I get a few emails each week from players down on their luck. Some aren't winning. Others have problems with money and family.

And I read them and empathize... because I had all those problems too, a long time ago. You're not alone.

Over the years I've written a lot about changing your luck. So here are some practical examples of how you can improve your good fortune and turn your luck around...

#1. Do More, More Often

If there was only one method to increase your good luck, this would be the one. Here's why. When I first started my Silver Lotto System, I played 10 tickets a game. I got terrific results and wins in every game.

Then I found as I increased the number of tickets, the number of winnings increased also. You can apply this principle to anything you want:

• Don't apply for 10 jobs, apply for 100.

• Don't ask 5 people for a date, ask 50.

• Give 100 Xmas lottery tickets this year to your family.

• Instead of giving one big present, give lots of smaller ones to different people.

You can also play your lottery game more often. Here are some good reasons to multiply your play rate:

• In Ireland, for the second time in eight years, a group of 33 in a syndicate won £400,000. They more than doubled their winnings to £1m. Each member won £30,303.

• A woman who won $1 million playing a Pennsylvania Lottery in 2008 won another million on the same game in June.

• A Pennsylvania man won four times. He collected over $2.5 million in the late 1980s and '90s.

• In Australia, a 70-year-old grandfather who had already won $1 million in Lotto was one of three winners sharing the game’s First Division prize of $500,000.

• In my country (New Zealand), a couple celebrated the end of an extraordinary year in 2005, having won two major lottery prizes.

All these players kept on playing after they had won. It wasn't a coincidence that got them further prizes - it was repetition.

They played regularly and repeatedly. This was the result... more wins, more often.

#2. Persist And Stick With It

PERSISTENCE is the single most important trait anyone can develop - in any part of life.

Whether it's:

• Continuing a marriage through thick and thin (richer and poorer),

• Keeping up certain standards for your kids,

• Achieving at your workplace when things get tough,

• Helping the community around you to build a better life,

... all these things require persistence over a long period of time to develop fully.

Some years ago a very successful software developer dropped out of the internet race. He had been criticized personally on a forum for a view he took, and he decided that it wasn't worth continuing to take the verbal abuse.

Now I believe he still does business but at a very much lower level.

His lack of persistence stopped him from pushing through the pain barrier and tough periods that we all go through at times. He could have reached amazing success.

And it's the same with the lottery. The most frequent winners are those who PERSIST through all the losing periods.

#3. Get Positive

Everything you have, everything you look at, everything you remember...has memories for you. Good, neutral or bad. This step is simple: get rid of all the BAD memories. These will hold you back and stop you from concentrating on the good times ahead.

• Pull out the kitchen drawers and throw away copies of bills you paid late, ALL bills you've paid, photos of people you dislike, wrong colored dishes, plates and cups that are chipped, old photos of how strange you looked back in the 60's :) and failed projects.

• Get rid of your losing lottery tickets. Rip them up, and throw them away - after you've had them checked by your lottery store, of course.

• And clutter. Clean it up. Clutter is a visual reminder of how messy your mind is right now. Clean it up and your mind will be freer too.

Then replace your bad-luck past with success stories... reminders of happy places you've been, and photos of people who you admire or have helped you.

Many successful people have framed photos of their first sales check, trophies in a cabinet... it's all part of reinforcing positive character traits that help them through the tough times. 

Whether your own success trophy is a car, a watch, a framed check, pictures of happy grandchildren, or your first record deal - make sure you have something around that reminds you of how great you really are.

Inside the cover of his hardcover book "How To Be Rich," multi-millionaire Felix Dennis shows many checks he wrote to the Inland Revenue, some for millions of pounds.

I bet every time he sees those it reinforces how good he is at paying his bills.

Surround yourself with the things and memories that bring you happiness, and your good luck will soar.

So there are the three pivotal points for success in the lottery and life:

1. Do More, More Often

2. Persist And Stick With It

3. Get Positive