What would you do if you won the lottery?

In life there are two types of people, optimists and pessimists, we at CBTHBN like to think of ourselves as optimists, in fact we’d go as far as saying we’ve been dealt a good hand in the lottery of life. We each have ten fingers and ten toes, we lead happy, fulfilling and meaningful lives; and yes we play the lottery. Whether it’s a lucky dip or fixed numbers ingrained to our memories, each week as we roll the dice and keep our fingers crossed for the jackpot, we ask ourselves the same question… what would you do if you won the lottery?

The ultimate question, most people answer with materialistic goals, wishing for celebrity lifestyles, fast cars and jet planes or designer clothes. But at CBTHBN we can’t help but feel this wouldn’t be a happy, fulfilling or meaningful use for our theoretical cash prize. To put this week’s Euromillions jackpot into context… you could either use your winnings to buy the penthouse suite of Foster + Partners newly built UN Plaza in New York city. Or alternatively, you could choose to pay off Somalia’s third world debt to the UK and still have change, both are valued to the tune of £50,000,000.

Ultimately winning the lottery leads to two options, donating to a greater cause, or using the money for personal gains. We aren’t condemning either option; what we are asking is that you value this money for it’s potential. All too easily as a society we fritter cash away on lattes and Netflix memberships. How could that money be spent wisely. How could it benefit you, your community, your future — could you use it towards something bigger and more rewarding?

Our knee jerk reaction to the initial question was to book a one way plane ticket to the trip of a lifetime, we’d travel simply, learn along the way and give back to the communities we visited. Yet when you review the situation from a different perspective our knee jerk reaction suddenly seems to be much more viable. So viable in fact we find ourselves faced with a new question…

Why are we waiting to win the lottery?

As Dan Gilbert so eloquently puts it…

“economists…refer to the lottery as a stupidity tax”

At CBTHBN disagree with those economists, we dare to dream. We sign our names up to all the workplace syndicates and scratch card parties we can. We’ll be the first to hold our hands up and admit to having massive FOMO if all our friends won a stake in this hypothetical jackpot and we’d missed out. So despite the odds we continue to play each week, the fault in our game is simple. We have no goal. We fruitlessly plough money into a game without knowledge of what we would do with the winnings. So this week at CBTHBN we challenge you to think, to write a list of the things you’d like to do and the places you’d like to see. Next up pick one of the locations and research it’s costs. You might, like we were be surprised to find the trips / achievements of our dreams are closer to our price budgets than we previously imagined. Granted, a Virgin Galactic holiday might really require you to win the lottery, but generally speaking most of our dreams are achievable with the right mindset and attitude.

“The word ‘Lottery’ is defined as a means of raising money by selling numbered tickets and giving prizes to the holders of numbers drawn at random.”

So why do we wait on a random draw to seal the fate of our lifelong dreams? What if you never win and all you have to show for your dreams is a draw full of pink tickets. It’s time to even the playing field for your hopes and dreams. There is an embedded understanding amongst us that winning the lottery solves all life’s problems, brings unequivocal happiness and perfect health. Reality however, will tell you a different story, ask yourself what about your life can only be changed by money, and would these changes truly make you happy? You and only you own the keys to the story of your life.

“If Lottery winners knew in advance how little winnings would improve their subjective well being, they wouldn’t be buying lottery tickets” — Paradox of Choice, Barry Schwartz

Granted there is a thrill in the power of what if — the initial rush when you exchange your £2 coin for that pink sheet or hold your penny poised, ready to scratch away until your future is unrecognisable. But what would that rush feel like if you had a 100% chance of those stray ideas coming to fruition? The Paradox of Choice states:

“Subjective experience on a daily basis between a lottery winner and a person involved in a car accident surprisingly rate their happiness time after their experiences fairly similar on a scale of 1–5. Obviously at the time of the experience their ratings would have been a lot further apart, but it shows that we adapt over time whether it is positive or negative.”

So here’s how to avoid that sinking ‘maybe next week’ feeling… refer to the list we asked you to make earlier, a bucket list as such — rate this list on a scale of how long you need and how much it might cost. We aren’t suggesting you quit your weekly lucky dip, your job or become a recluse; but that you review your life plan and factor in your jackpot bucket list. Find a way to make them reality. Don’t wait on the perceived happiness winning the lottery brings to take control of your future. Instead we challenge you to do as Kate Moross suggests and…