You just found out you won the Powerball. Hundreds of millions of dollars or pounds or shekels or yen. Life changing wealth.

Smile. Bask in the thought. Feel the tingle of delight go up your spine (or down you leg).

From this day forward, your life will never be the same.

Now, what will change? What will your new found wealth allow you to do?

Will you continue practicing law? If so, is there anything about your practice that you will do differently? Different cases or clients? More employees? Fewer?

Will you retire? What will you do all day?

Will you give the money away?

What will you buy? Where will you live? What will you be doing a year from now?

You may think it silly to indulge in such fanciful thoughts. You may remind yourself that you don’t play the lottery and see this exercise as a waste of time.

It’s not a waste of time.

It makes you examine your life to see what might be different. It may make you realize that some of things you’re doing aren’t serving you. Maybe you can get rid of them. Or begin moving in that direction.

Many people live their entire lives doing what they have always done. They never consider changing course. They may be unhappy but they are settled into their unhappiness. It’s easier to maintain the status quo.

And then a crisis occurs. A serious illness. The death of a loved one. A divorce. A financial calamity. Only then are ready to consider making changes. And then they find that some of those changes are a welcome relief.

I don’t want you to wait for a crisis before you examine your life. Use your imagination instead. Let your mind dwell on the impossible dream. Let your inner child frolic in the playground of your mind.

Grab a pen and start writing. Or grab a friend and a beer and start jabbering. You just got the word that you won the lottery and now, anything is possible.

What’s the first thing you will do? What will you do after that?

Now, how does it feel when you think these thoughts?

If it feels good, it means you are already moving in the right direction. The essence of what you desire is on its way. You are attracting the changes you desire.

If it doesn’t feel good, if you feel resistance towards what you have imagined, things will not change for you, at least not the way you want them to.

In his classic recording, The Strangest Secret, Earl Nightingale said, the key to success and the key to failure is this: “We become what we think about.”

He also said, “Whatever we plant in our subconscious mind and nourish with repetition and emotion will one day become a reality.”

Our thoughts have power. I hope you use that power to get what you really want.