Dan In Focus

Write It Down, Make It Happen: Knowing What You Want And Getting It by Henriette Anne Klauser ★★★★★

Several yard ago, I saw this book recommended in Making a Living Without a Job: Winning Ways for Creating Work That You Love by Barbara Winter. It sat on my list of books to buy for over five years. This Christmas, I was reviewing my list, trying to decide which book would be my “Christmas book”. Every year, we have a tradition where everyone gets a book to read. I finally moved it off the list of Someday to Today. The ironic thing is, once I started reading, I realized I must have checked it out from the library years ago, because I had already read it.

Still, it was a good refresher course. Some books need more than one reading and this is one of them. Klauser has made a study on how people get what they want. She postulates that the easiest way to accomplish something is to write it down somewhere, anywhere. The subconscious then takes over and works out a way to make it happen.

The book is filled with many examples of people receiving exactly what they desired. She isn’t suggesting that it doesn’t take work along with writing it down, but the chances of success are increased dramatically. There is something about the act of writing that helps clarify and bring the desire into focus. Then, once focus is achieved, things begin lining up to deliver the goal.

The skeptical side of me doesn’t want to believe it actually is that easy. The dreamer side of me says try it. I took one of my extra moleskine notebooks and started writing. I put down all sorts of wild desires. Some are concrete, like “I want to play French horn in a symphony.” Others are vague, such as “I want to do things and not second guess myself.” I decided to record the date I wrote the desire, just in case I want to go back and see when I wrote it down. I only have four pages filled so far, but it is enjoyable to go back and read them already, just a month later.

In a second section of the book, I decided to write down when one of those dreams are fulfilled. One dream I wrote down in early January was that I wanted to be a people manager again, leading a team to be the best they can be. That dream was fulfilled February 11, 2012, when I was promoted to Core Services Application Manager at work. That position didn’t exist when I wrote down the goal. About a week after I wrote it down, my director asked me how I would set up support of the application we are installing. A month later he created the position and I was hired. One dream down…

I have become a big fan of writing dreams and desires. I believe there is something about the act of taking a pen and paper, organizing thoughts and committing them in written words. It helps refine the focus and allow the subconscious to begging working on the way to make it happen.

This book inspired me to start writing down what I want. It also spurred me to changing the way I choose and write goals. I have already seen the effects of making goals that are geared toward achieving the desires I have recorded in my little book. I truly believe I can make some of those dreams come true through the employment of targeted goals. Others may happen by small miracles. I look forward o recording the fruition in the second half of the book. I eagerly await those entries.