Let’s talk about the Serendipity Mindset

January 23, 2023

I’ve always considered myself lucky. But, it wasn’t until the TikTok algorithm started dropping videos about how luck is a mindset that I started looking into it in a little more detail.

Before you start reading this article, this video is an essential watch. Sure, I can see how luck is a mindset and I will detail that more below. But, it would be hugely remiss of me not to highlight that social inequality exists.

It takes a lot more determination to consider yourself lucky or get ahead in life when you’re already at a disadvantage. Not having to contribute to bills as a teenager, access to a decent education and parents who are still together; these all play a factor in social equality. The video explains it better than I can, but I’d like to highlight that I’d be in the middle/front of that field if I were running that race. That, in itself, is luck that I can’t control – luck I was born into.

Don’t get me wrong, I was far from a millionaire’s child growing up. My parents worked in working class jobs, but it’s not all about money. It’s about the stability and love you receive, too – of which I had an abundance.

There’s also luck you can control

Yes, your start in life inevitably affects your luck in the future, but it doesn’t dictate it.

Like everybody, I have suffered from difficulties and setbacks, but when I look back at my life, I still see myself as a lucky person to have what I have. Let’s dig into this mindset.

I was always the one who got the job offers as a teenager, I feel fairly confident that I can do anything I put my mind to and, aged 21, when I told my Dad I was starting my own business, he was (as somebody who believes work is for financial gain only) mortified.

At that age, my self-assurance comes from my upbringing. We’re told not to praise our children, but giving children confidence to *think* they can do anything is powerful.

As an adult, you have to cultivate that mindset for yourself in a world where people – be it co-workers, friends and relatives are very ready to tell you no.

To be lucky, you have to be optimistic

I am endlessly optimistic. And, when researching the Serendipity Mindset – as detailed in this Guardian article – it seemed that this was a key attribute of lucky people.

“Lucky people have positive expectations”. I go into anything I do assuming it will work out. I’ve never walked into a job interview thinking I wouldn’t get the job. Even if I felt nervous afterwards, I would still outwardly project optimism.

I would also like to add that blind optimism is not always helpful. Sometimes people need you to say “I’m sorry, that’s really rubbish”, but my brain is programmed to look for solutions to everything, for anecdotes to make things better. Another lesson I’ve realised as an adult is that sometimes you need to just be there, rather than make things better.

And I can hear you thinking, ok Caroline – thanks for the humble brag regarding the job interviews. But, the reality is that I don’t always get the job, the house, the client etc.. The interesting thing is, though, that when I don’t get the thing I’ve set out to do, I pivot immediately.

The art of the pivot

Life is never going to go to plan. That’s when it’s time to pivot.

When something goes wrong for me – and when it goes wrong for people who consider themselves lucky – they spot the good in the situation almost immediately.

“It’s making way for something better” is a common phrase used, and it also plays into my belief in fate. What is meant for you will find its way to you.

I don’t give myself a lot of time to think about negatives in my life before moving onto a positive. This is both good and bad. Unprocessed difficulty and trauma isn’t necessarily healthy, so I think if you are a similar person to me, it’s important to take a step back to process before jumping onto the next thing. This is something that I’ve consciously had to consider as an adult but that I certainly didn’t as a teenager.

The four pillars of lucky people

Ok, so we’ve examined optimism and pivoting as two key components of the Serendipity Mindset, but what else?

Richard Wiseman holds Britain’s only Professorship in the Public Understanding of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire. His research into luck is so interesting that I wanted to share it with you.

He embarked on a decade-long research project into how to develop techniques to boost your wellbeing and success and found that lucky people had four key attributes. The first two were – as we’ve discussed – expecting good fortune and turning bad luck into good luck.

About expecting good fortune, he said: “Lucky people are certain that the future is going to be full of good fortune. These expectations become self-fulfilling prophecies by helping lucky people persist in the face of failure, and shape their interactions with others in a positive way.”

His two other measurements of a lucky person were; listening to lucky hunches (i.e. your gut instinct) and maximising chance opportunities (i.e. accepting last minute work invitations, going to see a house you’re not sure of or attending a job interview of a job you think you won’t get).

Luck School

So far, everything I’ve said seems personality based. You might be thinking “well, this is great but I’m a glass half empty person. I struggle to listen to my gut and I’m not confident enough to believe in myself in situations like a job interview”.

This is where it gets interesting.

Up until this point in my research I thought that my luck was down to a mixture of upbringing, a positive outlook and a probably quite naive sense of optimism. It wasn’t until I read Richard Wiseman’s study on Luck School that I realised anybody can become a lucky person if they want to be.

He created a study which he referred to as Luck School where he taught participants – both people who deemed themselves as lucky and unlucky – different methods to develop the techniques of a lucky person. Most people involved in the study reported higher self-esteem, confidence and better health as result of making these simple life changes.

Oh, and these weren’t short-lived changes either. They lasted.

The luck school method suggested three key practices:

Keeping an open mind. Don’t shut yourself off to new opportunities and if a chance presents itself, take it even if you’re usually somebody who would find every excuse not to.
Look on the positive side. If you fall over and scrape your knee, focus on the fact that it wasn’t any worse rather than that your knee is hurting, for example.
Do something out of the ordinary. This method suggests that routine equals rut. Step outside of the boundaries you’ve created for yourself and you’ll likely feel a lot happier.

So, where does the Serendipity Mindset leave me?

I found all of this research super interesting. I know people who have great luck and also people who seem to have one thing after another impacting them.

Like I said at the beginning, upbringing and social inequality is always going to play a factor. I think ignoring that when you talk about the concept of luck is so short-sighted. I have been offered better opportunities in life because of the school I went to, equally, my friends who went to private schools have have been given better opportunities than me.

It’s much about how you view these opportunities, though.

Time and time again we’ve seen people from privileged backgrounds end up struggling with direction because having things handed to them hasn’t fully equipped them for life. Equally, the opposite is true.

I’d like to leave you with this, an excerpt from The Guardian’s article about the Serendipity Mindset:

“We wouldn’t have antibiotics if one of Alexander Fleming’s Petri dishes hadn’t accidentally become contaminated and grown a mould that led to the discovery of penicillin.

Another scientist might have cursed and thrown the “ruined” Petri dish in the bin, but Fleming’s curiosity, his “serendipity mindset”, meant it sparked one of the most important medical breakthroughs in history.”