Have you ever been on a hot streak at work? You're not imagining it, and you're not alone. Researchers have discovered that career hot streaks do indeed happen, and looking at them reveals a few universal patterns.

For the study "Hot streaks in artistic, cultural and scientific careers," published by Nature in July, a team of researchers examined the work of almost 30,000 scientists, artists and film directors to find streaks, or a "specific period during which an individual's performance is substantially better than his or her typical performance." High-impact work was determined by looking at output such as a scientist's most-cited papers, auction prices for artwork and IMDB.com movie ratings.

Read more at CNBC.