Let’s say you really wanted something: a house, a new suit for that big interview or to pay for college for one of your kids. Maybe you wanted to (ahem) invest in a coaching program. You set your sights on it. You wrote intentions. You were sure you were going to find the money to do what you wanted.

But it didn’t show up.

What the heck is that all about? I’ll tell you–and this can change your life. (It changed mine!)

You can’t have the desire for something without the means to achieve it in your life. You just can’t see it yet. You have a blind spot. The means to what you desire shows up as an opportunity, not by a check handed to you just because you really, really wished for something.

That blind spot prevented you from seeing an opportunity that was probably right in front of you to make the money you needed to do/buy what it is you wanted so desperately. Don’t blame yourself; it happens to every single one of us.

Blind spots come from your subconscious. It’s a part of you that is programmed to stay the same. Why? Because changing too much scares the crap out of it. And well, you know the old adage, “The devil you know is better than the devil you don’t!” So the subconscious likes it when you play small, don’t change, keep things status quo. Even if you don’t like where you are, your subconscious tells you that change is scary and change is threatening—stay where you are.

Here’s how it happens. Your subconscious belief systems were essentially “dumped” into your subconscious when you were a little kid by what you were told growing up. Don Miguel Ruiz calls it the “story” you are told about who you are and what your values are. This “story” can really be the most powerful part of you when it comes to seeing opportunities. It literally becomes the lens through which you see the world. Your belief that money is hard to come by or that you’ll never find the love of your life is wired somewhere in you–and that is what you see! That is the reality your subconscious tells you to see.

But the actual reality is actually quite a bit different.

Have you ever had the experience of watching a scenario play out in front of a couple of people and each person sees it differently? Both people are guided by their subconscious to see things that support their own belief systems. It sounds crazy right?

Here’s the crazier part: Napoleon Hill says, opportunity is often “disguised as misfortune or temporary defeat. That’s why so many people can’t see it.” Oooh. A simple example is not getting a job you thought you wanted because a better one was waiting for you.

Here’s a possible scenario. I’ve chosen it for obvious reasons. (Grins) Say you want to invest in a coaching program. You begin to worry about the money to pay for the program. Your subconscious kicks up every terrifying thing it can think of to keep you from spending the money on improving or changing your life (because it feels threatened). You will begin to explain to yourself every reason why the desired program is a “waste of money,” “not important,” “frivolous,” you name it. So what’s the end result? You stay the same. You don’t make the changes you want to make. Score: subconscious 1, your transformation: 0.

Here’s the other important point. The money will show up once you’ve made the decision. If you haven’t made the decision to do something different, the universe is not going to hear that you’ve made the decision. Instead, all it hears is the chaotic vibration of, “Gee, I really wish I could, but I can’t. I just don’t have the money.” Subconscious 2: your transformation: 0. You don’t get the money by telling the universe repeatedly that you don’t have the money! When your inside beliefs don’t match the words you’re saying, that’s a chaotic vibration.

When you make the decision, and act on it, that is some very powerful stuff. I can’t tell you how many times when I invested in myself, I quaked in my boots! But I brushed it off because time and time again I saw that when I took action and made the decision, the opportunities showed up. Doors flew open. I was ready because I had learned and prepared for my subconscious’ shenanigans. Every single time I didn’t give myself a “back door option,” I found the money. Or rather, the opportunity. And I didn’t allow myself the option of an “out.”

The word “decide” comes from the Latin decidere “determine,’ from de-“off” + caedere ‘cut” – in other words, it means to cut off. When we make the decision to cut away from what we know (our habitual responses) and step into the unknown, our brain is not programmed to see the next step, and in fact, it hides it. Your job is to be aware of the opportunities that are there. To question what you think of as misfortune. To remember that to decide to do something inherently means, to “do something different” by cutting away what was.

The only way to do that is to “close the back door” and make sure mentally, and literally, you don’t have an option to do something else. That way, you have the urgency to create exactly what it is you want!

So, don’t be scared, my dear friends. We’re all in this together! So I ask you, “What are you going to decide to do differently today to manifest what you want?”

Affirmation of the week:

Today I make the decision to do something differently. I open my eyes to seeing where my blind spots are trying to keep me from playing big. I choose to close the back door and refuse to allow myself any excuses to do or be anything other than my divine purpose.