But I did find a lot of cobwebs on the bookcase and a number of thoughts about unfinished projects that were once dreams of mine. Cobwebs are easy to dust away, but what about those dreams?

At least one dream I had was to have a website for goddess seekers to use as a study and meditation guide. I did get it up and running, Find a Goddess, but I have never gotten the database update page working properly so that it is easy to add new information to the database or to update and edit the mistakes that were entered when I was learning how to design and display information.

I’ve talked to a few people–students mostly–about fixing the code, but they don’t want to mess with it. It’s hard to go in behind someone else and figure out the logic and why something is coded as it is. I’m sure it’s not coded with any style–it was a learning project.

I’ve taken time–several days at a time–to fix this project, which has been on the back burner some three or four years now. Every time I start to work on it, I just get frustrated and  overwhelmed. But I decided that if I could do all the rest of it myself, I could get that page fixed and then plan to spend a hour a week or so updating and making the site the kind of place I wanted it to be.

But today I decided that with the right attitude and some pre-paving, I could plan to tackle the project tomorrow. I’m visualizing feeling calm as I look through the various attempts I’ve made before. I have made some notes on how to think about the code, so that I am not designing and coding with the same synapses. I can write simple code (php/HTML) or I can be creative, but not both at the same time. So I did the design today, and I plan to code tomorrow.

I feel so much better about dusting off this project. I would eventually like to set it up to bring in a little money now and then, with some good affiliate programs or adwords, but I’d mainly like for it to work. I would feel that I’d done what I set out to do.

While it remains to be seen how well the project will go, I feel better by making a decision rather than pushing the thought away that I (AGAIN) have not completed something that was important to me, and that (AGAIN) I am not where I hoped to be by now.

It is okay to let a project go, too. I could even take it down and feel reasonably good about that. But I want to get it working like I envisioned it and learn more about how that works. I have always found that developing a skill pays off in the long run, even if it’s only a little and a little late.

I’ll do an update on this topic next week, but for now, I’m visualizing an updated database with new entries and corrections from the old ones.  Wish me luck! That’s what I’m wishing for myself.

It’s important to clarify to yourself what you want. If you wish to eat your cake and keep your waistline, you need to work on both together. If you wish for one, and then the other, you might not be happy with the results.

In fact, just being happy helps. Begin unhappy takes you out of alignment with what you want, no matter why you are unhappy.  If you write your affirmations and tell yourself how happy you are when you are meditating or at level, but then you come back to the conscious world and bitch and moan and fuss about whatever is not to your liking, you are not in alignment…you are attracting both the part you want, but also the part you don’t want.   If your happiness depends solely on your getting what you asked for, then it would be good to think about that only, and not fret about the things that are now fading away.

Abraham makes it clear that complaining, whining and in other ways focusing on what you don’t want attracts more of that to you.  It’s better to make the best of the situation, to acknowledge what is happening, but then to focus on what you do want, what would be better, and what you can do right now to change how things are.

You might not be able in the moment to change the circumstances, to make all the changes you would like, but you can at least change how you look at it.  For example, I was tired and hungry yesterday when I took a break to help a friend download a program.  Instead of eating lunch and saying that I would check back with her in a few minutes, I tried to just do it.  Her machine is set up differently from mine, and everything seemed to be in a different place than I would have put it.

What would have been a better response?

I could have said, “Let me get some lunch and then I’ll look at it.”

I could have noted that she used Internet Explorer, taken a deep breath and smiled to myself, instead of muttering imprecations against Microsoft. I’m certain that people who don’t find Microsoft irritating don’t have nearly so many problems with their products.

I could have just offered to fix her pictures, since my job allows me to have Photoshop and hers doesn’t. She just wants to retouch her pictures to make herself feel better. Isn’t that why any one of us makes a wish–to feel better.

So, today I am laughing at my own silliness, forgiving myself and programming by imagination a better choice for next time, since my friend still doesn’t have the software she wants.  But I’ll wait until after lunch to do it!

Since I’m the web designer and social networks manager, that ranking looks very good on my yearly evaluation. I had a random thought that I followed up (inspired action) and this ranking seems to be the result. It’s almost like a wink and a nudge from the Universe that I am in the right place and doing the right thing for right now.

Now I wonder what all those internet marketers whose work I’ve been studying…Ed Dale and Tellman and the others…would say about a jump from #14 to #1 in one day, with only a minor tweak to the title tag on a couple of pages? It didn’t work on Yahoo (still #14) or on MSN (#15) or dogpile (#25).

I hope the ranking will hold, because it may help us to recruit 20-30 more students every quarter. If you want to talk about a small niche, there are only about 10,000 chiropractic students at any given time, and we’d like to have our share–about a 700 of them. There is competition–16 other schools in the US, and others abroad–but competition is the name of the game. We’ere selling a high ticket item…a doctor of chiropractic degree–over a six figure price–and it takes 3.5 years of serious work to get. So naturally, we are wanting to attract the students who are looking for us, and we want to be easy to find. I’ll be looking for more ways to keep us up in the rarefied air on Google.

Thank you Universe! Goddess! Google! and all Powers that Be, for this experience. It feels really good to have a wish come true.

I Googled myself, and I am 18 of the top 20 listings. The other two are for a Charlotte E. Babb who was an artist int he 1800s. Her poster of a couple of angels apparently still sells pretty well.

This is part of my dream, and it is coming true.

With all the energy and writing about letting the Universe worry about how, I have to think that some planning could be part of a strategy to grant our own wishes.

I know the GIR-R-DONE crowd is all about action, but I think there needs to be a balance. Project managers suggest working backwards from the goal.

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20. I have a best-selling novel.

19. I have arranged for radio, newspaper, and blog internviews, even if I have to write them.

18. I have added a promotion word count to my daily schedule–not more than 30 minutes, at least 100 words to one of my social network pages. I have also posted ten comments..

17. I have written to authors of books like mine to ask for back cover blurbs.

16. I have a publisher to publish my novel.

15. I have started social network pages about my novel’s subject matter.

14. I have an agent to sell my novel to a traditional publisher.

13. I have started a blog about my novel’s subject.

12. I have submitted my manuscript to an agent.

11. I have a list of agents who handle the kind of writing I do.

10. I have edited my manuscript.

9. I have amazoned (if you can google, you can amazon!) books like mine and written a list of titles and authors.

8. I have a manuscript written.

7. I have googled literary agents who handle my kind of writing.

6. I have scenes written.

5. I have met my word count today during my writing time.

4. I have set a word count for every day (even 200 only 200 words. I am allowed to write more than that.)

3. I have a plan of scenes (See advancedfictionwriting.com)

2. I have a main character, a conflict, an antagonist, and a setting.

1. I have a desire to write a best-seller novel.

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This list took me about 7 minutes to type (I’m a bit slow some days.)

Does it look like a plan to you? It looks like a plan to me.

Do I know how to do all these things today? No, not all of them.

Does it sound like a series of affirmations? I am now able to visualize having done these things since I typed them. They seem more doable than yesterday.

What does your wish look like? What does your plan look like?