“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time.
We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.
We are the change that we seek.”
The next time you find yourself in a place that sells lottery tickets, invest a dollar. A computer generated set of any six numbers will do, because none of the numbers need to be present in the next drawing for “this ticket” to be your winner.
This ticket, this simple piece of paper with six randomly generated numbers and a $1 price tag, is your guidepost to making this year better than the last. This ticket is a map to greater success and more consistent achievement.
If you have the courage to enter into an agreement in principle,
this ticket can get you to wherever you want to go.
This ticket has powerful potential, but is powerless unless purchased and prominently displayed with purpose. You can make this year better than the last and this ticket can be your most powerful ally.
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Once purchased, display the ticket in a place where you can see it daily along with these four basic principles of productive goal setting. Write them out by hand and display them with the ticket! (See Mine)
Number One: For any goal to be a productive goal, it must be clearly defined.
By nature, vague tasks are more often avoided than clearly defined actions. The mind’s first instinct is to avoid things that are confusing. The clearly defined goal represented by the ticket is: “Win the lottery”.
Whether your goal is personal, business related, self-directed or imposed by a higher authority, it must be clearly defined. This may seem overly obvious, but it is of utmost importance and all too often glossed over carelessly. The more clearly defined the goal, the more attainable it becomes.
Without clarity, it becomes impossible to determine if you are moving in the right direction. Without clarity, it becomes difficult to determine direction – period.
Side Note: When it comes to clarity, it is of great importance to word your directive as a positive action as opposed to negative. The mind does not comprehend negative thought. Even if you are trying to reprogram a bad habit into a positive behavior, the mind cannot envision the act of not doing something. Wording your actionable directive in negative tones makes compliance a much more difficult uphill struggle. We are wired for action as opposed to stop-action. See some insightful comments from Judy Dunn in the post, “In Search of Happy Endings” for additional details.
Number Two: For any goal to be achieved, there must be a plan of action that is simple to execute and easy to monitor.
Even building a bowl of cereal for breakfast involves easy-to-follow actions. In this case, the plan of action is: “Purchase a ticket”. Granted, there are a few other details involving the when and where; but the overall plan of action is simple and clearly defined. Without a ticket in hand, chances of accomplishing the goal established in step one are not diminished; they are eliminated.
You must put together a clearly defined game plan to have any hope of achieving your clearly defined goal. People who “fly by the seat of their pants” tend to fly in circles more often than not.
Everything we purchase that requires assembly on any level comes with step-by-step directions from the manufacturer. We need directions. We need a blueprint, a schematic, a simple written phrase that tells us when and how to insert Tab A into Slot B. That is why manufacturers include directions with their products.
We are built to think in progressive steps. Without progressive steps in place, we are left to wrestle with our own basic impulses; which leads to confusion, frustration and abandonment of the task.
“If you don’t tell someone what to do next,
there’s no telling what they might do.”
– Stacy Karacostas
Number Three: For any goal to have value, it must include a predetermined investment.
In the case of our lottery ticket, the investment is only $1; but don’t sleep on this aspect. The risk involved should never overshadow the anticipated reward of success. With any action, there is a “price to pay” for having taken that action.
Don’t be so driven to succeed that you fail to put preset boundaries in place. My mother used to use the phrase: “Don’t cut off your nose to spite your face.”
Taking time to count the cost of what will be required to fully reach our goal (Money, Time, and Priority) is an important part of the process. There are various parts and components involved.
Certain pieces to the puzzle have to be in place if our stated achievement is to be reached. Reflecting on the breakfast analogy; if we determine that there is no milk in the fridge, a bagel might be a better option.
You’ve no doubt heard the phrase, “Spend a dollar to make a dollar.” If that’s your current line of thinking, then you should put that dollar back in your pocket and search for a better return on your investment. If the cost of investment outweighs or equals the benefits of success, you are not making progress.
“If your output exceeds your income
then your upkeep will be your downfall.”
-Anonymous
Number Four: Success should lead naturally to another clearly defined goal.
What would you do if you won the lottery?
You know you’ve thought about it at least some and some people I know actually have a set of clearly thought out plans in place, which isn’t a bad idea if you play regularly. What would you do if your ticket, the one you bought to display with these four basic steps, actually matched the numbers on all six ping pong balls from the next drawing?
Does achieving your clearly defined goal from step number one include a natural progression to another clearly defined goal? It should! If it doesn’t, it’s too broad or too vague. You need to spend some more time breaking it down.
If you were constructing a Bookshelf, the next phase would involve books. If you had a BBQ Grill in mind, it might involve hotdogs, hamburgers or chicken eventually; but charcoal and a match have to come first.
This IS Your Life:
Some Assembly IS Required!
You’re writing your basic booklet of directions as to how to reach your stated goals for the days, weeks and months ahead. Inserting Tab A into Slot B is a starting point from which to build, not a finish line or cause to celebrate.
Construct your plans with the next logical step in mind. If you do, success won’t be a surprise. It will become an expected part of your day.
Oh, and if that lottery ticket does happen to have the right sequence of numbers, feel free to cash it in and buy another one to pin to the wall, but don’t stop setting goals!
Originally posted on January 2, 2011 Shared as a “New Year’s Day” flashback on January 1, 2012 Side Note: The same six numbers shown in the photo illustration of the official lottery ticket for January 1, 2011 were purchased for the lottery drawing held December 31, 2011. The last time this happened (drawings held on the first & last day of a year) was 2005.
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“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time.
We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”
- Barak Obama
