I’ll admit it. I went out and bought a lottery ticket yesterday. The $250 million jackpot was too tempting to resist.
If you read the news this morning, you’ll know I’m not a millionaire.** The jackpot escaped everyone’s grasp once again, and moved up to $310 million for this Saturday.
But while I was still in the waiting period, unsure whether fortune would find me, I had an interesting conversation with my husband about what we’d do with the money. Sure, the usual came to mind: we’d go on a fabulous trip, put a down payment on a house and buy solely organic and local (I’m a foodie, so this makes my luxury list).
But before all of that, we both agreed on a few more crucial essentials, namely to put enough away in savings to be set for life (barring any major disaster), to gift both our families and charity – and to support our own personal cause or business in a way that will impact society for the better.
(DreamChamps comes to mind!)
In other words, though we would certainly possess the ability to never have to work again a day in our lives, to live every day poolside with a piña colada in hand, there is no way we would settle for anything less than working just as hard, if not harder, than we do now.
Certainly by wishing to be winners, there is an “easiness” that comes along with it. Financial peace of mind would lead to a lot less stress. But wishing for an easy life? No way. We have a desire to be challenged, both mentally and physically – and that desire would not go away with a sudden swell in our bank accounts.
The same, I realized, should be true for your dream job.
Finding your dream job is the emotional equivalent to winning the lottery. The searching, the hoping, the waiting is over. You’re secure, happy and excited beyond all measure. But does this mean that you now have the easy life?
Absolutely not.
If anything, things are about to get harder. Because when you love something, there is another, unspoken emotion that comes along with it: fear. Fear of losing it, fear that it won’t measure up to what you imagined, fear that you’ll soon be just as miserable as you were before you found good fortune.
No amount of money in the world will make life perfect or easy. No dream job will make life perfect or easy. There are bound to be good days and bad. That’s what makes life life. The bad is what makes us appreciate the good.
Do not wish for an easy life. Instead, wish for the strength to meet every challenge that comes your way.
**I did, however, win $4 – the equivalent of two tickets. As for Saturday’s drawing? I haven’t decided yet.
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