Going After the Things You Want

“Television is a medium because it is neither rare nor well done” – Ernie Kovacs

I have the kind of cold that sends you underground. This place is either your bed, or the room where your TV resides. I grew up in a home where daytime TV was considered verboten. The message I absorbed was that couch potatoes fall into two categories: (1) they suffer from a debilitating illness, or (2) they are malingerers.

So, of course, when this mother of all colds hit this week, I hit the TV trail. And Oprah was my first pitstop. Adam Lambert and Susan Boyle were her guests, and I settled in with my blankie, a box of man-sized Kleenex, and a hefty mug of scalding tea. My greatest wish was to escape, even for an hour, the constant need to blow my nose and hack into my arm.  

What I didn’t expect was that I’d end up sobbing into my Kleenex, while warbling along with Adam Lambert. And I certainly didn’t expect to be jolted out of my snug, safe place by two such divergent personalities as Adam Lambert and Susan Boyle.

As soon as the credits rolled at the end of the show, I ran for my journal. My hand flew across the page, downloading everything that’s been sitting inside, afraid to show its face to the world (or at least some of it):

• Don’t be afraid of what you want.
• And don’t be afraid of going after it.
• Visualize your dream; then take action.
• Take what you do seriously, but have fun with it.                                                           
• Your gift lies within, but it belongs to the world.
• So give it – fearlessly, willingly, lovingly. The world has never seen your gift before, I promise you.

We Attract Who We Are

I stumbled across a blog post about a basic law of the universe: we attract who we are. According to the author,

“Positive persons are:

• Committed to developing compassion towards themselves and others, and having an open heart
• Courageous about following their dreams
•  Those who seek to be authentic and believe in themselves, even when externals are crumbling
• Aware of their darkside, and are trying to heal it
• Willing to learn from mistakes

 Positive persons aren’t:

• Perfect, phony, or positive all the time
• Beating themselves to a pulp over shortcomings or a black hole of pessimism
• Constantly mired in fear or tolerant of letting their hearts harden.
• Squeaky clean do-gooders who neglect their own well-being.
• Saccharine pleasers who ignore their darkside and unconsciously act it out at the expense of others.”

Bulls-eye. It hit me right between the eyes, and came to me at the perfect time.

Today, I made a decision to change my life. Not a life-altering, seismic shift in my life, but rather, a change in the way I think.

In short, I am going to do what I want. No one else will care, but I will. And so, I am packing up my kit bag and going on the road. Nothing like Jack Kerouac, mind you, who is best known for his book, On the Road. More like Laura Ingalls Wilder, who waited until she was in her 60s before daring to show anyone her manuscript.

Well, I’m not in my 60s, but close enough. Close enough to retirement that an inner voice, today, rose up in terror – or could it be I’m just plain sick-and- tired of letting my dream of writing a novel rise up in the air and drift away, like a child’s prized balloon? – and demanded to be heard.

If we attract who we are, then it stands to reason that I need to get proactive. That is, spend time actually writing.

Another blog post came my way, with a great waving of arms in the air, shouting to me that journaling is the best way to practice the art of writing.

“Perfect!”, I thought. In hindsight, I realize this is the reason I created this blog in the first place.

If I am to attract who I am, then let’s get on with it. Commit to my dream, take tiny steps each day to move it forward, and voila! According to the law of attraction, I will attract only positive, like-minded people into my orbit.

What about you? What’s your dream? What have you kept under lock and key, too afraid to show to anyone but Izzie, your pet Iguana?