Editor’s Note: This is a guest post from Jeff Goins of Goins Writer.
“We waste so many days waiting for the weekend. So many nights wanting morning. Our lust for future comfort is the biggest thief of life.” —Joshua Glenn Clark
There is this popular idea in our world today that the best thing to happen to you would be to win the lottery. Then, you could spend the remainder of your days on a beach somewhere, sipping cocktails and living the “good life.” But nothing could be further from the truth.
According to most studies, when you win the lottery, you are actually more prone to bankruptcy. One report said that 70% of lottery winners actually end up going broke in the first seven years. In fact, it seems the more money you win, the more likely you are to lose it all. So from a financial standpoint, winning the lottery just might be the worst thing to happen to you. But let’s not stop there.
We’ve all read the statistics about how getting rich doesn’t make you happy, but for some reason we need to find out for ourselves. Maybe winning the lottery for you, though, doesn’t look like buying a Powerball ticket. Maybe it means earning “passive income” or finding your dream job. At times we are all tempted to seek an escape.
When we envision the life we want, many of us treat work as the enemy, as an obligation to endure instead an adventure to embrace.
But what if the life you wanted was actually right in front of you?
After quitting my job and making the transition to become a full-time writer, I thought I had it made. Finally escaping the monotony of a day job, I could relax and enjoy life. But what I discovered was now that I didn’t have any reason to work, my sense of purpose disappeared. I became more confused than ever.
Around that time, I talked to my friend Stu who told me how he was able to find meaning in his work even while punching a clock for a paycheck. He told me about a trip he took to Africa where he saw how education could make a difference in the lives of people who weren’t born with the same opportunities he had. With his wife, Stu started a nonprofit to help build schools in rural Kenya. And when he returned from his trip, he went back to work with a renewed sense of purpose.
On a fundamental level, we all want to feel like what we do is a part of something bigger than us. And the truth is that can happen in any context, if you have the right mindset. What brought me out of my funk was not more leisure, but the realization that I needed to work. We all do. But it’s not just the work that fulfills us. It’s the way we work.
Acclaimed psychologist Viktor Frankl addresses this in his book, Man’s Search for Meaning. At a time when much of psychology said human motivation was about seeking pleasure, Frankl argued that what we really want is meaning. And the way we find it is not by numbing ourselves with substances or stuff but by doing something that matters.
For Frankl, this belief in the importance of meaning held tremendous personal significance. It is what had kept him alive while imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps during WWII. It was the book he was writing and the hope of seeing his wife that allowed him to endure.
When I quit my day job to chase my dream, I realized my life was not just about me. It couldn’t be. And if I went to work only for myself or in hopes of one day retiring so I could live the good life, then the work I did today would have no purpose. And honestly, I tried that. It didn’t work.
To paraphrase Frankl, we don’t want to be just happy. We want a reason to be happy.
The worst thing you could do with your life is waste it, believing the only reason you exist is to seek pleasure. (tweet that)
We all have a purpose, a task for which we were designed, and the goal of your life is to find it—not somewhere out there, but hidden in the life you’re already living.
And if you can embrace that truth, you’ve already won the lottery.
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Jeff Goins is a writer who lives just outside of Nashville with his wife, son, and border collie. His book, The Art of Work, is all about finding your calling in work and life.
me says
You say that because : Hello! You don’t know what it is to be poor!! You can afford everything you want, so yes who cares about the lottery? But trust me, it would be an answer for a lot of poor people in this world! And even if you are already rich and win the lottery, you can help people helping people like Bill Gates for example? And helping people is a great achievement in life! I really don’t agree with this article.
Malika
Jamie says
I really want to be on board with this and, yes, if your post-lottery winning goal is to lie on a beach all day, of course it won’t buy you happiness. However, I’m sort of amazed by some of the comments here. I have an open mind about quite a bit, but I refuse to believe I would be foolish enough to go bankrupt after winning millions. That’s just sad. I get why some of you don’t play– because (to me) you’ve already won the lottery. You have a real job, maybe even own a house, and have enough spare change to pursue a hobby. For some of us, winning the lottery is literally the only way out of debt. Some of us can never afford a college education. So many doors will always be closed for us. We live paycheck to paycheck, barely feeding ourselves. I only play once in a great while and when I do, it’s just a couple of tickets. Not playing will not suddenly make my humble back account swell with green. If I won, I could stop worrying about getting sick and not being able to support myself, or I could even afford to live without roommates, or get an education and have an actual career! OF COURSE, WINNING THE LOTTERY IS THE ANSWER!
