Step 21: Pay Attention to Your Thoughts
I had this „weird” situation not long time ago that I already wrote about on my fanpage on Facebook. I just want to come back to it one more time, because I want you to start paying attention to something and to start thinking about what is that you want.
Two months ago, I was very frustrated with my situation. I came to NY to follow my dreams and I caught myself dividing my time between something that brings me (some) money, but doesn’t give me fulfillment and takes a lot of my time, and my passion – which is not only writing but other creative stuff that I want to do that doesn’t bring me money (yet) – and I didn’t even have time for that. I met with my friend, he calmed me down a bit and handed me Patti’s Smith book “Just Kids”, saying I have to read it.
I took his advice, I read it and it really helped me (it’s about how she was struggling in NYC when she first moved here, but it’s really about much more than that). It motivated me and I felt like I got the wind in my wings. And soon after that, I felt this urge to go to a SoHo bookstore I haven’t been to in quite a while. I just somehow knew I had to be there. I was going through fashion magazines (and found out that you can buy a candle for $200 – say what?!) and suddenly Patti Smith walked in. She stopped by to sign two boxes of her books because this bookstore sells copies with author’s signature. She was signing “Just Kids” and I froze in my seat, I just couldn’t believe that this was happening. I walked up to her and was standing there like hit by a lightning I told her that it’s so weird because I just finished reading her book a week before, that it was given to me by a friend and that it really helped me. I grabbed one book to buy and she asked me if I wanted her to sign it (duh!). While she was doing it, I showed her a sentence I wrote down in my notebook from her book. “You know, the dreams you had for me weren’t my dreams. Maybe those dreams are meant for you”. She looked at me and said: “It was fate”.
Why do I think this story is so important? First of all – because it was Patti Smith. Second of all – because it was like a sign: “You’ll be fine, Daga”. But not only that. When I told that story to a friend, he said: What a coincidence! And I said right away – No, it wasn’t a coincidence. I don’t believe in coincidences. I believe that whatever happens to you is for a reason and this reason is you. I really believe that you create your own reality. You attract it because you either really wanted them to happen, or you needed them to happen to you – they’re supposed to come to your life to give you a lesson. Every time something happens to me now, I just stop myself and try to evaluate the whole process of thinking behind that. If I was there half an hour later, I wouldn’t have met Patti. Everything worked just for me. No one else talked to her there, most of the people didn’t even notice her. She signed my book and she was gone a few minutes later.
When I came back home, I sat down in my apartment and started thinking. I realized that all these big things I really WANTED in my life, my biggest DESIRES did come true (with NYC and living in Brooklyn on a top of the list). My intention about them was so clear, my FAITH in them was so deep that they just had to happen. Think about things that happened to you already that you’re really happy about. Did they happen like that? Start paying attention to your thoughts, because you really get what you desire.
The funny thing is that I looked at my Instagram feed and an image of Patti Smith was there twice – once over a year before it happened, the second time a month before it happened. Just pay attention. And put the intention out there. And have faith in yourself.
