The winning ticket

Recently, I was working with a coaching client, Laura, who had fallen upon challenging times. She lost her job, her relationship was stressed, and her house was going into foreclosure. She was at her wits end, and was having to make difficult decisions.

She got an email from a friend saying that the lottery in her state was up to $60 million dollars. “That would solve a lot of problems for both of us, wouldn’t it,” her friend joked.

Laura ended up buying a ticket. She knew the odds. She knew that the probability of winning $50 million dollars when her mindset was that challenged was pretty low.

“It was weird, Mark,” she said to me. “Even though I knew I wasn’t going to win, I pretended for a little while that I had already won. It changed everything.”

What it changed: she felt better. She fantasized about what she would do with the money, about paying off her house and owning it outright, and about helping family members. She fantasized about buying the car she wanted, and going on that vacation she had wanted for years.

Thinking about all of the things she would do if money was no object changed her. It opened her up.

It changed how she felt.

The other day I asked my mailing list (you can subscribe on the front page of the blog, here) how they were feeling. You see, it doesn’t matter what is happening in the reality of your life if your inner reality is feeling stressed. You could even have the most perfect life in the world with all of the money in the world, but if you aren’t feeling good, you are poor in spirit.

Wealth is about how you feel. Your reality shifts when you are feeling good, and the inner reality is all that matters.

I suggested that maybe $1 a week would be a small price to pay for Laura if the end result was feeling good. If the possibility of winning the lottery can open her up to visualizing a better life, then it would begin to create better experiences for her.

What is your winning ticket?
Maybe the lottery doesn’t do anything for you. Maybe something else does. Something does. Something opens you up to thinking about all that is possible in your life.

It doesn’t matter if your current external reality doesn’t show you anything to feel good about. If your bank balances make you stressed out, look at the inner balance of your emotional bank account for direction. Place deposits into your emotional life, your emotional state, and your emotional well being so that your inner bank accounts are always full.

When you are feeling that expansion, you are more open to possibilities. You are more open to receiving opportunities that will bring your inner world into outer projection.

Laura found a key to help her stay centered and focused on what she wants to create. She was able to rise about the restrictions occurring in her external reality so that her inner reality became the driving force to her creativity.

The lottery ticket becomes an “anchor” for Laura. It is a physical representation of her hope. Even though she didn’t win, she has a feeling associated with the lottery ticket. At $1, it is a bargain for her to create the feeling of hope in her inner reality.

I coached Laura on how to leverage that good feeling so that she can flow that experience into upgrading all areas of her life.

If you’re interested in working with me personally to learn how to create and maximize flow-leveraging experiences, contact me about coaching.

It’s all about the inner reality
And here’s something important: your external reality will never drive you. If you look to your external world for inspiration and excitement, for the creative force, for motivation or encouragement, you’re not going to find long-lasting inspiration. You might find something on the outside that triggers inner inspiration, but you cannot rely on it solely. You have to do something that keeps the fires burning within you.

This works with money, but it can work with other areas of your life, too. What small thing can you do to release restriction in your relationship? What small thing can you believe about your children that releases them from what you believe about them?

When you believe all things are possible, all things truly are possible.

And that is the winning ticket.