Dr. Richard Wiseman:

It takes only a month, he says, and most people report their luck increases by an average of 40 percent.

A few keys to success:

Prepare your mind. Don't leave chance encounters entirely to chance, says Colleen Seifert. Instead, try doing a little predictive encoding and get your mind ready for good things to happen. "Chance favors the prepared mind," Seifert says, quoting Louis Pasteur. If you lay the groundwork, then when something happens by chance, your memory goes right to work and "you notice it for free."

Give chance a chance. If you always pick apples in the same part of an orchard, Wiseman notes, you'll eventually run out of fruit. The same applies to luck. Pursue an active life -- get out there and do things -- and you'll increase the likelihood of good things happening.

Go apple picking -- or grocery shopping, for that matter -- somewhere new. Eat your lunch on a different park bench. You never know who will be sitting next to you.

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