Adam says
I think I’d like to win the lottery to have instant financial independence (but that defeats the journey) but I would also make others happy and financially help members of my family who have once had to help me. I had been thinking about ‘winning the lottery’ a lot recently and I found, if I see a nice car (that I clearly couldn’t afford) and then imagine I won enough to buy that car… I probably wouldn’t even want that car anymore. It helps me realise that for me, it doesn’t boil down to how much money I have, it’s how I’m making the money; I’m increasingly more aware now that a career change is on the horizon.
Kush Sharma says
Seeking pleasure just satisfies the bodily needs, but not the soul. But I also feel that people who purposely post point their pleasures are also on the wrong path, since in many situations, fulfilling your desires is the only way to achieve desirelessness, which in turn makes it easier to focus on things that make the soul happy. So I feel one has to find the right balance between purpose and pleasure to move towards the bigger goal of bliss.
Liz Smith says
This is brilliant Jeff! I can recall the blank stare of family and friends, when I expressed zero desire to win a lottery for the very reasons you mention here. I’m here, I’m blessed, I’ve already won.
I believe it is connection that brings meaning to our lives. Our ability to connect to something bigger, beyond our immediate needs and use our unique gifts in the service of others, underpins the meaningful life we all seek.
Meaningful service will look different to each of us and there is value to be had in every job, chore, task, career and volunteer role that keeps you connected to the greater good in life.
Toni - Reclaiming Your Future says
Last year, in the pursuit of my dreams, I lost everything else because I lost something far more precious than money; my health. Long story short, I continued to chase those dreams when my health began to improve and today I am living my dreams however temporary they might be. I don’t have much money; just enough for the occasional meal out with friends or treat but I live at the beach, have a job I like and get to write in my spare time. I call that a huge win without much financial backup :)
Yuvrajsinh says
When I Live in a Moment,
I’m Happy to see the sky,
I’m Happy to see the puppies,
I’m Happy to be alive,
I’m Happy to breathe freely,
I’m Happy to read this post :)
We just need contentment in our life, to be happy.
Not a lottery. Thanks Jeff. Amazing !
Kate says
This is thought provoking. At 29, my husband and I have been on a minimalism journey for almost 2 years. We’ve felt tremendous benefit from freeing up time and resources, ultimately leading a more intentional life. Naturally, through minimalism, we have surfaced things that are important to us (spending time with friends and family, experiencing nature, knowledge, health, etc.), so we are exploring ways spend more time on those things. One of the levers we have is to add flexibility to our lives through some level of financial independence. Equating “hoping to win the lottery” with constructing a life where you have a channel of passive income feels unfair. Having a passive income can allow someone to take care of an ailing parent, be home when their child gets home from school or even spend time in Kenya setting up a stable education system.
I really do appreciate the posts that discuss work and how to frame our thinking about how / where we spend most of our waking hours. Thinking of our work as something meaningful as opposed to something we need to unload remains one our primary hurdles. It would be very freeing to believe that the work I do actually has meaning that I truly care about, but right now the meaning is tied up in the paycheck and what the paycheck allows me to do.
Bill B. says
i enjoyed the article and agree with the spirit of not pursuing false/worldly goals, or anything else for that matter. The problem I have is that while signing up for the free book I divulged more personal information than I felt I should, I found myself following a path of complexity in registration and confirmation that is antithetical to my vision of simplification. I felt like I was engaging the DMV to register a new car. Not a good feeling BTW.
Owen says
Great article Jeff and thank you Joshua for bringing this to your readers! We really do need to look in the mirror and appreciate the life we have. Right Now!
Sure, winning a lottery would provide some financial support but if you’re living in the first world and are in way over your head in debt, chances are you are surrounded by all the things that “consume you” or have made some bad decisions in the past and need to learn from those and move on.
I agree with the other commenters, in that until you re-assess your life, your job, your priorities, you really cannot understand your real “meaning” – only YOU can determine what your meaning is!
Thank you for this reminder as I prepare for my day ahead.