A week or two ago, I — along with everyone else in America — got distracted by the idea of winning half a billion dollars in the darn lottery. I know all about the odds. How it would be like getting struck by lightening while being eaten by a shark while your plane crashed, or whatever other way you can express “very unlikely.” But for a few days, I was taken in.

I thought a lot about what I would do (start a foundation), where I would go (everywhere), what I would learn (master’s in historic preservation), and how much time I would spend in warm places during the winter (plenty). I saw a lot of discussion on Facebook and Twitter about the changes other people would make with their gazillion dollars as well.

I dutifully checked the numbers that Saturday morning and was shocked to find that I was not a sudden almost-billionaire. Then got on with my regular life.

It left me thinking this, though. If there’s so much that we — and I do mean me, too — would change with a lot more money, are there things we should change without it? I mean, obviously the private island is not an option. But what we dream about might reveal something about our passions and our priorities. And perhaps that gives us a little bit of a roadmap for our real-life lives as well.