The Lottery and Purpose

While checking out some morning headlines I saw a Yahoo article entitled, How to lose 3 million in 6 years. Out of curiosity I read the article and had to laugh. While it highlighted one young lady's fall from riches to almost rags, the article mentioned a larger issue: Why so many lottery winners often wish they had never even played in the first place. They squander such a "rich" opportunity and feel huge remorse that they didn't spend the money more wisely.

In some ways I'd like to have their initial monetary excess for just a few moments, but their plight is similar to many of us. We are given a full day, week or other period of time to accomplish what is most important, but often squander it on less than critical tasks. We allow our choices to be made based on convenience, laziness or the emotion of the moment. And like those lottery winners (now losers) we feel bad that we didn't spend our time and energy more wisely.

The answer for us-like them-is to act with purpose. Making wise investments of our time and energy based on purpose "pays off" in dividends of satisfaction, peace and confidence that we have done the right thing. I bet lots of those lottery winners would like a piece of that kind of action.