Are you the next big Mega Millions Jackpot winner? Don’t worry this isn’t a dream killer discussing the chances of winning the lottery, may the dream be alive until it’s over. The big lottery jackpots often lead us to thinking up all of the things we would do if we were instantly rich. It seems fairly rare to hear a person express the thought of how a winning lottery ticket would likely destroy them. 
Yes I played the lottery and yes I want to win too, but we often allow something that plays one role in our lives cast a shadow over every other aspect; money is a great example of this phenomenon and with the current lottery craze let’s bring it into focus. When it comes to money, (or how its perceived) we can’t do anything when we don’t have it, and we overplay its value when we do.
Money absolutely holds importance in our lives; it determines where we live, what possessions we have, and how we often spend our free time. Unfortunately it often consumes what our free time is spent thinking about as well, and a negative financial situation can often unnecessarily bleed into other aspects of our lives. 
In a psychology book, “Thinking Fast and Slow” there was a study where participants were asked to rate the overall happiness of their lives. Individual’s answers were greatly impacted depending on the sequence of two questions. If an individual was first asked about their dating lives and they viewed this as a negative aspect of their life, it would consistently negatively impact the rating on the next question which was regarding their overall happiness. If these same individuals were asked about their overall happiness first they would rate it higher. The results carried true with positive ratings as well. As mentioned, when we bring one part of our lives into focus it will cast a shadow on how we view other areas. Is this similar to how money impacts our thought process?
Money can cast such a huge shadow over unrelated aspects of our lives. 
When we’re in financial distress, some of us aren’t as motivated to make healthy decisions like working out, our relationships suffer, and we have an overall negative view of life. On the contrary, a great financial position tends to cause us to lose empathy for others, lose work ethic and become overconfident in our evaluation of ourselves (No need to talk about the positive aspects of having it). 
It simply doesn’t have to be this way. I believe there is great satisfaction in learning to consistently separate money as one aspect of the grand scheme of our existence. The amount of money in your pocket has nothing to do with you getting up and being active. You’re only allowing it to cast a dark depressive shadow over your view of overall happiness. The story plays out over and over in real life and on the big screens. There’s a person that has a lot of money and they don’t have to respect people, they are overconfident in their abilities, and their head swells with pride before the big fall. Or you have the motivated hungry person that wants to make it, so they are willing to risk everything else just to get it. These examples are obviously not the case for everyone as there’s a lot of grey area in how individuals respond to financial situations, this simply represents our tendency to overstate the impact of finances on our lives.
For me, if I have a free weekend and my pockets are tight, in a positive mind frame I’m more productive. I find myself doing the things that I need to do (things that don’t cost much money) such as spending time with love ones, home chores and responsibilities, working out/playing ball, writing, etc. On the contrary (if I’m not conscious of it), a free weekend after a nice run in poker or stocks is likely going to be an expensive weekend in which I’ve done absolutely nothing of value. Money often affords us the freedom to live unproductive, destructive lives but this doesn’t have to be the case. This can be controlled but it starts with putting it into perspective. How much money do you really need and what exactly do you need it for? For some when it comes to money, you can’t have too much, and you can never have enough. Well if you know what you need it for, you can surely have enough and if it leads to a life of no boundaries you can absolutely have too much. A powerful scene in Wall Street 2 was when the question was asked to Josh Brolin, “What’s your number [financial goal]?” to the answer of “more.” 
If you haven’t seen the movie, that character got destroyed. Another statement from the movie “Bulls make money, bears make money, pigs get slaughtered” couldn’t ring more true in real life. You can be successful whether you see the market going up or down, but greed will kill you every time.
As I mentioned earlier, I would not turn down a large sum of money if it came my way. Money opens up doors and creates freedoms that we dream of. Money rules the world, but it doesn’t have to rule you. Once you recognize the TRUE worth, or lack thereof of money over your life, may the lottery winnings be with you!
*Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants. –Epictetus
