A win at lotto may be prevented if you lose motivation. And I don't mean just not buying tickets.

You may have selected your numbers using a winning lottery system and played them for a time, but the urge to succeed dims as you go through the times of little or no return on your investment. Winning lotto seems more remote than ever.

To overcome this feeling, remember that no matter how good any system is, the element of chance always applies, and as with any commitment, the possibility of loss is always present with the possibility of gain. With winning numbers you will also get losing numbers. To push through this psychological barrier brought by little luck you need to be motivated and persistent.

So what motivates you anyway? Do you have a goal? Many people want to pay off debt, go on a world trip, buy a new home, car, arrange an educational fund for their children, or start an art collection.

Perhaps you would like to provide a funding or facility for those who are not as fortunate as you are. Or maybe you have an idea for a business that is just waiting for the right funding to be available €" a business you know will work €" it just requires the start up capital.

Do any of these ideas get you motivated and excited? The thought of a heap of money to do with what you want is stimulating and energising. And if you had it you would be isolated from financial difficulties, at least until the money runs out.

Which brings up a problem. If you win it, what are you going to do with it? The world is littered with examples of rags to riches stories of punters who return to rags nearly as fast as they became rich. They didn't have a PLAN.

While you are not yet at the stage of winning, you had better have a plan, both as a motivation and as a way of securing your future when you do. The French chemist Louis Pasteur said, €Chance favours the prepared mind', and this applies as much to winning the lotto as it does to science. It also allows you to cope with the downside as well as the upside of a win.

So to prepare your mind decide on a particular goal and write it down. The power of a written goal is almost universally acknowledged. Include every detail for what you want €" size, colour, and location details €" everything you can think of. Try to see the object or place in your mind's eye. Cut out pictures as an aid to visualisation and place them where you can see them frequently. If it's a new home, see yourself in it. If it's a way of bringing help to those who need it, maybe a scholarship of some kind, imagine the excitement of those who receive it, and live it with them. You are the creator of their new-found happiness, after all.

So plan every detail of what you will do with your winnings. In thinking in this way and committing your intent to writing you are placing yourself in a mind frame that goes well beyond any possible lottery success. You are grooming yourself to be spiritually rich as well as dollar rich, lottery win or not. You are inspired and moved by your laser focus on your goal, which is the first step in achieving it.

This concentration keeps you moving steadily in the direction of success, when everyone else is giving up. This persistence is what in the end turns your dreams into reality.