One day you get to play the lottery. You have the winning ticket and as a result, each day your bank account is being credited with $86,400. Yet the jackpot comes with two rules.
You must spend all $86,400 each day going forward. If you don’t, whatever is left at the end of the day will be taken away from you. You can’t transfer any remaining amount to a different account either.
You also will not know for how long you will participate in the game. It can end at any point of time without a single warning and you will not be granted any option to re-enter the play.
The story is not new and it is based on M. Levy’s book If Only It Were True. The book also made it to the screen.
So what would you do?
All of the sudden, possibilities are endless. Your mind spins around fueled by joy and anticipation. You get yourself emerged in a shopping spree as there is a lot at stake. You buy all the things you have always dreamed about. Do things you’ve always wanted to do. You make others’ dreams come true, too. You are generous. You feel powerful. You are beautiful. You feel free.
Now, let’s pause for a moment. What if you were told, you are the winner already. That the day you were born you have been assigned this magic account to remain at your disposal — which will replenish itself for as long as you live. 86,400 seconds will magically appear each morning. Yet it will evaporate forever when you fall asleep. Any unused minute will be lost. It won’t be banked for later. It won’t be stocked up. What has not been used will vanish into the vastness of the universe.
We take for granted 86, 400 seconds each day for decades. The more fortunate we are the more wasteful we become. We live as if there would always be tomorrow. We deliberately blind ourselves to the discovery of how much wealth we already have. All the dreams, ideas, talents, gifts, opportunities, synchronicities, people, and situations that have been given to us and we have never dared to act on them. Those follow us like ghosts with angry eyes, whispering in disappointment that only we could give them life and now those must die with us…
So, if your bank account is set to be terminated today or tomorrow, what dreams, gifts and talents, untaken chances and possibilities would disappear along with it?
Post originally appeared on Thrive Global
