Tag Archives: lottery

Nudged: Buy a lottery ticket

Backstory: I’m thinking over all my “rules” for Nudges, and I’m not sure this is legit. 🙂 Certainly this will be inexpensive and the task can be completed within the one-week time frame. But does it nudge me out of my comfort zone? We’ll see.

What Happened: I am more likely to buy a lottery ticket to slip into a card for a friend than purchase one for myself, so I perhaps that counts as getting out of my comfort zone. Yeah. No. That’s pretty weak. 😉

I put off completing this Nudge till Thursday night, after several packed and challenging days of work. Although it was only a block to the store, afterward I treated myself to a short walk around the neighborhood (yes, in my mask) and took in the sunset, cleared my head a bit.

As I walked, I allowed myself to daydream about how I might spend my BIG WINNINGS! Here are some of the things on my list:

  • “Hire” my sister and my friends so they can each take a year off work to rest or dream or figure out what they want to do with their lives, then do it
  • Gift each of my nieces and nephews and godsons with a travel fund
  • Buy a vacation home in a place that gets a lot of sun
  • Pay off all the bills (and never ever have to worry about bills again)
  • Sock away more than adequate funds for retirement
  • Spend a day (heck, a week) at a spa
  • Sponsor my husband in his triathlon endeavors
  • Upgrade my wardrobe
  • Remodel our home
  • Create an Eden (of our own definition) in our backyard
  • Redecorate my office
  • Join a posh gym (one where the equipment works on a regular basis and the smaller weights don’t go missing)
  • Buy a perfect chair for reading

Earlier this evening I checked the numbers online, and I didn’t get a single one. Well, phooey. But I did receive two checks in the mail for jobs I completed this month, and they both arrived earlier than expected. So I can pay bills this weekend with a little more ease, maybe set a little aside in a fund to one day purchase one of my dream items. I’ll count that as a “win”.

The Ah-Hahs: As I walked and thought, two things crossed my mind. (1) More than any “thing,” what I want is financial security. And (2), I can put my nose to the grindstone and make any of the above dreams (including financial security) my reality. It will mean making choices and sacrifices. It will mean setting intentions and goals and working my butt off.

The same can be said for anything I really really want. I just need to decide what that is…and go for it.

 

 

 

 

Nudging: Buy a lottery ticket

Backstory: I’m thinking over all my “rules” for Nudges, and I’m not sure this is legit. 🙂 Certainly this will be inexpensive and the task can be completed within the one-week time frame. But does it nudge me out of my comfort zone? We’ll see.

 

P.S. I’m thinking about how I’m feeling “lucky.” (I hope!) I’m also thinking about all the people who have come before me who made it possible for me to be lucky—to get an education, and vote, and work in a field that feeds my belly and my soul, and live in a world where I feel mostly safe and pretty darned privileged.

Today is Veterans’ Day in the United States. Around the world, it’s also the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day, which marked the end of World War I. We owe so much of what we enjoy in our lives to the sacrifices our ancestors made.

So, if you’re feeling lucky, I hope you’ll take the opportunity to thank a veteran for his or her service.