This is a phrase that's bandied around an awful lot of the time. I even saw a joke post on Facebook the other day where someone had vandalized a postcard with this caption, scribbled out "wait" and replaced it with "work bloody hard!" So, is it even true?
It's certainly true that we don't get anywhere by lying around in bed all day. And it's equally true that in order to achieve most of our significant goals we need to formulate plans, set goals and (as Tony Robbins of Unleash the Giant Within would put it) exert massive and persistent effort. All these things are guaranteed to help propel you towards your aim. If nothing else they help prepare a state of focus and give your subconscious the impression of moving forwards. That's never a bad thing.
But there is an awful lot of positive writing around these days about meditating and creating the mindset that makes things happen. This seems a little passive. This is where things start becoming a bit "chicken and egg" like. What comes first? Does the thought create the physical object or does the physical object exist and elicit the thought? Is it even possible that a thought can create anything?
I don't think anyone can answer that question definitively apart from relating it to their own experience. Have you ever noticed how if you set your heart on something, suddenly there are masses of that one thing around. Or if you "put it out there" in the Universe that you want something to happen that suddenly opportunities and coincidences start to appear almost as if the very thought conjured them into existence.
Whether it's coincidence, attraction or a heightened state of awareness that creates the illusion that there are more incidences of a desired thing in your life, one thing is true. Results do start to happen when we "set our mind" to something.
I used to play a game when I went shopping in the car. I thought of the parking space I wanted and drove to the store. Nine out of ten times the one I had visualized was actually vacant or a car pulled out of it just as I arrived.
Today I arrived at Stansted Airport to pick up a rental car. I looked at the queue and decided that grabbing a coffee after my flight was a better option. As I had my coffee I thought, wouldn't it be cool if all of my class of car was gone by the time I finished my coffee, joined the queue and arrived at the counter? One thing all the New Age philosophies are clear on is that to achieve these goals using these techniques you have to focus your mind. This is the purpose of using something like a vision board so that you have a real point of focus and somewhere tangible and measurable to direct your efforst. So I set about it using the kind of mantra and mind calming techniques I use with Tibetan Singing bowls.
I entered a calm state (not hard given that I'd been travelling since 4am) and opened my mind to the possibilities that such focusing energy could have. And then the trick is to relax. As Barbel Mohr says in her book The Cosmic Ordering Service, if you were to keep bugging the Customer Service department for the thing you want then you'd probably only succeed in irritating them. So just let go!
Guess what... No sooner was I at the counter than I was told they had to upgrade me because only the higher class of car remained. There would, of course, be no extra charge. So, it seems, at least sometimes good things come to those who wait.
