What would you do if you won the lottery?

OK, it’s a simple and almost silly question, but let’s frame it in a useful way. Imagine you have woken up on a Sunday morning, checked your lottery ticket and you are the only winner of this week’s jackpot – £4.3 million. To quote the presenters of the Lottery programme, “it’s a life changing amount”.

It’s significant enough in your life for you to start to think a lot of things that seemed certain are now up for grabs. It’s enough money for the choices which you think you have available to you to suddenly open out.

• So, what would you do next?
• Would you go to work on the Monday?
• How important is work to you?
• How important is the specific work that you are doing?
• What would you choose to do now that you have sufficient money to free up your options?
• How would you use the time you have?

I could continue to generate questions like this. The point of each of these questions is to create a frame of reference within which it is possible to start to ask what the really exciting things are that you want to do with your life. Often, when faced with this scenario the suggestions which emerge are accompanied by an increase in energy levels. Body language becomes more animated.

And of course, in such a dream world, it’s no wonder.

But we can’t all win the lottery. So what is the point of pursuing this line of thinking?

There are several issues being addressed here. On one level, we can see what work means to us – and what the job we are doing means to us. Sometimes when I ask this question the answer will involve going to work on Monday, because it is an important part of that person’s life. They aren’t just turning up to be paid.

As well as this, these questions free us up to think about the things we dream of doing. For a moment, the restrictions of our circumstances are suspended.

Then we can get back to the reality in front of us and start to ask what the limits are to doing these things. Often these limits are not to do with lack of money or time, but are self-imposed limits.

When we realise this, the door unlocks. We are now able to start some credible work to realise some of these dreams.