As I wander through this grand thing called life, sniffing flowers here, avoiding cars there, I can’t help but think back to things that have had me thinking about how I live my life. Two sources of unique inspiration that I’ve had is the book “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho and the book/video called “The Secret”. Long time readers of Wax Porhetoric (or new fans that happen to have read through it all) know that I’m a firm believer in keeping a positive attitude as we move on through life. I also believe that we don’t need to fight so hard to achieve what we want. Yes, we must work for what we want and need in life, but it doesn’t have to be a constant struggle.
Here’s where my brain gets a bit twisted at times however. “The Alchemist” states “When a person really desires something, all the universe conspires to help that person realize his dream.” Fair enough. You desire it, you think about it constantly, the universe ensures you get what you desire.
One of the “secrets” of “The Secret” is that your thoughts control your universe…that your manifest what you think”. Thus, if you think long and hard about what you want to achieve, you will achieve it. I’ve often lived this throughout my life too. A positive attitude toward a goal leads to a positive outcome and conversely a negative attitude begets the negative thoughts you’ve been harboring.
Now for my conflict…what if you’re not really sure what you want? Will the universe still help to conspire to make you happy? For instance, in my heart Santa Cruz is home to me. I long to be back there. And I know I will some day. I’m in Atlanta now. I’m enjoying my time here…fairly active in the local music scene, captain and player of a soccer team, have a great group of friends here. For the longest time I haven’t been able to figure out if I should focus on one place or the other to be happy in. At some point I just gave up and figured “well hell…I’ll just let the universe do what it feels is best for me”. Perhaps I’m supposed to spend a bit more time in Atlanta before making my way back to Santa Cruz. If that’s the case, then continuously thinking about Santa Cruz would be detrimental to me achieving what I want in achieving happiness here in Atlanta. Conversely, if I spent all my energy on trying to find a good job and place to live here in Atlanta, would I be forgoing good opportunities to get back to Santa Cruz as this is where my focus has been?
Alas…such is the great question I pose to you all. For me, I live my life according to a mix of the two. A firm believer of positive thinking and that you manifest what you believe and feel. Sometimes you just gotta give up a bit of control however and let destiny take you where you fit best in the grand scheme of things.
Happy thoughts to you all. Keep reaching for those goals no matter how ridiculous they may seem. Who cares what you’ve been schooled in, what you’ve been taught to believe. The best thing for you is what makes YOU happy. After that, everything around you is affected and the happiness spreads.
