Lotto Fever
Cynthia Stafford won $112 million shortly after her brother was killed by a drunk driver. She had just taken in his five children, raising them as a single mother. There are many stories of people doing major things in their communities and helping others in meaningful ways. Paul and Sue Rosenau won $181.2 million in 2008. They purchased the winning ticket five years, to the exact day, of losing their granddaughter to a rare and incurable disease. They started a foundation called “The Legacy of Angels” that’s working to find a cure. They’re still on the Board of Directors. One consistent theme I found in the success stories is they all wanted to give back to their community, and held an internal desire to donate a large portion of their earnings towards a good cause.
Unfortunately, according to a recent article in the Reader’s Digest, over 70% of lottery winners lose or spend all the money within five years. It didn’t matter if they won $1 million or $500 million. Countless examples showed lottery winners whose lives turned out worse after hitting the jackpot. William Post won $16.2 million in the 1988 Pennsylvania lottery. One year later he was over $1 million in debt and his own brother put out a hit on him. He also spent time in jail because he fired a gun over the head of a bill collector. Jack Whittaker won $315 million in the 2002 West Virginia lottery. He was flat broke within five years after his daughter and granddaughter both died of drug overdoses. Garbage man, Michael Carroll, won $14.4 million in 2002 at the young age of 19. Ten years later he was living off unemployment checks and flat broke. Gerald Muswagon won $10 million in 1998. Seven years later he was back to work at a minimum-wage job to support his six children. He sadly took his own life in 2005. These are just a few of countless examples.
The purpose of this isn’t to make you feel better about not winning the lottery, but to explore the concept that financial problems are never about money, the same way weight problems are never about food. These examples of lottery winning gone bad hold a similar thread of truth. If the winner had bad financial habits prior to the win, they continued to miss managed their finances, only on a much grander scale. If you have bad eating habits prior to dieting, without addressing your inner real issues, you’ll eventually gain it all back. You have to feel worthy of the healthy weight the same way you have to feel worthy of a healthy bank account.
We seem to associate net-worth with self-worth the same way we use the number on the scale to determine if we’ll have a good or bad day. Your value does not come from your valuables. The stock market, just like the scale, does not determine your value! Your net-worth is not equal to your self-worth. That’s like saying your bank account balance is equal to God’s love for you. It’s simply not true. Statements like “earning a living” can come across as a belief you must earn a life. That’s like telling someone you’re not worthy simply for being alive. Unworthy feeling people unconsciously consume stuff they don’t need, and spend money they don’t have to appear valued. They also numb with food, alcohol, or drugs, to overcompensate for feelings of inadequacies.
Emotions impact everything. Money is not about finances, it’s about emotions. Suze Orman said, “Fear, shame and anger are the most common emotions surrounding money. We all think that money is about our bank balance.” Tony Robbins said, “The quality of your life equals the quality of your emotions.” There are people in this world with a lot of money but they aren’t wealthy. Wealth is a state of appreciation. You need to cultivate a true state of genuine gratitude for all you have in life right now. Anything added from now will feel like a bonus. Gratitude leads to a feeling of abundance, which is a mindset, not a dollar amount. The secret to wealth is to trade in your expectations for appreciation and everything changes.
It’s fun to think about what we’d do if we suddenly won a bazillion dollars but realize there’s no amount of money that can be placed on your worthiness. Realize your value and you’ll realize you are already blessed beyond measure! Realize you are already worthy of blessings now, and they’ll begin to flow now, not when your lucky numbers hit. When you remove the meaning placed on money as a sign you belong, and you are worthy, then you no longer look at money for validation of your existence. The Bible tells us in Luke 12:7 “And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows.” Dr. Maya Angelou said, "Your crown has been bought and paid for. Put it on your head and wear it."
Results for the week: +1.5 lbs lost; Total Lost: 41.0
D.O.W. = 483; Starting weight: 182.0; Current weight: 141.0
(Days on the Wagon = Days of food sobriety - no sugar pig-outs!)
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