What is 'lucky girl' syndrome and does it actually work?

This time last year, social media was flooded with videos of young women confidently proclaiming how lucky they are; that everything always goes their way. As we enter 2024, the 'Lucky girl syndrome' trend has re-emerged once more – as to be expected with the time of year most commonly associated with planning, goal-setting and resolution-making. The concept behind the craze is that if you repeatedly tell the universe how fortunate you are, you will eventually start to be fortunate – to manifest that luck – and be rewarded with that promotion, proposal or pay rise, depending on what you're wishing for.

But for every video you have of someone excitedly sharing 'evidence' that it works, you have one criticising the movement, claiming that it's nothing more than toxic positivity. So what exactly is lucky girl syndrome, and does it work?

"Depending on who you ask, it’s either an empowering practice that can see you fulfil your dreams by repeating daily affirmations such as 'Everything works out well for me'," explains executive career coach Lisa Quinn, "or, it’s a non-inclusive, toxic social media trend of rich, white girls not checking their own privilege."

Related Story

According to Quinn, the popularity of the 'lucky girl' concept lies mainly in its simplicity. "Repeating something like 'Things are always working out for me' is quick and simple to do," she explains. "It’s very powerful to feel like you are in charge of your own destiny."

Below, Quinn explains the concept behind the craze, and the positives and negatives of buying into it, while also suggesting an alternative self-development strategy to try.

The benefits of having a 'lucky girl' outlook

"Lucky girl syndrome is essentially manifesting that is focused on luck. Our brains are naturally weighted towards negativity – that’s how we’re wired, and it’s been that way since the dawn of time. Our brains haven’t evolved that much, so anything that challenges that negativity bias can actually be really helpful.

"The New York Times best-selling author and motivational speaker Mel Robbins has a great metaphor that I think is useful. She says our mindset is like a pair of sunglasses; it’s how we see the world. And how we see the world is going to have a big impact on how we behave and therefore the actions we take."

Getty Images

The negatives

"Lucky girl syndrome ignores the fact that life is not fair. And it ignores that some people are more privileged than others. It doesn’t take into account the systemic and structural biases and inequalities that exist in the world.

"It also doesn’t allow for negative emotions or feelings — which are part of life. Trying to ignore negative feelings isn’t very self-compassionate, and while it might seem to work in the short term, those feelings are going to come back to bite us in the long term. Lucky girl syndrome has a lot in common with toxic positivity. If you try it, and it doesn’t work for you, it could become yet another stick to beat yourself with. If you already feel vulnerable or wobbly, this could well be something else that makes you feel bad about yourself.

"There’s a lot of evidence to show that positive thinking on its own has its limits. Taking on a positive mindset can help you take actions to improve your life, but it’s not going to pay your mortgage or get you a promotion on its own. Bad things happen to good people. And not everyone has the same access to resources or opportunities."

Related Story

Try the WOOP strategy

"Where I would point people instead, is an approach that has 20 years of scientific study behind it. It’s called WOOP – which stands for Wish, Outcome, Obstacle and Plan. It's a strategy that you can use to fulfil your wishes, but it also takes into account the things that can get in the way of our dreams. It’s the brainchild of German academic Gabriele Oettingen. She studied positive thinking and found that we get much better results if we anticipate what might go wrong. The WOOP approach encourages you to dream big — to think hard about what you want, and what the outcome of that would be, but also to think about what might get in the way, and then plan accordingly. A lot of my clients find it really useful. You can find out more about it here."

Does lucky girl syndrome work?

"Clearly thousands of women on social media think it is working for them, and they know themselves better than I do. I'm not going to tell anyone to stop practising it if they feel like it's working. But, I also think it has some downsides, and until someone does a robust scientific study on it, we won't know one way or the other..."

For more from Lisa, visit lisaquinncoaching.co.uk

Related Story

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7qa3RqZyrq5KWx6Kt0WeaqKVfqrhwrsSarK2xX6K2r7CMm6adsV%2BWgXOBmGltcm1focKkt9hmnqKqnGLAurrDq6amnV8%3D