How to Win Life’s Lottery

by Melanie White

Why does the lottery work?  People believe they can get a whole lot for just a little.  Getting something for nothing, isn’t that the new American dream?   Hard work seems outdated.  After all, nobody wants to work for minimum wage, doing a thankless job for the rest of his/her life.

It seems that the harder you work, the less you get paid.  And the more fun your job, the more money you make.

Take, for example, young people who work in fast food restaurants.  These people work very hard.  They stand on their feet, deal with demanding customers and difficult working conditions, all for minimum wage

On the other hand, singers, actors, and sports figures all get paid enormous sums of money for doing something that looks more like fun than work.  The question is if they would still sing, act, and play ball even if they only got paid what the average American makes.  I think they would.

So what use is an education when even college graduates make pittance compared to these superstars who seem to be having fun and not really working at all?  No wonder many of today’s young people aren’t very motivated.  They can just turn on the television and see someone who is getting paid a great deal of money to have fun.  They think that if they are lucky enough that maybe one day they will be able to make the same kind of money doing something they love.

What they don’t see is that luck comes to those who have worked the hardest.  After all, didn’t these athletes, singers, and actors have to pay their dues somewhere along the line?  Didn’t they have to endure tough times and rejection before they eventually succeeded?  Most will tell you that this is so.  They will tell you the hours and even years they spent getting to where they are.

So why is it that so many of us are unwilling to invest that kind of time in ourselves and our dreams?  Probably for the same reason more people don’t exercise and eat healthy foods.  It takes some amount of sacrifice, giving up the easy life and struggling for something better for ourselves.

Any time the Olympics are held, it’s a reminder that being the best takes time.  All these athletes faithfully dedicate themselves to one purpose; they practice long hours and give up many other things to focus on their goal.

We watch them and admire them for that.  And don’t we somewhere deep down secretly believe that we can accomplish a similar feat if only we spend the same amount of time on our dream?

The saddest part of life is that many of us believe that our dreams ae unreachable, so we don’t even try to attain them.  And sometimes we just dream too small.  You can never be great if you don’t dream big.  You never will accomplish more than the goals you set for yourself.

You should never settle for anything less than all you want.  But you must decide exactly what that is and work hard to achieve it.  The payoff is guaranteed.  When you bet on yourself, you always hold the winning ticket.