The Lottery of Life

On a Saturday night a few months ago my wife Becca and I were sitting down to dinner. I was looking at the meal we’d made (banana leaf steamed red snapper tostadas). Looking at her and looking at where we were (Costa Rica), I couldn’t help but blurt out, “Holy shit! I won the lottery in life!”

The thought had actually started earlier that day while I was doing some open water swimming. A sea turtle swam about 5 feet in front of me. And a couple of strokes later, I saw two amazing bright blue starfish.

Those made me think about the time I was lobstering with my dad, and we caught a blue lobster. According to the University of Maine’s Lobster Institute, the chance of catching a blue lobster is roughly 1 in 2 million. That’s a lottery win by my definition!

We did set the lobster free. A lottery win for them!

And then I started pulling on that thread. Because there are all sorts of lotteries in the world. We just don’t call most of them that.

Time Is the Ticket

I was thinking about it this way. The conventional lottery is simple. You buy a ticket with money. You have a chance of winning something.

And as the saying goes, time is money and money is time. You typically earn money by spending your time doing something. Which means if I’m spending my time on something that doesn’t pay me, like lobstering, I’m essentially spending money. I’m buying a ticket.

Going out lobstering is buying a lottery ticket for the chance to catch a blue lobster. Going open water swimming is buying a ticket for the chance to see something you’ve never seen before. Like a sea turtle in the wild and a bright blue starfish. Sitting down to dinner with someone you love is buying a ticket for a moment that takes your breath away.

Every time you invest your time in something, you’re entering a lottery. The odds vary. Some are one in a million. Some are closer to fifty-fifty. If you’ve been paying attention to my writing, you know I typically put my odds somewhere between 50 and 100%. I wrote about that math recently in my Probability Math of an Optimist post.

Who Wins the Life Lottery

Here’s the thing that kept bouncing around in my head. I started thinking about the people I’ve heard say some version of “I won the lottery in life.”

They don’t tend to be uber-wealthy people.

Some of them have money. But the ones who say it, who really feel it, aren’t the ones always reaching for more. They’re NOT the ones whose life is never quite good enough. They’re people who’ve looked around at what they have and felt the full weight of it.

And sitting there in Costa Rica, looking at Becca, I thought, I love my life. I would wish it upon anyone. That’s a lottery winner talking. Not because everything is perfect. But because the orientation is right.

The Orientation

Maybe that’s actually the insight. It’s not about what you have. It’s about how you’re oriented toward it.

Some people have everything and feel like they have nothing. Some people have far less and feel like they’ve won. The difference isn’t always circumstance. It’s orientation.

And I wonder if you could actually start living life this way on purpose. Treating every investment of your time as a lottery ticket. Not in a naive way. In a being present way. Recognizing that every time you show up for something, there’s a chance of something happening. It could be a one in a million chance. It could be nearly certain. But you’re in the game.

People who feel like they’ve won the life lottery aren’t lucky. I think they’re just paying attention.

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