Why do so many lottery winners go broke?
A recent study showed households with annual incomes under $13,000 spend an average of 9% of their income on lottery tickets, and 70% of all lottery winners go bankrupt. Why do low-income households spend so much on lottery tickets, and then lose it all when they win?
The big answer? Their external circumstances don’t match their internal story of who they are. As both employers and employees, we should constantly strive to change our beliefs first and let our circumstances catch up. This is what a transformative training company can do.
When a person has told themselves repeatedly they’re “worth” $13,000 a year, and suddenly they’re millionaires, their minds don’t match their bank accounts. So they sabotage their wealth to return to their comfort zone, which is whatever they were making before they struck it rich. To truly grow in wealth, it’s more effective to change your mindset on what you’re worth first, and then allow external realities to catch up.
In order to succeed, you have to believe you can. And to believe you can, you have to appropriately value yourself and your ability to contribute. This is the sort of root-deep culture shift a valuable training company can provide.
A sales professional I know started her career and barely met quota. After noticing a positive change, one of our FPG trainers asked what was different. The sales professional said she’d started only spending time with top achievers. Her previous associates contributed to a negative internal story that convinced her she could only achieve up to a certain standard. She began spending more time with associates whose internal story and external circumstances matched what she desired, and her career advanced.
Take Donna Mikken as a cautionary tale. In 2007, Mikken won the New York State lottery for $34.5 million and immediately felt a strain on her life. In a 2014 C-Suite Network blog post, Mikken noted that many people view the lottery as a “magic pot of gold” and that your brain suddenly becomes a “worry-free zone.” When she realized that wasn’t the case, she got through the turbulence by reminding herself internally that she was worth more than the lottery could ever provide.
“Be careful about what you say in that sweet little head of yours,” Mikken wrote. “Be kind. Before anything else in life, we need to keep our inner voice championing for our success. For those times that we can use a little pick-me-up, we need to find someone we can trust and confide in. Bounce some of that self-doubt out into a safe place. Remember to treat yourself like you would treat your oldest and dearest friend.”
There are two crucial steps on the pathway to shifting your internal picture of self-worth. First, we must acknowledge our current story. Where are we now? Where do we want to be in the future? Newer cars have diagnostic systems that allow mechanics to hook into their internal computers to pinpoint exactly what’s wrong in an instant. We need to be our own mechanics, constantly able to use diagnostic tools we’ve sharpened over time to figure out where we’re breaking down and how to fix the problem.
Then, fake it until you become it.
There’s science behind the idea that you can change internal belief by essentially fooling yourself into becoming more successful. A 2012 Psychological Science study found that even forced smiles while performing stressful tasks can lower heart rates.
In a 2013 study published in the Journal of Personality and Psychology, a group of college students was asked to write about their job ambitions, their duties and obligations, or their commutes. Afterward, each participant took a survey that rated how much they admired the members of their team. The participants who wrote about ambition were consistently ranked higher than their peers, proving that just by mentally focusing on achievement, you can project strength and leadership and will yourself to success.
But it’s paramount that you set those goals for yourself and internally define your new direction. And when looking for a training company to take your success to the next level, it should be able to help foster this mindset over the long haul.
If you’ve already diagnosed where you are and where you want to go, now it’s time to set tangible goals for yourself and begin putting those into action. By knowing yourself intimately and mentally dressing yourself for success before you’ve even reached your goals, you’ll find your external circumstances begin to match your exciting new internal realities.
Adapted excerpt from “WTF: Why Training Fails” by Jason Forrest. Interested in learning more? Please click here to obtain a copy.
Jason Forrest, CEO and Chief Culture Officer at FPG (Forrest Performance Group), is a leading authority in culture change programs and an expert at creating high-performance, high-profit, and “Best Place to Work” cultures. As a sales professional, author, speaker, and management coach, Forrest’s job is to empower professionals and executives to unleash their human performance and master their leadership skills in sales, management, culture, and service for the purpose of increasing profit through people. Connect with him @jforrestspeaker on Twitter, and on LinkedIn. For more information about FPG, visit FPG.com.
