Why Do Lucky People Have Good Luck? [Part 1] — How Perception Gradually Changes the World

日本語 | English

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Hello everyone. This is Akira.

“Lucky people” and “unlucky people.”

We often categorize people this way in our daily lives.

But what exactly is “luck” in the first place?

Is it simply an accumulation of coincidences?

Or is there something inside us that quietly determines the nature of our luck?

If it is the latter, we may be able to reframe “luck” not as something given from the outside, but as something we gradually shape through our own way of being.

The philosopher Immanuel Kant stated that we do not see the world as it is, but construct it through the framework of our own perception.

This idea seems to be concretely shown in modern brain science as the mechanism called RAS (Reticular Activating System).

Our brains are bombarded with enormous amounts of information every second.

Since we cannot process all of it, the brain has a mechanism like a filter that “lets through only the information that is important to us right now.”

This is the RAS.

The moment you start thinking “I want a new pair of shoes,” suddenly the feet of people walking down the street catch your eye.

This is not because the world has changed, but because our internal interest has changed the direction of the brain’s filter.

Here, let’s pause for a moment and think.

What happens if our inner world is filled with anxiety, dissatisfaction, and self-denial?

The brain’s filter may prioritize picking up negative information.

As a result, even small pieces of good fortune or tiny opportunities right in front of us may pass by unnoticed.

On the other hand, what about people who feel “I am lucky”?

They do not have any special abilities.

They simply look at the world a little more positively, or with curiosity.

I cannot help but think that this attitude keeps the brain’s filter in a state where it is easier to notice opportunities.

What is important here is not simply “positive thinking is important.”

Rather, it is a more fundamental issue: the way we “perceive” the world itself greatly influences the nature of our luck.

The experiments of British psychologist Dr. Richard Wiseman also suggest this.

People who felt “I am unlucky” were so tense and had narrowed their field of vision while concentrating on the task that they missed a large message right in front of them.

On the other hand, people who felt “I am lucky” were relaxed and looking around, so they were able to notice the message.

Here is something I would like to pause and think about.

In a survey conducted by President Mook on 2,003 people, those who answered “I am lucky” tended to have a higher percentage of “going to pray when in trouble” and also gave larger amounts in offerings and donations.

On the other hand, among those who felt “unlucky,” about 20% answered “0 yen” for offerings and donations.

This does not simply represent differences in behavior such as “whether they go to pray” or “whether they make offerings.”

Rather, people who feel “I am lucky” tend to express gratitude toward invisible things and others in concrete forms, rather than relying solely on their own power.

When even a small amount of blank space is created in the heart, we may begin to see our relationships with others in a slightly different light.

And that blank space seems to quietly influence how we interpret and face unavoidable misfortunes and troubles in life.

In the first half, we saw that the nature of luck is deeply connected to “our way of perceiving things.”

In the second half, I would like to dig a little deeper into what kind of attitude lucky people have in their relationships with others, and how they interpret misfortune.

Please look forward to it!

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Akira

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