I love reading Mike Dooley’s TUT quotes from The Universe. They often serve as wonderful reminders of the power of our thoughts and, as Mike is wont to say, that thoughts become things. The most recent quote really struck a chord with me:

Life’s so called “tests,” Trane, aren’t really tests at all. And to dispel a common misconception, they certainly aren’t given by me.

They’re just the facts and circumstances one has unintentionally crafted with their focus, that, ever so conveniently reveal powers not yet claimed and understandings not yet grasped.

Amazing how these things work themselves out, huh?
The Universe

This concept isn’t new to those of us who have long thought about manifesting, the Law of Attraction, The Secret and other variations on the “thoughts become things” theme. The perspective of this one, however, is an important one because it reminds us that we are not victims.

The role of victim is at once both disempowering and comforting. It’s comforting because it takes responsibility away from us. It enables us to leave everything regarding our life experience up to other, outside forces. We like to bandy about the concepts of fate and destiny in order to excuse us from the responsibility of the unfolding of our lives. The result is a feeling of being powerless to do anything about what goes on.

Reality is different. Entirely different.

Life’s tests are created by us by way of how we view life. It’s a chicken/egg problem: Is life hard and therefore we think it’s hard, or is life hard because we think it is? The difference in the sentence is subtle, but the ramifications in life are anything but subtle. The former represents a disempowered perspective; the latter represents an empowered perspective.

If you can accept that life has been hard because your thoughts made it so, you can, therefore, accept the task of improving your life experience by improving the quality of the thoughts you think. And when you begin to succeed in that task, things brighten. That brightening begets brighter thoughts and those thoughts beget even better experiences.

In a very real sense, we’re all prophets. Our thoughts about our lives very accurately predict the future we’ll experience. Expecting life to be difficult creates difficulty. Do you expect bills to magically appear in the mail JUST when you’re starting to get on your feet financially? Prest-o-change-o, the universe is only too happy to oblige. Remember: successful people expect to be successful.

What is it you want to create? Don’t think money. It might seem as though “I want to win the lottery” is the answer, but money isn’t the goal, ultimately, it’s the vehicle that enables you to get to your goal. Right? So, what is it you want? To make it easy for you, here are a few things that I’m looking to create and/or maintain in my life:

• Abundance of well-being
• Abundance of money
• Wonderful connection and communication with my kids
• Freedom to continue building Living Intentionally for it to become my primary source of income
• Synergy between Living Intentionally and my partner’s company, Salon Nirai, such that our services complement the other
• A quiet home in the peaceful countryside, hopefully in Canada (and my kids all need to benefit from this, not just me and/or my wife)

Some of those things, such as a possible move from Japan to Canada, are all in the realm of, “Boy, wouldn’t that be nice, but how the heck can we make that happen?” And it’s at this point that it’s worth reminding everybody that the latter “how can we make that happen” part isn’t our job to determine. That’s up to Source.

Think. Feel. Act. These are the triumvirate of creating reality. Think about what you want. Feel how it’ll be to have it come true. And of special importance, act on the opportunities that arise to bring that reality toward you.

Sometimes, the steps we take will seem so infinitesimally small as to not even be worth it, but I’m convinced that any step toward our goal is a step in the right direction. Being positive and grateful for all progress toward our goal sets us up for new opportunities.

Availing oneself to opportunity is the hallmark of success. Assume a can-do attitude and don’t give up on your dreams. Dreaming is what creates new possibilities. Doing is what brings those possibilities to fruition.

Dream. Dream big. And then do something about it.