Often the solution is asking the right question. I have a vague idea where this will go, but I am winging it.
If I won Lotto (I mean tens of millions, it has to be truly liberating…), I would:
- Make sure family and close friends were looked after
- Buy a farm, and a dream home in St Kilda
- Travel more, obvs.
- Quit work, obvs.
- Hire a personal stylist (so, so needed)
- Hire a personal assistant (I am so disorganised)
- Get an electric car for the city, Range Rover for the farm, and a stealth camper 🙂
- Work more on the book
- Use money to push my political agendas, like that dickhead Clive Palmer
- Work really hard on solving homelessness
- Go to the gym more, a lot more
- Eat out more, and more healthily
- Invest in some exciting startups
The above was easy. The next step is further questions. Often it takes 5 questions to discover the truth.
For example, describe your dream home in St Kilda:
Well, it wouldn’t be a posh apartment (I’d sooner buy an orphanage in Asia for the same money). I want room for plenty of people, walking distance to St Kilda, a backyard and a garage. It doesn’t need to be fancy – function over form.
Here’s the killer question, and reason for this post – which of the above could you choose to do without winning Lotto?
The reasoning is that people make excuses that aren’t the real barrier, like “I can’t afford it”, or “I don’t have the time”. This can get in the way of what is truly important.
I can, actually, have my dream St Kilda home. I can’t afford to own it, but I could find a property that has the garden, space, garage etc if I rented and had a flatmate or two (or, of course, get a long-term girlfriend). It is something I could say dammit, I want this, and achieve it.
I could travel more. Wrong time for that discussion 🙁
Personal stylist is a cop-out, I could simply apply myself more, care more. Money isn’t the issue. Same for the gym. Same for being organised, I could, perhaps, choose to be more so. No great amount of money needed.
The book, which I have devoted the rest of my life to… well, I could quit work, live in some rural hovel on the dole, and put my everything into it. I am tempted!
So ask yourself the simple two step questions – what would you change if you won Lotto, and is there any way you could achieve that without a lot of money.