Mauboussin told Wired. "I like to think of randomness operating at a system level and luck at an individual level. If I gather 100 people and ask them to call coin tosses, randomness tells me that a handful may call five correctly in a row. If you happen to be one of those five, you’re lucky."

金融戰略家邁克爾•莫布森（Michael Mauboussin）告訴《有線》雜誌：“人們經常混淆使用運氣和偶然兩個詞。我喜歡把偶然看作系統層面的東西，而運氣則是在個體層面。如果我召集100個人來猜擲硬幣的結果，根據偶然性法則，會有少數幾個人連續五次都猜對。假如你碰巧是連續五次都猜對的人之一，那便是你的運氣。”

Because this is true, it is important not to think of an unfavorable random outcome as part of a meaningful pattern of unluckiness. Lucky people don't seem to notice the bad stuff that happens to them -- and certainly don't identify with it.

事實就是這樣，重要的是不要把一次不利的偶然結果當成黴運的意義模式的一部分。幸運的人似乎注意不到發生在他們身上不好的事情——當然就不會這麼認爲。

Pay close attention

集中注意力

As part of his research on the habits of lucky people, Wiseman found that people who considered themselves lucky were more perceptive than those who identified as unlucky. He wrote of one experiment:

懷斯曼關於幸運者習慣的部分研究發現，自認爲幸運的人比自認爲倒黴的人更敏銳。他描述了其中一次實驗：

I gave both lucky and unlucky people a newspaper, and asked them to look through it and tell me how many photographs were inside. On average, the unlucky people took about two minutes to count the photographs, whereas the lucky people took just seconds. Why? Because the second page of the newspaper contained the message: "Stop counting. There are 43 photographs in this newspaper." This message took up half of the page and was written in type that was more than 2in high. It was staring everyone straight in the face, but the unlucky people tended to miss it and the lucky people tended to spot it.

我給幸運和倒黴的人都發了一份報紙，要求他們瀏覽後告訴我裏面有多少張照片。平均而言，倒黴的人大約要花兩分鐘來數照片，而幸運的人不到一分鐘。爲什麼呢？因爲報紙的第二版有這樣一條信息：“別數了，這張報紙上有43張照片。”這條消息佔了半個版面，字體大於2英寸。消息是多麼醒目，但倒黴的人往往錯失，幸運的人往往能發現。

Why? As Wiseman explained, it was the triangulating factor of anxiety that accounted for the difference. So-called unlucky types tend to be more anxious, which in turn is associated with attention difficulty -- particularly when it comes to unexpected occurrences.

爲什麼呢？懷斯曼解釋說，這種差異的原因在於焦慮的間接影響。所謂的倒黴蛋往往更焦慮，而焦慮又和注意力難於集中相關——特別是涉及意外情況的時候。