Enough Already

Infinite riches in a little room.

—CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE

Just before Christmas, Rob Anderson went into a convenience store to purchase three $1 Powerball lottery tickets as stocking stuffers. The clerk misunderstood Anderson’s request and erroneously printed one $3 ticket. When Rob called the mistake to the clerk’s attention, the clerk offered to nullify the ticket. Rob decided to just go with what was happening, so he accepted the ticket and purchased the three stocking stuffers in addition. Anderson went home and tossed the “mistake” ticket on his nightstand.

The day after Christmas the winning numbers were announced, and Rob figured he would check the mistake ticket just in case. It was then that he realized the mistake was no mistake. He had just won nearly $129 million, the largest Powerball jackpot ever paid in the Kentucky lottery.

There’s a secret to good fortune, which, like many of the world’s best-kept secrets, remains hidden because it is so obvious. The secret to winning the lottery is simple: you’ve already won.

Now you might be tempted to argue that your bank account doesn’t quite reflect such wealth. Understood. Yet, like Nasrudin crawling beneath the lamppost searching for his key far from where he dropped it, you might be looking in the wrong place for your winnings. Look a little deeper and you might discover a cache of riches with your name already on it.

Psychologists have done numerous studies of lottery winners, with fascinating findings. Many lottery winners experience severely negative psychological results, including depression, alcoholism, and suicide. (Some states have support groups for lottery winners.) A friend of mine won $6 million in a state lottery, and she subsequently spent a great deal of time and energy fending off her ex-husband’s claim on the money, turning down loan requests from friends she hadn’t seen in many years, and hiring a bodyguard to safeguard her son from kidnapping. So winning the lottery is not necessarily a trip to heaven. It can mean a trip to hell.

Yet the study I find most interesting is this: Lottery winners who were happy before they won were happy after winning. Lottery winners who were unhappy before they won grew more unhappy afterward. So the secret to winning the lottery is to find abundance and well-being right where you stand. If you need the lottery money to make you happy, you’ve lost before you’ve begun. If winning the lottery is the next fun step on your expanding adventure of abundance, you win big-time.

Winning the lottery does not cause happiness. Only the choice to be happy causes happiness.

The Gold You Own

My coaching client Ben, a successful architect, has a son and daughter who are struggling in careers in art and acting. Ben was frustrated because his kids were not making ends meet or taking his advice to choose professional career tracks he believed would net them greater success and income.

“My kids are smart, healthy, and kind,” Ben told me. “We have always had a great relationship. They are honest, creative, and want to make a contribution to the world. When I told my son and daughter that I am planning to retire and may not be able to keep giving them stipends, they both volunteered to work harder, even get second jobs, to balance their accounts. My son is just a happy guy; nothing can get him down. My daughter is also very well adjusted.”

I stopped Ben right there. “Do you realize how successful you and your children are?” I asked him. “You have raised two fine young adults who are exploring highly creative careers and growing as they go. They are mature, respectful, and close with your family. You love them and they love you. They are among the best-functioning segment of the population. You, sir, already own the gold you seek.”

Tears welled up in Ben’s eyes. “I know you’re right,” he told me. “I’ve been overlooking the riches I already own. I couldn’t ask for better children. It’s not their happiness I need to address. It’s my own.”

Mistakes in Your Favor

When Rob Anderson told the convenience-store cashier he didn’t need to void the ticket he had printed “by mistake,” Rob became $129 million richer. He decided to accept the event as possibly serving his good. Could things that seem to be going wrong really be going right? Might the universe be conspiring in your favor?

The word conspiracy comes from the Latin conspirare, meaning “to breathe together.” Often we associate “conspiracy” with an underground movement to overthrow an established order. But the word has a far deeper meaning that can empower you as you understand it. When you breathe together with the universe, you find that it is working on your behalf. You don’t have to subvert the established order, because universal order is already set up for you to succeed.

Our pain derives not from what happens, but from resisting what happens and not letting life be as it is. When we can accept the current of events (a form of currency) and look for ways that change serves us, what we thought was a curse becomes a blessing … a hardship becomes a starship.

A few years ago I needed to move my office. I found a new site that was not ideal, with small rooms, far from my home, and near a noisy intersection. But I had a time crunch for moving and the place seemed adequate, so I told the Realtor I would take it.

Weeks passed and I did not hear from the Realtor. Since I needed to vacate my old office, I phoned the agent to ask him if he had a lease for me to sign. He sheepishly told me that the landlord did not want to rent to me because he had read one of my books and he did not agree with my philosophy.

I felt outraged. “That’s discrimination!” I complained. The Realtor agreed, but suggested that it would probably not be worth my while to fight it.

On my way home from work that day, I felt an inclination to take a scenic route on a lesser-traveled country road. Along the way I noticed a storefront with a FOR RENT sign in the window. I inquired with the landlady, who was quite congenial and informed me that the space had last been used as a tai chi studio. The rent was far less than the office I had planned to lease, and the space was larger, close to my home, and in a quiet area. I rented the site on the spot, and enjoyed years of good use of that facility.

Rejection is protection.

— Source unknown

What I thought was my winning lottery ticket (the space from which I was rejected) was actually not the winner I sought. The “loss” of that space directed me to the real winning ticket. The timing was perfect, because the place in the country had not been vacant when I told the Realtor I would rent the less desirable space. The universe was conspiring in my favor, and when I was willing to breathe with it, I found all that I needed and more.

What’s Fair Is Fair

People who have an abundance mentality keep attracting more of what they want and need. Those with a lack mentality keep attracting something missing. People who celebrate what they have already won, win more. Those who complain about what they have lost, keep losing. The law of consciousness is consistent.

My friend Hannah thrives in her business and is quite wealthy. She likes to earn money, enjoys making win-win deals, treats herself well, and is very generous. Hannah learned that Oprah Winfrey was offering a seminar for a small group of deserving women, most of whom would be selected on the basis of an essay they submitted on “Why I Need a Spa Retreat with Oprah.” Another handful would be chosen by a lottery. Hannah very much wanted a trip with Oprah, but knew she could not with integrity say she needed one, so she submitted her name to the lottery. A month later she received a phone call from Oprah’s office informing her that she had won. Hannah attended the seminar, received immense benefit from it, and the program was later aired on The Oprah Winfrey Show.

You might say that it wasn’t fair for a wealthy woman to win the Oprah lottery. But consider why Hannah is prosperous and successful. She has an abundance consciousness. She thinks and lives success, so more success finds her. It will find you, too, if you claim it where you stand.

Don’t Wait for Oprah

If you want to be rich and famous and help a lot of people, don’t sit around and wait for Oprah to discover you. A friend told me, “I just know that when Oprah finds my book and holds it up on her television show, all of my dreams will come true.”

It occurred to me that Oprah Winfrey has become the new lottery, the knight in shining armor who will sweep you away from diapers and car payments and make everything all right. If you watch Oprah’s show, however, you will discover that she chooses guests who have found wealth, wholeness, and opportunities to serve right where they are. If you expect to win the Oprah lottery, you will need to first make the most of your life as it is.

Don’t wait to win any lottery to become happy. Win it by being happy. Align your thoughts, feelings, words, and acts with a success attitude, and positive events will follow. Losers don’t win the lottery. If they do, they quickly revert to loser status. Winners can never become losers, because they win wherever they are. Your life will succeed not because a windfall drops in your lap. Your life will succeed because you drop into your heart. Then windfalls will find you without your having to depend on them.

Your winning ticket has been printed. It is not a mistake. Will you keep it?