Sally's Law

Have you ever overslept, sprinted frantically to the bus stop certain you were doomed to be late, only to watch your bus pull up right as you stepped on the curb? To make it even better, every single traffic light turns green, and you end up arriving earlier than usual.

There are days when a near-disaster takes a miraculous turn, blossoming into unexpected good luck. You grab an umbrella on a hunch and a sudden downpour hits that afternoon, or you walk into a packed restaurant just as the last table frees up. We call this chain of favorable coincidences Sally's Law.

The phrase is widely believed to come from the 1989 romantic comedy *When Harry Met Sally...*, where the female lead, Sally, reaches a happy ending despite many ups and downs. While rarely used in English-speaking countries, the term became especially popular in South Korea as the optimistic antonym to Murphy's Law, describing a delightful streak of good fortune.

To be fair, the universe isn't actually orchestrating special perks just for you. Statistically speaking, consecutive good events usually fall well within the bounds of pure chance. Fortune does not pick favorites.

So why does it feel like certain days are truly blessed? The secret lies in how our brains process memory. When buses run on schedule or lights turn green during a routine commute, it feels so normal that our brain quickly forgets it.

In contrast, escaping a crisis just in the nick of time triggers profound relief and joy, leaving the event vividly imprinted in our memory. By selectively recalling these dramatic wins, we fall into the pleasant illusion that the world has aligned in our favor.

Is Sally's Law merely an optical illusion of the brain? Research by psychologist Richard Wiseman showed that people who consider themselves lucky tend to notice chance opportunities and act on them more readily. However, because this research relied on self-reported luck from volunteers and was primarily popularized in general-audience books, it cannot be applied universally to everyone.

People who believe that 'things will work out in the end' remain calm and observant even in a crunch. Because their vision stays broad rather than narrowed by panic, they are much faster to spot unexpected opportunities that others might overlook.

In short, Sally's Law is largely the product of coincidence and selective memory. Nevertheless, a positive and prepared mindset truly helps you recognize opportunities when good fortune comes knocking.