Unexpected Success

I learned this at least by my experiment that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. - Henry David Thoreau

Have you ever had something go incredibly well? Better than you expected? Better than you even thought it might? Or have you ever had a great idea or a sudden need and discovered yourself right outside the correct store or a coworker whose brother was an expert in whatever you needed? There are all kinds of ways that the universe will give you what you want and what you need when you go after the life you want.

If you don’t believe in a Higher Power or if you believe that a coincidence is just a coincidence, then read this paragraph and no further. It’s a similar situation as when you (or someone you know) get pregnant, and you see all around you advertisements for baby clothes, pregnant women, or shelf upon shelf of baby food in the grocery store. Those things have always been there. You just didn’t notice them. But now that your life is affected by babies, the baby-related items stick out in your memory. Life and success can be a lot like that. You may never know that your coworker has a brother who owns an art gallery until you start to work at your dream of painting and casually mention it at work. If you hadn’t started up your dream, if you hadn’t been confident enough in your abilities, then you wouldn’t have mentioned it. So you wouldn’t have known. There are a lot of different connections that people have. A person’s life is varied and rich. But you might not know that until you say something. And you might not say something until you start creating your Future, working on your dream, living your Life. And thus, in the “common hours” before your created, worked, and lived, you didn’t know just how much help was only a person or two away. Your success would be “unexpected”.

Me, I believe in a Higher Power. I believe that this Higher Power helps those who help themselves. I believe everything I wrote in the previous paragraph, but I also believe that the Higher Power will help you out. This help may take the form of gifts, loans, contacts, opportunities, or troubles. Even your troubles may be a good thing. They might slow you down if you’re not ready, test your resolve until you are certain that this is what you want no matter what, discourage you from a bad opportunity that looks really good, or strengthen you by forcing you to learn skills that you just didn’t want to learn before. You can get something out of adversity, if you look hard enough (and if you’re willing to get something out of it).

Your Future most likely will be even more wonderful that you had imagined, but only if you advance in the direction of your dreams and keep confidence in yourself and your goals.