What would you do if you hit the jackpot?!

What would be the first thing you would buy?

Where would you travel to?

Would you move to a different place?

These are just some of the questions we all like to ask and talk about. It can be fun to think of what if, but what if you stopped playing the lottery?

Your ideas and plans can be so elaborate when thinking about what you could do with a $100,000,000+. After thinking of those ideas and where you could be at, you come back down to Earth and realize you are still at your same job in your same life you have been in. For some, this can be in a terrible place, a comfortable place, or even a place your are perfectly happy with.

Here is another ‘What if’ scenario…

What if instead of playing the lottery (sometimes shelling out $100 for tickets), you held your head high and got to work on your dreams?

What if you invested your money and time into learning more about what you need to do to take that next step in your life?

Playing the lottery is looking for the big break. It’s looking to lose 50 pounds with a diet pill instead of learning about the basics of weight/fat loss. The excitement is there for a brief period of time. This lottery ticket can change my situation. This diet pill can change my situation. Then comes the realization that your situation didn’t change after seeing NONE of your numbers hit. Then comes the realization that you spent $85 on a bottle of diet pills that only made you feel nauseous and dizzy after taking the first ‘serving’. The realization settles in and you are back to square one, upset and defeated…UNTIL you buy another ticket or a new diet product! It’s like a drug. You keep coming back for another hit because of the temporary ‘big break’ thoughts. You continue to repeat this process because you do not want to do the work that it takes to become the better version of yourself.

We are in the age of ‘Instant’. Things are there for us at the click of a button. Instant is flashy and what people gravitate towards.

Here is what isn’t flashy. Showing up each day and doing the little things that make you better. Being consistent is on the opposite spectrum of flashy.

“There is a natural progression to everything in life: plant, cultivate, harvest.” – The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson

There are tons of people out there enjoying their harvest. They had the patience, persistence, and consistency to plant, cultivate, and then harvest from their work. It was progressive, not instant.

Let’s take a quick second to look at the word cultivate.

“Culture was originally a word for the tilling and tending of the land. Later, people made an analogy and suggested that you could cultivate yourself. So culture also came to mean the things that you could see, listen to, read, learn, try, and practice in order to make yourself better and to live a fuller life”. – Eric Greitens, Resilience. 

Everyone wants to plant a seed and then expect to get the harvest without first cultivating. This is the process one must go through to become a better version of themselves to better their lives.

What might that process look like for you? I don’t know, but you have to get to work on what you want out of life.

How long will it take you? That is up to you, but you have to start today. Find joy in the process and learning lessons along the way.

Stop playing the lottery and start investing in yourself.

It can start with reading a new book.

It can start with reaching out to someone who is doing what you want to be doing.

Just know that it is all in your hands and that you can achieve what you truly desire.

Plant a goal. Cultivate Yourself. Enjoy your harvest. Repeat until you’ve ‘hit the jackpot’.