What do you Gamble on?

The stakes can be high when you ignore what you need and grab what you want.  There seems to be a variety of approaches we choose in order to get what we need and want.  An approach may be thoughtful or it could  be a roll of the dice  Sometimes when we consider what we want or need we might try wishing it will happen or try daydreaming or try coming up a with a plan.

Planning, wanting and wishing are often easily confused.  Planning indicates that there is a thoughtful process. When one plans, a strategy is laid out, and with some work, the possibility of a successful outcome is fairly high.  Don’t forget luck and hope are not strategies. Hope is essential to our happiness.  But hope is like faith.  Without action it will evaporate.  The odds are stacked against you if you don't learn to embrace hope with planning and action.

Wishing, on the other hand, is blind hope that everything will turn out okay by the cross of one’s fingers.  Little thought or effort really goes into wishing.  It is fun to wish on a falling star, sometimes buy a lottery ticket, blow out your birthday candles or wave a wand wishing for what you want.  Unfortunately, life rarely rewards those efforts.  Sometimes we step up the wishing and engage in decisions or purchases that have long term obligations or sacrifice a week’s salary without thorough evaluation.  We buy Powerball tickets with money needed for medicine.  Or the wanting urges us to buy things like houses we cannot afford. Most Americans confess they have spent money they don’t have gambling on a better future.  I think that some of the people caught in this American foreclosure mess are a result of thoughtless wishing.

Planning is an important and sometimes painful step in protecting our future.  Establishing habits like having a budget, saving money and learning from a money guru like Suzie Orman can slow down misuse of money or betting on the come.  

Realizing that we don’t need a lot of stuff can be a cathartic journey.  What we really need and want are two separate issues.  Getting real about what are necessities versus what are essentials is an eye opening experience.  Staying real can mean not gambling away what you need for what you want. 

And, then there are those among us that have never known what it would be like to get what we need or have been victim to unfortunate circumstance.  Like the homeless, those born into poverty, those struck by disaster or those trying to win a losing battle with addiction.  Some of those may have become the hopeless and have surrendered to wishing it were different.  For the fortunate among us that do have our needs met we need to look for those who don’t.  

Thank you to the American Red Cross, United Way and the countless numbers of organizations that leap to the aid of so many.

If your needs aren’t being met don’t wait to get lucky, look for help. 

If your needs are being met, get busy and help someone who’s still waiting.

Still learning,

Honey