Last week, my husband and I were headed to a belated holiday party. On the way, he insisted on stopping by a convenience store to buy a lottery ticket. Because “you can’t win if you don’t play.”
I don’t follow the lottery and hadn’t realized the jackpot was nearing a billion dollars. I told him to buy two, so we’d each have a ticket.
We started joking about what could be done with the winnings. A friend of his planned to buy motorcycles for their racing team. We talked about investments and what it would take to avoid the risk of blowing through all that money.
It got me thinking about the dreams we all have. Whether it’s winning the lottery, getting promoted, or having a family. While an article I saw said we’d be more likely to get attacked by a shark than win the lottery, and I’m certainly not encouraging folks to gamble, one thing is certain. You cannot win if you don’t buy a ticket.
Our life plans are the same. If we don’t take action, none of our dreams will come true. What we want doesn’t just land in our laps. Success takes action – we have to work for it.
We’re a few weeks into January, when many of us who made plans for this year will start letting them go by the wayside. The hard work of the first few weeks starts to fade away…which means our goals and dreams do as well.
I’d encourage you to dust them off. We might not be able to maintain January’s high energy throughout the year, but making forward progress is better than none. Keep going. The only way to get to where you want – to achieve your definition of success at work or life – is to take those steps.
