Do Something. New. Today

Years before I heard anything about the Law of Attraction, I met a clairvoyant at a writers’ conference in Ft. Lauderdale and she told me that I had a way of moving heaven and earth to bring amazing things tome but at the same time denying them to myself.  Could I simply learn to accept what I worked so hard for?

She was right.  I began to notice how often I would work to make things happen and then, once it was right there for the taking, I came up with reasons not to accept it.  I pushed those experiences and results away, supposedly because I didn’t have the time or the money or someone else needed it more than I did or…you name it. Always a reason NOT to indulge myself.

So I decided to make a list of the things I wanted to experience and if the occasion should ever arise to experience anything on my list, I “had” to do it.  Otherwise, if I didn’t tell myself I had to take advantage of what came to me, then I would always find some excuse not to enjoy it.

My initial list had 10 items on it, and as I one-by-one encountered those items, I checked them off and replaced them with a new “to be experienced.”  But checking off my wishlist was something that happened later.  Initially, I made the list and then forgot about it, lost in the whirlwind of everyday life.

A couple of months later, one of my engineers asked my help on the acquisition strategy for a new technology we were working on with the Brits.  He was spending a significant portion of the year in London and needed me to travel there with him to make sure the Ministry of Defence representatives agreed with our strategy.  I’d seen London before and loved it and would return in a heartbeat, but what I really wanted to see was the Glastonbury Tor–on the other side of the country. That’s what I’d put on my list.  Visiting Stonehenge and the Tor.  Still, I wasn’t about to turn down the trip, even though I was a little concerned about leaving my young children with grandparents or about being gone from the office for that long or any one of a million other reasons. Business required me to go to London, regardless.

According to my engineer, the business trip would take a week and I’d have some downtime in London but, he thought, I might not be happy about the first few days of the trip because that meant meeting a different team in Bristol, on the opposite coast.  A couple of hours’ bus ride from the Tor or Stonehenge. 

My two-day meeting in Bristol wrapped up in one, giving me an entire day to explore.  I spent probably three hours atop the Tor, barefoot, mist and breeze in my hair, with only one or two other visitors there during the entire time.  It was a wonderful spiritual experience for me, and because it was “on my list,” I had to take advantage of the opportunity. No telling myself I didn’t have time or I needed to rush back to London or I might get lost and miss my train.  Nope, I had to do it.

Around the same time, I picked up a local newspaper I rarely read and somehow found myself thumbing through the want ads.  I have no idea why. But there was the ad–a local man wanting to find people to fence with “for fun” and willing to teach them.  Fencing was on my list!  It was something I’d always wanted to learn.  And because it was on my list and
an unexpected opportunity had presented itself, I had to take action. 

I took a basic six weeks of instructions from my new fencing coach, found out how much I LOVED it, introduced my seven-year-old to it, and then my five-year-old.  For several years, it was a mommy-daughter weekly event and was good for all three of us in many ways.

But without my list, I never would have pursued the opportunity!

Then again, from a Law of Attraction standpoint, putting it on the list in the first place helped to draw the opportunity.  Telling myself I “had” to take action when a list opportunity presented itself was what kept me from pushing away something wonderful for me.