Thursday, April 19, 2007

How To Avoid The 4 D's

If you look up terms like "sudden wealth syndrome" anywhere on the net, you'll find a lot of stories about exceptionally dissatisfied people who have won lotto.

These are folk who have come into a large amount of money through winning lotto or inheritance, suddenly, and can't cope with it.

You'll read droves about their unhappiness. You'll read page upon miserable page about their inability to keep wealth and how they've suffered through jealous friends and family. Some will have accidents in their high-powered toys.

But you won't read any success stories, like mine. I've been happy both poor and rich, and it's a secret I'll share later.

But here's why you see so much misery about other lotto winners:

Bad news makes money.

Bad news is the stuff that the masses want to read about:

Debt
Disaster
Death
Divorce

...these 4 D's are the main pin for any newsmedia organization. They know that, and that's why there is such a predominance of bad news. It sells.

I've told you this before here: Turn That TV OFF! Why?

I don't read bad news. If a newspaper headline has any of the 4 D's in it, I don't read any further. If a TV news item has any of the 4 D's - I mute it, or change channels until it's over.

Bad news will affect your thinking. It will make you depressed, angry, resentful... it may even influence your attitude to others. The Virginia Tech mass killings may turn you against Koreans (I'd be disappointed if it did - one bad apple is not a representation of the whole tree).

Every day we're faced with the grotesque, gruesome and unpleasant in life, and we cannot avoid being influenced by it. It may even affect the way you spend your lotto winnings.

I'm not saying avoid the 4 D's entirely... some people say that bad events are character building. Some negative life experiences might be. But I sure would like to think and reason my way into improving my character than have it influenced by a bad event.

The best way of doing this is the simplest way... concentrate on improving your positive experiences and thought patterns. Like me, you can avoid the negative experiences if you want, and I do recommend this.

However, if you think this is too much like avoiding reality and burying your head in the sand, then read, view and experience bad things if you have to - but replace them quickly with good times to erase the memories. You'll find too, that action drives out negativity.

Do something... play, move, drive, run... anything that gets you moving. It accelerates the healing process.

All this has an important place in winning lotto. Because unless you are a whole person, you won't be able to cope with your sudden wealth, and you'll end up like most others... dead broke in two years time. That's why it's important to educate yourself mentally and emotionally - to see beyond material possessions and into a world of stability and happiness. It's entirely possible.

There is a pattern to large winnings. Personal gratification comes first... You spend up large on all the things you imagine a lotto winner would buy - new home, new cars, overseas holidays. For the family-conscious winners, a lot goes into helping their family members "get ahead" financially. (It's not a good idea, but that's something I'll talk about in a later post).

Generally, nothing much is put away for the future, and within a couple of years it's all gone.

But you can change.

Know why, and change yourself before it happens. I'll give practical tips on how to do this in later posts.

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