With a Little Luck
Juan Carlos Fresnadillo had an intriguing premise: Luck could be transferred.
"Intacto", the film based from his premise, had different people from different walks of life who were part of the so-called luck trade. Good luck would go to the luckiest, even have it taken from the ones who were the least lucky. It was no surprise, then, that the leaders of this pack were a young man who was a plane crash survivor, a policewoman who was able to walk able away from a car crash, and an old Jew who made it through the Holocaust. They gambled and risked everything, where only one would remain intact in the end. If this flick wasn't visually arresting, moviegoers might not pay to see this. But there was something about this premise, which sounded too fantastic. Reality was no different.
Recent events revealed that all of us wanted to be lucky. Million Dollar Bracket Challenge. Mega Millions. Even "American Hustle", David O. Russell's saga of post-Nixon America, featured characters trying to stretch their luck, even at the expense of unsuspecting clients. So how can you be THE lucky one? Richard Wiseman, psychologist and professor at the University of Hertfordshire, had the answers.
Four hundred men and women responded to his research, called The Psychology of Luck, on the impact on people's lives of chance opportunities, lucky breaks, and being in the right place at the right time. He interviewed these volunteers through the years, asking them to complete diaries, questionnaires and intelligence tests, and invited them to participate in experiments. His results were:
1. Unlucky people often failed to follow their intuition when making a choice, whereas lucky people tend to respect hunches. The lucky ones were interested in how they both think and feel about the various options, rather than simply looking at the rational side of the situation;
2. Unlucky people tend to take the same route to and from work and talk to the same types of people at parties. In contrast, many lucky people tried to introduce variety into their lives; and
3. Lucky people tend to see the positive side of their ill fortune. They imagined how things could have been worse.
His conclusion was it was possible to become luckier. It would be a matter of thinking, be perceptive to one's instincts. There's another case, which many people believe, without questioning. New Year's superstition.
Most, if not all, of us wish the new year will be better. Before the clock strikes twelve midnight, which marks the first of January, we bang our pots and pans. We also spend the time alone, making a promise to follow our resolutions, which lead to a better life. It can happen, if one will not forget it after a month or two. The whole thing is reminiscent of "Northwest Passage", the shortest route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. Kenneth Roberts's novel is a metaphor for people eager to find the shortcut for happiness or achieving their dreams in an instant. But the explorers would attest to the treacherous route of the Arctic Ocean, connecting the Atlantic and the Pacific. It was no different from improving luck.
