How To Prevent Becoming A Statistic

Every day there seems to be some new scheme designed to make one person wealthy and the rest a couple of bucks poorer. Whether it is betting on sports games or putting your skill to the test purchasing a lottery ticket (sarcasm) there are ample opportunities to try your luck.

Have you ever thought about what would happen if you actually won? Maybe you know someone that has won. Maybe you play the dreaming game - “If I were a rich man…” Whatever you think, it is completely different when it is your picture on the front page of whatever contest wrap up.

You do not have to look far to see someone who has had his/her face plastered all over the media only to be destitute a short time later. In fact, more people who have won significant sums of money fail to keep it than those who do. Ever wonder why that is? I do.

I was listening to my morning radio show as I drove into work the other day and they were recounting a story about someone who had won 21 Million, who took his whole family out for dinner, went to pay and had his credit card declined because his cards had been compromised as a result of the notoriety. They went so far as to suggest that if they won a large amount of money, then would disappear for a month and return when everyone has forgotten their name – not a bad idea if I do say so myself.

So, how do you prevent becoming a statistic?

I believe that the answer is pretty simple, live your life like you are rich now. Think about how many people say that they would go and do all types of material things – buy a new car, buy a house, buy, buy, buy. If you read the first sentence of this paragraph and envisioned that living rich involved buying things, then you would likely become one of those statistics. Money is not the enzyme that allows you to lead a rich life.

Ask yourself when the last time was that you did nothing and enjoyed it. Now ask yourself how many times this year you have done nothing and enjoyed it. Richness in one’s life comes from things other than money. I believe it comes from learning to lead your life richly independent of money.

Try this for starters: Get up one morning in your house an hour before anyone else does. Sit in your favorite chair and do nothing but appreciate the silence. Listen to your home make the creaking sounds, the air moving along the ducts, the cars driving by outside, the birds singing. If you cannot do that for a solid hour then you need to learn to live richly because you are missing life.

Am I preaching that you should spend time making sure your navel is spotless, absolutely not. What I am saying is that in order to appreciate something, you have to learn to appreciate nothing. If you can sit and appreciate the minutia of life, then should the day come when you have a large amount of money fall your way, you will not forget how to appreciate the little things and that will be the means by which you will retain your wealth – by not going out to find peace in a false way, but by continuing to take the moments and enjoy them.