What You Ought to Know about the Powerball… (Aside from the Jackpot)

The last few weeks have been legendary ones in the world of the lottery. The Powerball has seen historic jackpots of $600,000 million and $800,000 million consecutively. And because no one won, the drawing on Saturday it is now up to a legendary $1.3 billion dollars – the largest jackpot in word history.

These extremely large jackpots usually mean a few things –

• People usually come out in droves to gamble on the winning jackpot
• You hear loads of stories about what these gamblers will do if they win a portion of it
• Gamblers and non gamblers obsess about the lottery for days talking about it, fantasizing about it and learning about it.

That’s nothing you don’t already know. What you don’t know but should is this. Lotto players are lousy gamblers. Those lousy gamblers always appear in droves as these large lottos are announced. I’m sorry to say that if you are planning to participate in this week’s Powerball, you are probably one of them.

There’s only one thing you need to know about the Powerball to win big.

While lotto players may not like to think about themselves as gamblers, that’s exactly what they are. Gamblers. But crappy ones. Why? Because they don’t realize the $2 or more they are willing to spend on a Powerball game they’re unlikely to win is the worst gamble they could possibly take. It’s clear they’re willing to gamble $2 or more on the lottery than they are to gamble on their own dreams.

What you ought to know is that the Powerball may be setting you up for failure the moment you start obsessing about it. Stop obsessing about the wrong thing and start obsessing about your goals. 

You may think the winning Powerball ticket holds the solutions to all your dreams… to the life you’ve always imagined and you’re right. However, you’re not right for the reasons you think. You’re right because that ticket helped you identify and zero in on a goal, but wrong because you decided spend money on a ticket. 

Though a small amount, those $2 dollars spent on the lottery is being taken away from the dream you are very capable of living. Every thought wasted on the Powerball jackpot could’ve been spent on the life you long to have. Don’t believe you have any dreams deferred because of your lottery obsession? Allow me to direct you to item two in the list above. Just think about what you plan to do with all that money should you wake up Thursday morning as a billionaire.

They’re the dreams you have of paying off your debt so you can retire early. They’re the dreams you have of buying a house for your mother. They’re the dreams you have of starting that non-profit organization to help remedy rare birth defects. They’re the dreams you hold near to your heart of starting that bating cage business in your city. Or maybe they’re simply the dreams of living comfortably in your quaint cottage with a modest life without surviving merely paycheck to paycheck.

And even if you think you don’t have any dreams or goals, it surely didn’t stop you from thinking about winning the Powerball jackpot which obviously means you do have some sliver of hope for a better life after winning. Buying that ticket or even thinking about the Powerball most likely  helped you realize a goal you didn’t even know you had. However, there’s nothing stopping you from doing something to live that better life right now.

Regardless of the plans or dreams dependent on your potential jackpot winnings, know that you are capable of achieving them on your own. If only you applied that money spent on lottery tickets to something else. Though small, that $2 could be the start of your debt payment method, or world travel fund. Rather than gambling it away on the slim chance of winning $1.3 billion, use it to invest in yourself.

And remember all that time you spent learning about the rules of Powerball, whether you can purchase tickets online, how the Powerplay works and past winning numbers? That’s all time you could have spent on researching how to live the life you imagined on your own.

While you may have needed the Powerball to realize your dreams, you certainly don’t need it to make those dreams come true.

If there is one good thing that can come out of this historical Powerball jackpot, let it be that you are capable of dreaming big dreams and making them happen $2 at a time.

So don’t wait to join an office lottery pool. Don’t wait till you fully understand the rules of the game. And don’t wait for those numbers to be called on Wednesday night.

Instead, do something about that dream burning a whole in your heart right now.

The Powerball helped you realize it. Your determination and resourcefulness can help you achieve it.

It’s crazy how something like a $2 Powerball ticket can open yours eyes to the dreams you never knew you had.

Don’t wait to hit the jackpot. You time is now.

And that, my friend, is all you ought to know about the Powerball. Use what you know wisely.

Do you gamble in lottery games? How do you dream of spending the money? What dreams has the lottery helped you realize?

TERRIfic Quip: Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.