What's the Difference Between Wishing and

Writing Down My Desires?

One of my clients asked me that question recently.

Here is my answer.

First, we are pretty well programmed to think that if there's no pain and struggle, there's no gain; so if it's as easy as writing wishes down, it can't be worthwhile or realistic. So anything that goes against that worn-out belief is immediately suspect and undermines our initiative to put it to work.

Without getting into the interconnection between physics, your conscious self and the power of your connection to the limitless power and wisdom of your collective unconscious, let's make this answer as practical as possible.

The thing is, many people argue that simply reaching for things (wishing, dreaming, desiring, planning) is of little consequence to changing anything and may only lead to disappointment and bitterness. Better not to risk it, they say, just stay put and don't get your hopes up. Wishing; it's not real. They say you have to live in the real world; they say, "I know what the real world is"; they say, "It's not what I want, but it's what is."

Most people say, with a very serious, realistic voice, "What good does it do to say different words? Isn't that just a form of denial? I've been shown that I have to face up to reality, the rest is just dreams." I say, without those dreams you can't complain about living with what is. You are the only person who is responsible for making what is, is. So without creating an alternative somehow, you have no alternative than to just settle. But then, wonderful people like you seem to persist, against all realistic odds, to dream, to wish, to desire something better. What's up with that? Let's see what your Deeper Mind, your Ally, has in mind that makes you persist so 'unrealistically'. Maybe there's deeper wisdom hidden within your discomfort with your current reality if we look for it.

If we continue to see things as they are and talk about them as they are, nothing in your current reality can change. You cannot shift things instantly into a very different way than what they are, but you can more easily rearrange your feelings a little at a time into better feelings in anything of importance to you personally. As you make these shifts, you FEEL the emotional difference as improvements in small ways at first. Your world comes more into alignment with your shifted feelings and you begin to notice it happening. In this simple writing process that I'll outline in a moment, writing it down and reading it back to ourselves often, or singing catch phrases of our desires back to ourselves frequently every day counteracts the mind's usual habitual forgetfulness, inconsistency and lack of focus.

Now we can talk about this psychologically as Brief Therapy, Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, as analytical therapy that scrutinizes distortions embedded in erroneous beliefs about reality, but that takes a helluva lot of time, even though they say it's brief. We can just call it making new images and thoughts changing behaviors. But this is sufficient to see as a REALISTIC pattern shift shifting your world by changing your own internal images and feelings singularly internally - at first. But then discrepancies between how your internal state experiences the world and the real world are resolved, the world comes into more perfect alignment with your desires, and what comes into your life and what changes in relationships will reflect those shifted internal images, feelings and thoughts. Inevitably.

Like a magnet you attract thoughts, feelings, experiences, events, relationships and lifestyles with your thoughts and images. Everything you are living right now has been attracted this way! So, by 'seeing reality as it is' you attract and produce more of the same. Change them and change your world, and this is truth.

As you are writing the list of desires, the expression of 'that which shall come into being', seeing things as you would like them to be, your actions and behaviors produce and attract them as you would like them to be!

So, what can we deduce from this? The better it gets inside, then the better it gets outside; the worse it gets inside, then the worse it gets outside. Of course we interact with a complex world, but it responds nonetheless. Because people have been programmed to look mostly at 'what is' and believe there is no alternative, they think of anything else as wishing as a child wishes. They are wrong.

When you simply form in your own mind 'what you want to have in your life', you become like that five percent of the world who gets what they want; you separate yourself automatically by this simple act from the ninety-five percent who have nothing else because they wish for 'nothing else' other than 'what is' and produce more of the same. Not surprising, is it? Actually quite logical. Preventing the self from clarifying what she needs her reality to become creates the reality she does not want. And telling anyone else about the reality she desires (the wish) opens that unsullied desire to more negative programming from well-intended realists about how unreasonable it is in reality to desire something different. But they are wrong.

Writing down a list of that which you desire your reality to become makes you a magnet for that which you desire your reality to become. It is not magic or wishing, it's how reality works. This is how your world comes into being, just like when you get an idea for a graphic design. Then you shape it to something that did not exist before; in the same way you use what you already do in your shaping of your own world as you would with a piece of artwork. Dream it then make it, and that is the only way it can happen, isn't it? Can you make something that did not exist before in graphics without 'wishing' it into existence first? C'mon.

When you put this into action in the way I am about to make clear, then you will never be subject to what others believe, their judgments, or what they want or think. Because you deliberately define where you will be, your freedom requires the world to respond differently. Without defining the difference between where you are and where you want to be you will stay where you are. This is extremely realistic, is it not?

So, if you want to call it wishing as opposed to taking action, fine. But making it happen by writing it down in this way works. Would you not write down a set of directions to be sure to get there correctly? Starting out on a trip aimlessly, without wishing to go to a specific destination, like say, Chicago, and not marking it out on a map will never get you to Chicago! You need both wishing and writing it down, but they are different

Within you is an awesome power anxious to assist you. This Genius that notices literally billions more bits of data all day long than your regular awareness can is extremely powerful. This encyclopedically wise Ally, this powerful Universal engine is perfectly capable and willing to give you anything you earnestly desire if it aligns with your life purpose. And your life purpose may encompass undreamed of riches. But you must be earnest about what you want. Half-hearted wishing or wanting is too wimpy to engage the gears of this mighty engine which is yoked to the material world in a unique way. This omnipotent power is not set in motion by occasional fleeting wishes or wants. If it was, we might all be in big trouble. Only truthful and sincere desire engages those specific conditions of happiness, wealth and health we all seek. The vacillating qualities of your typical consciousness are insufficient to make this wonderful portion deep within you function so potently.

Here is the key. Write down what you want in list or letter form. Write it out in every detail, specific in every way. Write and rewrite it through enough times so that you have it right. Don't hold back or be stingy. Let out your desires, go whole hog. Be sincere and resonate with your own truth and deep desire. No one will see this list except you and your Ally. You can add to it at any time. As you receive them, one by one, you can add, remove or change anything you like. When doubts arise, read the list over. Think, "Others have what they desire, why not me?"

Summarize this list and keep these one or two sentences around you constantly. Compose these words into the phrases of a song that has an up-tempo and is energetic and sing it to yourself often in idle moments or when busy, in the back of your mind.

Hide away the full list in a private, safe place, but find a way to take it out three times daily and read it through. Tell absolutely no one what you are doing. This may be the most difficult part of this process, so stick with it and stay silent. Do Not SHARE THIS. When you have what you desire, THEN you can give this to others as an expression of gratitude, freely. Speak only to your Deep Mind within you about your list, reflecting on the contents of it all day as you go about producing the results you like. Your wonderful, omnipotent Ally will work with you to accomplish your desires, while you do what you may to also create them in reality. For example, if one of your desires is to win the lottery, you must physically purchase a ticket; the Deep Mind requires your full cooperation and actions too!

Obviously, you will not believe any of this at the start, and you should not be expected to have faith at first. Some of your desires may seem in all practicality absolutely unattainable. Place a few clear and simple desires on your list, in the order of their importance, and become aware when these appear. In the end, you have no need to try to understand how your Ally arranges events so you can advance into your desires; these events will unfold quite as naturally as a tree grows from a tiny seed placed in good soil, with good weather and sunshine without your anxious worrying about it helping in the least. The awesome power within you that manages every incredibly complex process in your mind, heart and body does not enter into argument; it is obedient to your desires, your life purpose, and your best interests, even if you are unaware of how it does this. It is always willing and waiting. However, skeptics easily daunt your conscious self. Choose to spend more time with people who have what you desire.

I hope I've answered the question.

Just watch what happens.