I’ll bet a lot of you folks don’t believe that, about a wish coming true, do you?

When I heard this during the firework display years back at the Magic Kingdom, it hit me. I had never really considered that people don’t believe in wishes. I guess I hadn’t given it much thought and I just always had believed in them.

On the way back to the parking lot (if you know, you know!!), you have plenty of time for discussion. I asked my two older children whether they believed in wishes? From one I got the answer ‘no’ and from the other the exact opposite ‘yes’. Now both answers may say something about the individual personalities of my two children at that stage in their lives, but for me it was more of an opportunity to pass on something I wanted them to take into their adult lives.

My response was then as it would be today.

“I do believe in wishes. What I believe is that if you wish for something hard enough, you will do whatever it takes to make it a reality. And therefore, wishes do come true. We make them come true”

What I probably hadn’t realised in that moment is how powerful that kind of thinking was in the business world. And probably how fortunate I was to be on that side of the ‘thinking fence’.

In this article, my aim is just to give you some framework so that you don’t disregard out of hand, the idea of dreaming, or wishing, simply because when you have seen it before, it was wrapped in some pixie dust and meant for kids!

I can confidently say that you are already seeing your wishes come true in some level already. Let’s go right to the simplest form. You are on the beach; the sun is blazing and there is just one thing missing. You wish you had an ice cream to compliment this scene. Well, you work out where the nearest ice cream vendor is, where your purse is and who will carry the ice creams and who will stay with your ‘stuff’. Before you know it, you have a plan and soon enough, your wish has become a reality.

Why is this any different to wishing you could travel into space?

Well, in some ways it is of course. I would however argue in many ways it isn’t. And for most of us, the kind of wishes we have are not as extreme as buying ice cream or space travel. They sit somewhere in the middle and dare I say it, closer to the ice cream section!
So what are the component parts of wishing and why do we struggle to wish for some things, whilst we see other wishes becoming reality every day. I think the difference can be summed up in the following equation;

If you don’t currently believe in wishes coming true, you will fall into one of two categories. Either you find it easy to wish, but have no intention of it becoming a reality, or you have lost all faith in having a wish at all. If you fall into the second category you may need to find a Wish Buddy to help you with this. Look for someone who seems to be ‘lucky’ in everything they do. The truth is that it probably isn’t luck, but that appearance will be the easiest way to spot them.

Now, back onto the equation.

The Wish part is the easier of the two sections, so let’s take that first. To me, a wish is something that may appear to be impossible, but it goes without saying that it can’t be technically impossible. These are very different to fantasies.

For someone who has had a bilateral amputation of the legs, no wish will bring their own legs back. However, for them to wish that they could live their life just as though they had those legs, is a very realistic wish. Despite this, there is a long journey between that initial desire for something to be a certain way (wish) and it being a reality. Sorry for going straight in there, but at least we have a framework that we can visualise for wishes that we can expect to become reality.

That leads us to the Belief over Commitment part. These come as a pair because one can very quickly erode the other.

If you have little belief that the wish is even possible, your commitment to achieving it will be a struggle. Equally, if you don’t put in the required commitment, you will begin to disbelieve that the wish is even possible.

Let’s look at these individually. 

Your belief in it being possible, has nothing to do with you knowing how it is possible. That’s the first thing to get out there. I know it is possible for a person to fly a plane over the Atlantic, but I couldn’t tell you how to fly the plane. I believe that it is possible, not because I know how, but that I have seen it done. I know that I have learnt things before that I didn’t know about before I went through the learning. Therefore if I wished to fly a plane over the Atlantic, my belief in this being possible would therefore be easy.

Sometimes though I have to settle for knowing that something similar has been achieved or that other people have tried something of the same scale and succeeded. Before wind turbines, I may have considered the power of the wind and it being similar to the power of the waves. knowing that we have harnessed ‘water power’ before, helps me believe we can harness ‘wind power’. Yet I don’t at that point have any idea how.

These examples might seem tougher, but if I can’t prove that similar things always fail and nothing of this scale has ever succeeded, why should I consider the wish impossible? 

Isn’t this limiting belief just the same as an unlimited belief?

They are both just waiting to be seen. Neither are fact at this stage. You see, I am not into unrealistic thinking. That doesn’t help anyone. But if I can choose to see (think) something possible or impossible, until it is proven either way, then surely the option that will help me most is to think everything possible until proven otherwise? Remember, this is my choice. I choose what to think, just as we all do. You do need to be aware of your thought choices though.

So, belief is really important. Make sure you believe that your wish is possible, but don’t expect yourself to have all the answers just in order to believe it is possible. Once you truly believe that your wish could be possible, you need to have the right level of commitment to it if you want it to become a reality.

Before we talk about commitment, let me be really clear. There are no rules that say you need to make all your wishes a reality. The only thing I would say is whatever your choice, don’t tell yourself a lie to get yourself off the hook. Don’t say something is not possible, simply because you don’t want to put in the effort to get there.

Equally, if you want to put your money on the lottery and ‘wish’ that your numbers come in, that is completely up to you and should not be criticised. However, don’t blame them not coming in on you not achieving the things you want to achieve. Own each part of the equation. There are plenty of things I would like to see happen, but I choose not to give them the required effort. But I own that. Notice the language I used. It is deliberate. I choose not to give them the commitment and therefore I don’t expect to see them appear as my reality.

I also think that our decisions need to have a hierarchy, and this may alter your commitment to making your wish a reality. For example, I wish that I can build a portfolio of businesses such that it gives me the opportunity to make real positive change in the world. Now, you can only imagine just how much commitment that takes. I am willing to put that level in, and I do put that level in.

However, if my family needed me in a capacity that borrowed from that commitment, then there is no question where my focus would be. This doesn’t mean my level of commitment is questionable. In fact, there are no questions about it, I am very clear. I have a hierarchy on how important achieving each wish is and my family are at the top of that list.

With all of that laid out, lets focus now on your commitment to turning your wishes into realities. You need to get real about just how much you are willing to do to make your wish a reality. You may not know at this stage quite what it will take to turn your wish into a reality, so ask yourself questions like;

• If I need to spend every spare minute working toward my wish, putting aside all other hobbies/interests, would I do that?
• If I had to sacrifice my short-term pleasure for a long-term achievement of my wish, would I do that?
• Do I have other commitments that will stop me from putting in maximum commitment to this wish becoming a reality?

I’m not expecting every person will say yes to the first two and no to the last. These questions just help us to gauge where we are on the commitment level. Remember, there are no right or wrong answers. These are your wishes. This is your life. You are creating your reality. Some wishes of course will demand more commitment than others.

If after reading this you can identify your wish and you not only believe it can become a reality for you, but you are also 100% committed to making it happen, then I firmly believe your wish will come true if you follow through on your commitment to it.

To recap;

1. Your wish needs to be technically possible, but can ‘seem’ as impossible as you like
2. You have to believe that you can have your wish, even if you don’t know how
3. You must apply the right level of commitment to achieving your wish

I have seen it happen so many times that I have no doubts in my mind that wishes really do come true. As Walt Disney put it ‘Dream, believe, dare, do.’