Hitting The Jackpot: Shortcut To Happiness, Or Roadblock?

Well the Powerball jackpot has been won and it looks like none of us will be swimming in a pool of $100 bills any time soon.

Perhaps this a good time to really think about the value of wealth as the visions of Rolexes and golden toilet seats leave our eager minds. Winning a truckload of money sounds like the best thing ever, but what does that really mean?

For most of us it means the end of worries about debt, bills and everyday expenses. There are many out there who would certainly jump on the opportunity to erase all of their money woes in one shot.

I would love to see those living in poverty have a chance to live comfortable lives through the lottery. For those struggling, winning the lottery could be a jumpstart to a new life.

This editor is not a particularly rich guy, but have enough to live well enough and do most of the things I enjoy. To me, winning the lottery seems like too much of a good thing.

I enjoy the work I do and take pride in earning my way towards the next steps in life. There is an intrinsic joy to working hard for the things I want. No better feeling can be had than the one I got from moving into my first apartment after college, or paying off my car loan. I dream of the day I can afford a home for myself and have enough money to provide for a family.

So what if I just get handed all of these things? What if I won the lottery and was able to afford anything and everything I have been working towards? It would all be there for the taking, but without the knowledge that I had EARNED them.

Most people know me as a gamer who loves challenging video games. There is never any joy from using a cheat code to beat a level, but there is when I spend hours upon hours trying to do it and succeed. The hard work makes the reward that much sweeter, even if it is just the knowledge of achievement.

That is how I view life. We have a certain amount of time to overcome challenges and earn the rewards of our efforts. It can be a challenge, and it is not always fair, but that just makes it that much more fun. 

The lottery is like a cheat code in the game of life. It gives you the means to get pretty much anything with little effort. You think you have won, but in fact the purpose of life has been taken away. It is tempting to take the money and stop working: Game Over.

Working to reach a goal seems to be a much more rewarding experience. Most everybody doesn’t LOVE to work, but in the end one can look back and be proud that they did it. Hard work and dedication cannot be given away or won in a lottery game. It is a part of the human experience that should be embraces.

Great men and women throughout history worked hard and gave us this amazing world we live in today. No doubt that there is still more work to be done, but to take all of our comforts and freedoms for granted should be a crime.

Would I like to win the lottery? You bet I would. 

But, if I did it wouldn’t mean an end to working or a switch to a dormant lifestyle. It would just be an avenue to do more great things with this life that so many people have worked hard to give me. What better way to play the game than to keep reaching for something better and better?

There is a high score in the game of life, and I would like to win it without any cheat codes (up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, start.)