Make 2001 your lucky year.

Want to land a promotion or a totally "10" boyfriend? Forget crossing-your-fingers hocuspocus. We explain how you hold the key to creating your dream destiny.

* So you're hoping this is going to be your year? The time when you get those big breaks you've been dreaming of? Well, we're 100 percent behind you. But here's a little-known secret: Good fortune isn't a matter of being born under the right star; it's about taking action to ensure you're in the right place at the right time, with the right people. "All you need to do to luck out is create opportunities and take smart risks that will pan out in the long run," says Marc Myers, author of How to Make Luck: 7 Secrets Lucky People Use to Succeed (Renaissance Books, 1999). Think about the creme-de-la-creme things you've been lusting for. A new job? A head-spinning romance? Some wild, unpredictable adventure? Then get off your butt, bid sayonara to your underdog past, and prepare to put more muscle into your get-lucky mission. Here, we have the hot tips to hitting the jackpot-and landing a very cushy lot in life.

HOT TIP 1

kick-start your karma

To be a luck magnet, you have to create the kind of kismet (yeah, sounds kind of New Agey Madonna-ish, but you'll see why it works) that attracts good fortune. And the key to whipping up that guardian-angel aura is doing favors for people without angling for something back. People who help others pro bono are a rarity in this rat-race world, points out Myers. So anyone who feeds the cats for their jet-setting neighbor or hooks up a pal with a new job not only stands out from the crowd but shoots right to the top of the beneficiary's VIP list. A month from now, that person you went out on a limb for may have an old set of skis she'd like to pass on--just in time for your trip to Vermont.

Besides the favor factor, trusting in this sort of cosmic payback is also a powerful force on your conscience and your conduct. Remember the Sex and the City episode when Carrie was mugged, then fell down the stairs--and traced it back to bad karma from her affair with Mr. Big? Well, there was some truth to her suspicion. Wrong someone, and the guilt can make you subliminally seek to sabotage yourself as punishment. But make someone else's day, and the flip-flop is true. That feel-good high can be the push you need to solicit a lucky break. Meg [*], 29, knows what we're talking about, "Once, at a bar, I handed a woman a $50 bill she'd dropped," she recounts. "I felt so proud of myself that I started flirting with the bartender I'd been eyeing for a month. I told him about my Good Samaritan act, playfully mentioning 'With that money, I could have drank here for free all evening.' Not only did he keep refilling my wine glass gratis, but he also asked me out--finally."

Instant-winner tip: Sweeten your standing at the office by putting a dish of candy on your desk. You'll appear generous in others' eyes, and your confection corner will draw a host of coworkers with hot gossip that will keep you in the know.