Ask, Believe, Participate

I recently was at a meeting where the speaker talked about creating miracles. He outlined three steps that stayed with me despite the fact that I didn’t write them down. I’d heard versions of this before in various places, but he said it so succinctly: Ask, Believe, Participate.

Sometimes we might wonder if we’re worthy of receiving a miracle.  If this describes you replace the word miracle with outcome or results as you read.

Now, let’s review each step in more detail:

1. Ask or pray for the miracle. You could also describe this as setting an intention (what outcome do you want).  Some people ask the universe for their miracle, others pray to God, both work!  When asking for your miracle use positive language.  Focus on what you want, not on what you don’t want.
2. Believe the miracle will happen! Think of how it will feel once the miracle occurs and picture what will be different.
3. Participate in the miracle. If you’ve done the first steps, you don’t get to sit on the sofa and watch TV while you wait for your miracle to occur.  There is some work involved!  What steps do you need to take to make your miracle happen?  This step is the easiest to forget about and it’s just as important as the first two steps.  Opportunities will appear that will take you closer to your miracle and you want to be available to say yes to them.

I know this works and that it doesn’t always work in the way that you expect.  After I got a bad review at work and decided to hire my first coach I set my intention (asked for my miracle) that I would become clear about what my next career step was going to be, because I didn’t feel it would be with the current company.  I believed that I was completely capable of determining what my next step would be and felt excited about what my future held.  I wrote out things that I wanted to have in my next job like the work I wanted to do, my commute time and what my cubicle looked like.  I participated by continuing to work with my coach and doing the assignments.  And a week after asking for my miracle it came in a form I did NOT expect: I was laid off because the company was being sold!  If you’re interested you can read the story here.  One interesting thing is that when I was rehired, many of the things I wanted in my next job were present because I was in a new position, a new cubicle and was working with great people.

I challenge you to think about what miracles (or outcomes or events) you’re praying/asking for and to go through the three steps (Ask, Believe, Participate) this week.

Please let me know if you have any questions!