HAPPY NEW YEAR – PLAY THE LOTTERY IN 2020

I play the lottery. In 2020, maybe you should try it.

 Sometimes I buy a ticket once a week, sometimes once every few months. Why do I do it? It’s not because I think I’ll win. I have a better chance of being hit by lightning during a shark attack than of winning millions of dollars. Nor do I buy tickets to help the schools. Only a small percentage of lottery money in California actually goes to public education. 

Instead, I buy lottery tickets for my mental health. For me, it’s cheap therapy.

Therapists cost between $60 and $120 an hour, on average, for fifty minutes. Some charge $250 and higher. And what do most therapists try to do? In my experience, you pay a therapist to help you stop thinking a certain way – to stop worrying.

 Most of what we worry about doesn’t come true anyway. And when something truly bad happens, it’s always unexpected, and not what you spent so much time worrying about.

So I have a choice – I could pay, say, a therapist $100 for fifty minutes. They would convince me, for a week, that what I’m worrying about will probably never happen. Or, I could take five minutes, spend one dollar, and spend the week hoping for something that will probably never happen.

There’s a story about the monk who went to his teacher and complained that he was unhappy because he couldn’t stop thinking a certain way, and wanted to know what he should do. “Stop thinking that way,” was the teacher’s response.

 Buddhism, meditation, prayer, Stoicism, and cognitive behavioral therapy all help you stop your monkey brain from obsessing. Interrupt the negative thought. Be conscious. Be in the moment. Choose to think about something else instead. Eventually the bad habit leaves and the new, better thought takes over.

 I enjoy the ritual of purchasing, saving the ticket, glancing at it all week long, and then finally checking to see if I’m a winner. All of it helps me to stop worrying about the bad things that haven’t happened yet, and focus instead on all the good things coming to me, while staying grateful for what I already have … and enjoying the slim chance that I may win tens of millions of dollars. I sometimes carry the ticket in my pocket, to remind myself of my choice to be hopeful. It’s mental trickery, but it works.

 Lucky coins, lottery tickets, lighting a candle in church, putting money in the collection basket, wearing wrist bands, charms, bracelets, and getting a tattoo are talismans that remind us to stay positive. It makes today better. And all we have is today. 

I bought a lottery ticket, for 2020. It’s cheap therapy and it works!  Happy New Year!

Me on New Years Day — a few years back.