Wouldn’t it be great to have a real life Fairy Godmother who made all your wishes come true? Well, forget it. That’s not going to happen in this lifetime. Opportunity must be created not wished for.

You are the architect of your life. And what do architects use to create? Plans and blueprints. So what you need is a blueprint — an easily established plan of action you can refer to that will help you get what you need and want in life.

First of all, you will need a pencil or pen and a blank sheet of paper. Fold the paper long-wise so you have three equal columns. In each column, write something you want in life. Under each object you want, write five steps you will take to accomplish getting your desires. Leave space at the bottom of your paper for phone numbers and other important notes. Keep the list with you and concentrate on it every day. Visualise yourself already having these goals. Devote time to working your list, accomplishing your needs and they will happen for you. But you must participate in the effort to get them and not just wait for them to happen.

At some point, you may want to revisit your list, changing tactics, adding information or even eliminating steps that may have proved fruitless. Feel free to do that. You’re looking for the best possible avenues to take to get to your goals and many times change is for the best. So, beyond phoning and working with your goal list every day, what else can you do? Keep your goals and desires in the forefront of your mind and do whatever it takes to turn them into realities.

Learn why expectations are harmful to us and how we can use mindfulness to rid ourselves of expectations and learn to love yourself. Expectations are destructive. It isn’t so much the experience itself that causes us pain, but rather the expectations we have about the experience. However well intentioned we may be, the expectation puts the power outside of us. No experience or person can possibly live up to our expectations… or very rarely will this happen, anyway.

We set ourselves up for failure by not having an open mind. Nothing can possibly live up to the ideal image we have created in our minds; everything is doomed to failure, thanks to our expectations, which are very commonly unrealistic. This failure we feel when our expectations are not met leads to disappointment in ourselves or others, despair that anything can ever live up to our idealisations,

fear that perhaps we are inadequate and to blame for this failure, and emotional pain. Whether we suffer from our own expectations or others’ it is the expectation that hurts. — Agencies