I love acronyms – don’t know why – maybe because they make me stop and think. Anyway, I came up with a great one the other day when I was in the middle of having a “pity party”. What’s a pity party? I’m going to bet you know exactly what I mean. It’s when you just sit there, wallowing in everything that’s wrong with your life. We all do it – thankfully, not all that often. So anyway, I was wallowing and then suddenly it was like someone flipped a switch. I sort of “woke up” and thought, “This feels like SHIT.” Yep, that pretty much summed it up. And then I thought (I do this a lot) “What does SHIT stand for?” The answer came immediately Stuck Here In Thought. And that’s exactly how I felt – STUCK.

Then I thought, “Well, if this sucks so much, what is it that I DO want?” What’s the opposite of this? And so I started writing down the polar opposite to my SHIT LIST. My WISH LIST. That felt pretty good for a while because at least I was actually thinking about something positive. And then that familiar feeling of lethargy came over me again. I started losing my momentum…starting losing that energy I had been feeling while I was wishing. Why, I asked myself? The answer came immediately again – because I am just sitting here wishing and wondering Will It Somehow Happen? (new acronym : WISH) It’s just wishing!

So I sat there for a while, thinking about that. And then I started thinking about “the Secret”. You know, the theory that if you visualize what you want, the Universe will somehow magically deliver it to you? How many of you believe in The Secret? How many of you WANT to believe it’s true? Well – it is.

What?! BS! And we all know what BS stands for! Just humor me for a minute here – just stick with me. Have you have ever pushed a big rock or boulder over the edge of a steep hill? (it’s OK, you can admit it here – it’ll be our little secret) Have you? Me too!  Anyway, it took a lot of effort to push that rock over the edge, but once it started rolling – MAN! There was NO stopping it! It crashed down that hill, taking out everything in its way! It was really exciting and energizing to watch and hear it!

So where am I going with this? Back to my WISH LIST. In that moment, I had a flash of insight. I decided to rename my WISH LIST. I decided to name it my DAREDREAM LIST. Because it was pretty daring to even dream that stuff up! But I had, and I wanted to do more than just WISH it would happen. Then I played my old acronym game. What does DARE stand for?

Direct Affect Requires Energy. Notice how I didn’t use the word effort? That’s for 2 reasons: Firstly, the word effort itself has a negative connotation. Secondly, the word Energy has exactly the opposite connotation. Remember that rock? Yes, it took some effort to get it moving, but once it started, the Energy suddenly multiplied exponentially! It just took off! That’s the kind of energy I’m talking about here.

Back to my WISH LIST. Will it somehow happen? Not if I don’t DO something! That’s the key here. I have to give it some energy – not effort – energy. I have to get the ball rolling – literally.

So how does all of this tie in with The Secret? This is where I am going to go scientific on you. Neuroscience has shown that we can “program” our brains. You heard me right. We can program our brains. How do we do that? By visualizing. Actually, more than visualizing. We need to imagine what we want as if we were living it. See it, feel it, smell it, hear it, touch it in our imagination. What good does that do? Well, firstly, it makes us feel good. It actually releases certain chemicals into the body that do more than just make us feel good. They MOTIVATE us. They stimulate the motivational side of the brain – the genius, creative side of the brain. It’s a little like programming a GPS. You put in the destination and start driving (that’s KEY here – you have to DO something – not just sit in the car!) Once you start driving, the GPS communicates with satellites which have a bird’s eye view of where you are and where you want to go. The GPS then chooses a route to get you there. And as long as we are using this as an analogy to LIFE, let’s just be honest. Sometimes, SHIT happens. There’s an accident and it blocks your way. What does the GPS (your brain) do? Finds a way to get around the obstacle. And sometimes you don’t listen to it – (that’s when you have your Pity Party.) That’s when you get stuck. But the good news is, all you have to do is START MOVING AGAIN – and your GPS (the genius side of your brain) will pick up where you left off and get you to your destination!

I know it sounds incredible. And it is. But if you think about it – it’s pretty logical.

Now this is where I am going to go unscientific on you. Let’s say you saw an ad for a car and you REALLY liked it. You had never seen it before that ad, but once you saw it, you were in LOVE with that car.  You dreamed of owning it one day. Then you started seeing that car all over the place! What happened? You’d never seen it before you saw that ad, but now it’s everywhere! Was it really not out there before? Or is your brain now just SUBCONSCIOUSLY looking for it – and finding it? Your GPS was programmed, whether you did it consciously or not!

This is where we can leverage the Universe! By CONSCIOUSLY visualizing what we want, we are programming our brain to look for ways to get it – we are activating the genius, creative side of the brain – and it is constantly looking for ways to get us there – and finding possibilities we were not aware of previously.

You know what I’m talking about. Suddenly you remember that guy you met at a cocktail party over a year ago, who is a website designer. And someone else who would be perfect to partner with. You suddenly have all these amazing new ideas!

And then there are those “serendipities” or “coincidences” that “just happen.” That person who calls you “out of the blue” and offers you exactly what you’ve been looking for.

That’s the Universe at work in the background…that’s where you are tapping into something bigger than you – call it collective consciousness – call it whatever you want. But sometimes there is just no other explanation….

MIRACLES DO HAPPEN!  

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