My Lucky Charm

Many toddlers have a special blanket, toy or stuffed animal they carry around to help them feel secure or to fall asleep.  The attachment to the toy or blanket may fade for the child with age, but the desire for an object or ritual that brings feelings of luck or comfort does not fade.  Many adults have special lucky charms, favorite shirts or ways of doing things that they feel bring them success.  Statistically speaking, lucky charms or rituals can bring a better outcome for a believer if the outcome is performance based.  For example, golfers, who were told that they were being given a ball which was lucky for previous players, were 35% more likely to make a golf putt than golfers given a ball which had been generically used by everyone.  But stock traders who felt they were lucky because of a lucky charm had a lower salary than other traders.

Before you try to find your lucky charm, maybe you need to focus on an optimistic belief system.  If you believe that you are trying your best and that things have a way of working out for the best, the same positive energy of a lucky charm is there.  The belief in the ultimate good can bring the same statistical success a lucky charm brings to individual performance based activities.  A strong and healthy outlook is really your luckiest charm.

Stay healthy & well,
Lisa