.

in our life, and then imagining the steps to achieving it.

      Everything we create in our life starts out as a mental image in our minds, whatever we're doing, whether it's baking a cake or planning a holiday or designing a garden. So we have practical experience of the fact that it's not difficult to harness the natural power of our imagination to create a clear image of how we want our life to be. When we form that mental image, we can then allow it to become the experience so that we really can see and feel ourselves in the situation we want, giving it hopeful, positive energy. It's important to be in as relaxed a state as possible, in day-dreaming mode as it were.

      It may be helpful to write down in a specially designated notebook our goal and the steps needed to achieve it. Visions can become reality when we are specific and when we work on visualizing our future—perhaps for five to ten minutes a day, whatever situation we're in. Consistency is important, as is the need for flexibility, so that we can adapt and reposition ourselves should the unexpected happen, as it likely will.

      Using actual images is also helpful. It's said that a picture is worth a thousand words, and certainly the subconscious mind does not distinguish between a real or imagined situation. Using images also works because it overrides any negative self-talk that gets in the way of achieving our objective. It's also a way of telling the universe of our wish to manifest something different for the future.

      We can collect images from magazines or draw pictures of what we want to create and paste them into our notebook or on a board so that we can use them as reminders. We can place them where we will be able to see them every day, perhaps on our dressing table, our desk, or in the kitchen. We can try to picture ourselves in this future scenario and how it feels. Imagining a timeline is helpful too—“by X, I will have achieved Y,” etc. Constantly reviewing and making adjustments to this work in progress is also a good idea.

      Gradually, as time passes, identifying our goals and working toward them become a habit. With a new way of life, with a sense of purpose, we begin to feel differently, we begin to behave differently—and things begin to change.

       I proclaim to the universe that I am manifesting something magnificent for the future.

       I am using my imagination to create a picture of how my new life is unfolding.

       I am developing a sense of purpose.

      10. Embracing our unique destiny

      When we follow our dreams, we're choosing hope over fear. Instead of feeling as though we're staring into an abyss and everything is hopelessly impossible, we dare to believe that things can be better. Our current circumstances can change because we choose to change. We can become commensurate with what life offers us now, seeing the possibilities that are there, and envisioning a future that is more alive and meaningful. Mark Nepo, a poet-author of great insight and understanding, wrote: “Our job is to nourish the spark of life we each carry inside us.” Our unique destiny is to live a life that is meaningful and therefore makes us happy.

      Victor Frankl, the famous Viennese psychiatrist who survived the Holocaust and wrote about his experiences in a Nazi concentration camp in his best-selling book, Man's Search for Meaning, concluded that it was “meaning” that made the difference between those who lived and those who died:

      Everything can be taken from a man but one thing, the last of human freedoms—to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.

      Our unique purpose is to find meaning, to understand the value of suffering, and to feel that we are responsible to something greater than ourselves. It is finding this satisfying life purpose that makes us happy rather than pursuing happiness itself. It is the pursuit of meaning that is paramount, which means devoting our lives to giving rather than taking. When we embrace our unique destiny and learn to serve, we exude energy and joy and so become a beacon of hope for others.

      Harriet Tubman, a great icon of American freedom, was certainly a beacon of hope for others. Born a slave, she was frequently beaten and suffered a severe head wound that caused her health problems throughout her life. Her faith in God, however, was unshakeable.

      In 1849, with hope in her heart and an image of a better life for herself, she had the courage to make a bid for freedom. Not content with that alone, she returned to rescue her family, gradually bringing them all to safety. With an even greater sense of purpose, she then guided dozens of slaves to freedom, traveling at night and on foot—helped by a network of activists—and avoiding the slave catchers. Her trust that God would keep her and those she was helping safe proved valid, for none of them was ever caught. She went on to rescue more than 750 slaves during the American Civil War.

      In her later years, Harriet Tubman worked to promote the cause of women's suffrage. She died in 1913 at age ninety, and has inspired generations of black Americans struggling for equality and civil rights.

      Her words remind us how important it is to create our meaningful vision of the future:

      Every great dream begins with a dreamer.

      Always remember, you have within you the

      strength, the patience, and the passion to reach

      for the stars to change the world.

       I choose to change.

       I nourish the spark of life I carry inside myself.

       I have everything I need to change my world.

      Chapter 2

      Having conviction and holding on to our ideals

       You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so that you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.

      —MAYA ANGELOU

      Once we've set our internal compass toward a vision of a better future, there is less chance of us coming unstuck, even if we experience setbacks. We're buoyed up by hope, having faith in our dream, and even the smallest of events seems imbued with possibility. Instead of doubting and being fearful, we're able to use all our ingenuity and imagination to fathom out how to reach our goals. We've made a commitment to this undertaking, and we intend to see it through. As the poet Langston Hughes, the leading voice of the Harlem Renaissance, wrote, “Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.”

      According to psychologist Charles R. Snyder, who came up with the “Hope Theory,” those of us who have hope have the will and determination to reach our goal, as well as the strategies to get there. Hope enables us to believe that we have the capacity to attain the future we've envisaged.

      When the commitment to our vision is total, to the extent that we cannot turn back, we can move forward. When fully committed, we achieve the seemingly impossible because not only does commitment give us the necessary energy and self-belief, but we're also fueled by the unexpected help that always follows as an inevitable result. Goethe, the great German Romantic writer, described this process:

      Until one is committed

      there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back,

      always ineffectiveness.

      Concerning all acts of initiation (and creation)

      there is one elementary truth

      the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans:

      That the moment one definitely commits oneself

      Then Providence moves too.

      All sorts of things occur to help one

      That