No Thanks, I Don’t Want The Lottery Prize
I Already Picked The Right Numbers
What would you do if you won the lottery today?
Treat yourself to a brand new luxury convertible? Buy designer clothes and a shiny Rolex? Would you retire and travel the world?
Seriously, what would you do?
Maybe, like most people, you’d answer:
“I’d donate 20 percent to charity”
“I am going to use it as an investment”
“I would get my kids the best education money can buy”
“I’ll pay my debts”
Well, good for you. You are a noble person.
Now here is another important question, yet rather a difficult one:
If you won the lottery today, would you accept the prize?
Money ≠ Freedom
In reality, you would be a fool not to accept the lottery prize, right?
I mean, who would be stupid enough to turn down millions of dollars?
Well, me. I am the stupid one.
The truth is, ask someone to imagine what it’s going to be like to win the lottery and they’d immediately start smiling. When I was asked about this years ago, my eyes shone as I started imagining how amazing it would be.
A dream come true.
And that’s all it really is. Just a dream.
“Everything is possible!”
“Hey, you never know!”
Lottery agencies worldwide spend millions on advertising and these are just some of the slogans they use.
They show fashionable clothing items, big houses and sunny beach resorts to make the dream seem real. To show us what happiness looks like.
But the problem doesn’t lie with billboard ads nor with the low chances of actually winning the lottery.
We are the problem. We dream that dream.
We believe that money buys happiness, and that money buys freedom.
Our world is built around one false equation. An equation almost everyone follow, day and night.
Money = Freedom. Or to be more precise: A lot of money = Freedom.
And it makes me wonder, what is freedom anyway?
the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants.
Money cannot buy me or you the power to act, speak or think as we wish.
In fact, it might actually take that away. I mean, if you are a billionaire you should act, speak and think like one — right?
You should live in a big mansion and communicate only with other billionaires. You probably should own at least a dozen golf clubs and have your own winery.
Freedom has nothing to do with money. Freedom = a choice.
Once we manage to live by this equation, lottery will banish from the world.
I won the lottery and I am (still) miserable
As explained in the video above, winning the lottery makes people happier in the first few months after winning. But shortly after, their level of happiness drops back, right to where it was before the win. In fact, it is equal to the level of happiness of those who did not win the prize.
Meaning, if you were miserable before you won the lottery, then you are going to stay miserable even after you win. Money won’t change it.
There are some terrible stories about lottery winners and how their lives were ruined by winning the big prize. Some winners were even brutally murdered.
But mostly, lottery winners claim they feel lonely, with friends and family members asking them for money and investments.
If you have a gambling tendency then winning the lottery is not going to change any of that.
But what if you were a happy, balanced person before you won the lottery?
Well, there are two options. You might change — become more materialistic and spend irrationally. Or you might not let it affect who you are, and keep on doing what makes you happy. In which case — why would you even want to ‘win’ in the first place?
Is winning the lottery going to change my life?
I do not buy lottery tickets. It is not because of the unreal 1/14,000,000 chances of winning, it’s because I do not want to win.
For years I have had this desire, like most of you reading this, to miraculously have a bag full of money drop down from the sky. I thought it would “fix” my life. But the truth is, I was and still am a happy person. My life is already “fixed”. I am pursuing my passions, I’m surrounded by people I love and I feel healthy and grateful. I already picked the right numbers.
So I started thinking — is winning $10 million dollars actually going to affect my life?
And I figured it would mostly confuse me. It’d probably force me to change the way I think and the way I behave. Funnily enough, I believe it will make me worry about money more than I do today. It would take most of my freedom away.
Look, I am not saying there isn’t something comforting with your mortgage being paid for. It is great. But that’s exactly the point.
For most of us, we survived when we were born. Our financial future is secured. One way or another, it isn’t that hard to find ways to pay the bills.
But if we never draw the line of what is enough for us then we are going to keep consuming more and be in need of more money. These are the rules of the game and we are all playing. Keeping up with the Joneses.
The truth is — you know you can work to pay your bills but you don’t want to. You prefer to win the lottery. Why? Not because you are lazy but because you are unhappy. Ask yourself this — if I send you a bank wire transfer of $2,000,000 today — would you go to work tomorrow?
If your immediate answer is “Hell, no!” then that is the core issue. Winning the lottery will not bring you the ultimate pleasure you are after, but finding a meaning to your time, will.
How can we get out of this endless cycle?
1. Finding and defining our own ‘enough’.
How much money do you actually need in your life? Which items do you really need? There are no upgrades and downgrades. There is only what’s right for you and what isn’t.
2. Find out what gives you meaning.
No one really wants to drink margaritas all day long in the Bahamas. This Hollywood-like image is materialistic and has nothing to do with your inner world. What would you like to do with your time?
Whatever that answer might be — get started right now.
You don’t actually need to win the lottery to do what you really want. In fact, it might be easier without winning all that money.
Follow your heart. That is, after all, the biggest prize you can ever win.
Hey there! Thanks for reading. If you enjoyed it, please clap👏 and respond💬. Follow me here:
Read more:
This story is published in The Startup, Medium’s largest entrepreneurship publication followed by 329,974+ people.
Subscribe to receive our top stories here.
