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Dear Friends and Clients,

Do you know someone who seems to be just plain lucky? Who always gets the parking spot, gets the girl or gets the job? Don’t you wonder – how do they do it?

I feel pretty lucky myself, and I know that my career has been enhanced by lucky breaks. But there were ups and downs. Sometimes I was on a roll and at other times I certainly wasn’t.

What I have come to understand about luck in our work lives is that it’s not just a matter of chance. In this issue I’ll write about research that demonstrates what philosophers have told us: often you can make your own luck.

Also, after the main article, I’ll tell you briefly about opportunities to participate in retreats and workshops in Blue Ridge Virginia. They’re designed to give you an opportunity to refocus on your goals, sharpen your leadership skills and perhaps examine the balance in your life, while you’re enjoying a relaxed break in a beautiful natural setting.

Warmly, Bev

Get Lucky!
Take Steps to Create
Your Own Career Luck

September 6, 2005 * Number 22

Astonishingly successful Warren Buffett is just one of the many CEOs who has talked about the important role that luck has played in shaping his career. He told a reporter that one of the luckiest things that happened to him was being rejected by Harvard Business School. He went instead to Columbia University, where he found the mentor who helped him to launch his business career.

Psychological research suggests that your attitude and approach to life help to determine how lucky you are. Buffett, for example, didn’t falter when Harvard turned him down, but headed off to Columbia feeling open to the opportunities it offered.

We can’t all be as fortunate as Warren Buffett, but we can learn from the way that people like him perceive and take advantage of opportunities. It is possible to improve your luck and change the course or pace of your career. If you want to stimulate lucky breaks, consider these strategies:

Get out there. Lucky people have broad networks. Their many social contacts increase the likelihood of helpful encounters. The more people they connect with, the more opportunities they find and the luckier they get.
Smile. People who consider themselves to be lucky tend to smile about twice as much as those who describe themselves as unlucky. The lucky ones typically display “open,” relaxed body language and they make good eye contact with others.
See the bright side. Clouds do come into the lives of lucky people, but they can see the silver linings. They look for ways to find the lessons and opportunities in life’s challenges. Some cancer survivors, for example, speak of the “gift of cancer,” recognizing that overcoming a serious illness can lead to a life of greater fulfillment.
Take steps to avoid more bad luck. Lucky people don’t whine or give up when ill fortune does strike. They get over it and take constructive action to minimize similar problems in the future.
Play your hunches. Lucky people tend to trust their intuition.
Dream big. Unlucky people tend to indulge in self-fulfilling prophecies of failure and misfortune. But lucky people set out challenging goals for themselves, and they keep pushing toward those goals even after failures do occur.
Embrace synchronicity. Psychologist C. G. Jung used the term “synchronicity” to describe “meaningful coincidences,” where a series of seemingly accidental events may add up to a powerful opportunity. When synchronicity is flowing, you stumble across the precise information you need, you meet the very person who can help you, and doors open one after another. To encourage a state of synchronicity:

Be clear about what you want to achieve and state your intent openly.
Describe your desired “success” in terms that are broad enough to include benefits for others as well as yourself.
Recognize that the Universe is intelligent – whether you attribute that to God or physics.
Meditate or find other ways to tune into your inner voices and feel centered, relaxed and open to possibilities that may come along.
Choose a path that calls upon your special talents. And in seeking ways to use those talents ask “how can I help?”

Want to Read More About
Creating Your Own Luck?

Described below are books that may help you to attract good fortune. To order them from Amazon.com, click on their titles. For reviews of other helpful books, go to: ClearWays Books and Services. If you buy a book through these links it will contribute to the cost of distributing Bev’s Tips, and be much appreciated.

The Luck Factor,by Dr. Richard Wiseman, miramax books, 2003.

After years of studying the psychological differences between very lucky and very unlucky people, Wiseman concluded that luck is available to anyone who is willing to pay attention to four essential rules:

Create chance opportunities.
Think lucky, by listening to your hunches.
Feel lucky, by using affirmations, visualization and fighting negative commentary inside your own head.
Spot the opportunities that arise in the midst of bad luck.

The book offers strategies and exercises to help readers change their luck.

The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, by Deepak Chopra, Amber-Allen Publishing and New World Library, 1994.

Chopra is a physician and bestselling author who has published numerous books spanning medicine, physics and philosophy. Throughout his work he draws on principles shared by the world’s great religions and offers life strategies that reflect both ancient Eastern philosophy and cutting-edge Western science.

In Seven Spiritual Laws, Chopra distills principles discussed more fully in an earlier book, Creating Affluence. In his view, “’good luck’ is nothing but preparedness and opportunity coming together.” Chopra’s view of “success” and his definition of “affluence” capture the essence of a very lucky career.

"Affluence,” Chopra says, is when “our needs are easily met and our desires spontaneously fulfilled." He says that we can create affluence not through effort or struggle but through simply becoming aware of the intelligence that is everywhere. “It's an intelligence that can transform every moment of our existence and direct us to the work and abundance we are meant to have,” he says.

Seven Spiritual Laws is very brief and doesn’t go into the detail offered by most of Chopra’s other books. And the terminology may be unclear to those not familiar with Eastern thought. But the book is a nice introduction to Chopra’s spiritual approach to material success.

A note from Bev on retreats and workshops: In working with both individual clients and small groups, I’ve found that clarity seems easier to achieve if reflection and dialogue take place in a relaxed natural setting. Knowing that, I’m focusing increasingly on group sessions and individual retreats based at and around our farm in the beautiful Virginia Blue Ridge.

Working with area consultants, inns and a small day spa, I can create an enjoyable event that will help you or your team to set your goals, clarify your strategy, negotiate a transition or enhance your leadership skills. Please contact me if you want to talk about program options. Meanwhile let me mention two upcoming events:

4-day leadership program at Sacred Springs horse farm in Flint Hill, Virginia. Starting October 23, this retreat – where I will be a facilitator – is designed to help you explore critical leadership and other management issues.
Mid-career workshop for women. Several dates are under consideration for small retreats for women who want to restructure and bring new energy and focus to their professional lives.

Bev’s Tips for a Better Work Life is published on the first and third Tuesday of each month by Beverly E. Jones of ClearWays Consulting, LLC. Bev is a lawyer and former executive who now coaches accomplished CEO's, public afffairs executives, and other professionals to bring new direction, energy and enjoyment to their work lives.

All rights in all media reserved. However, the content of Bev’s Tips for a Better Work Life may be forwarded in full without special permission on the condition that (1) it is for non-profit use and (2) full attribution and copyright notice are given. For other uses please contact Bev Jones.

Our address is: 2925 43rd Street, NW, Washington, DC 20016.