What is a part of your life today that was once just a dream? What was merely just a hope, wish or desire that is now realized and a part of your life today? I know there are aspects of your life that once seemed impossible or incredibly difficult to achieve, yet you found a way.
Perhaps it was a job or position you wanted even though it seemed beyond your reach. Was it a place you always wanted to visit, a car you dreamed of driving or an addiction you wanted to break free from? Maybe it was a person, someone you thought you could never go out with and now you are together with them. It doesn’t have to be something big. Often times, small accomplishments that seemed difficult or impossible provide us with the blueprint to realizing the impossible.
You are the creator of your life, not just the manager of your circumstances. To reconnect with this truth, take a moment now and jot down a few things you have created in your life. Write down three or more things that used to be just a dream, only a possibility, that you now enjoy as part of your life. Please don’t just think about these, don’t skip this exercise. Write them down now. I can wait! 🙂
Ok, now that you have written them down, you should be reminded that you are not just a reactive being, dealing with issues in your life as they come up. You can bring about change and can work to design your life and achieve your goals. If you study the many examples of people who have taken the impossible and turned it into reality, you realize that there are 3 steps to achieving your dreams; 3 steps to making anything a reality; 3 steps to creating what I call a completed thought.
Step 1: The Eye of the Tiger – Awakening Desire
Something happens inside of us that switches on a burning desire. We become inspired by something which excites us so much that it opens up inside us a flood of hunger. Or maybe we reach a new low in life, a new bottom, and decide that we won’t settle for this anymore. With burning passion we affirm that we will never go back to the way things have been and we tenaciously push for the creation of something better.
We become obsessed with it and our focus narrows in on it like a laser beam. Our attention is fixated with such intensity to achieve this goal that we scarcely see anything else. All of our being is devoted to its fulfillment and completion into reality.
Have you ever bought something, a car or some clothing, and afterwards you suddenly saw it everywhere? Before you never noticed it, but now it seems to be all over the place? Why did this happen? It is because of part of your subconscious mind called the reticular activating system.
This part of your brain knows that this object you bought, that is now yours, is important and it obediently performs its function of letting you know every time you encounter it. The reticular activating system is now on high alert for this particular thing and will notify you whenever it sees it.
Let’s say, for example, you decide to start a business selling lighting and light fixtures. Lights and light fixtures were always around you, yet you never noticed them. But now, because your brain has labelled these as important, you begin to notice them everywhere. You study them, learn about them and see things you never saw before. This is the narrowing in of your focus and, with it, comes immense power. This power propels you onto step 2.
Step 2: The Chase – Taking Action
If you are hungry and become obsessively focused in on your goal you will do whatever it takes to achieve it. Perhaps someone you loved was sick or in pain and you moved heaven and earth to help them out. Or maybe your way of life was threatened and you harnessed all of your resources to stabilize it. When we must do something, rather than feel we should, come hell or high water, we find a way.
And usually we have to try more than once. You try something and it doesn’t work. But you don’t give up, because you have already decided that it must come to pass, so you try something else. Again and again you summon the resources and the strength to figure out how to achieve your goal. We do not just take one small step, we take action repeatedly. You execute your plan carefully and adapt your approach until it works. Sooner or later we get smarter and more effective until, at last, we succeed. And it is the third step which gives us the critical thrust, the final boost, to realize success.
Step 3: The Right Moment Presents Itself – Serendipity
Sometimes we call it coincidence, fate, luck, destiny or divine intervention. I like to call it serendipity. It is a fortunate occurrence or a pleasant surprise. We say we had a lucky break or the gods were shining on us that day. It was meant to be.
It’s amazing how when you take care of the first two steps, the universe seems to rally behind you, cheering you on and devoting its own resources to your goal. Your desire has built up to such an extent that it seeps through your pores out into the universe and your will power to make it happen is so immense that it cannot be ignored. At some point, it is as if something steps in to help you out. Things begin flow smoothly and something happens which defies explanation and logic.
We take a wrong turn and end up meeting our future spouse. We help someone out of a jam and discover a new career or passion. We are late for a meeting and end up stumbling into a new opportunity. We just happen to be at the right place at the right time and something magical happens. We didn’t plan for it, we didn’t arrange it. It was as if it was a gift, a kind favor which just fell into our lap.
As far as I can tell, the more you do step one and two, the more serendipity is attracted to you. I cannot explain it, but I know it to be true. I do not know from where it comes, but I know it exists. And the more we acknowledge it and are grateful for it, the more blessed we feel. In these moments of appreciation, there is no fear, no anger and no hatred. There is only an awareness of the beauty of the workings of the universe, a humbling that comes from realizing how little we are, and yet a feeling of immense gratitude for knowing that there is something beyond our comprehension which cares enough about us to help us out.