Don’t you just love it when you feel all fired up about life? There’s a spring in your step, a feeling of invincibility and an ever present fluttering of excitement deep within.

I’ve got that today, largely due to the fact that I’ve been reading Mike Dooley’s Playing The Matrix . Mike is a self-help writer and speaker. He’s a sort of Jen Sincero without hair and a background in accounting as opposed to writing and girl bands.

He has one of those stories that makes you believe anything is possible. He worked for corporates as an accountant and earned big figures, then he launched a T-shirt company that did well and after that, everything fell apart and he found himself single, broke and unsure of what to do next.

And that’s the bit that caught my attention, because I rarely know what to do next. I have big dreams, lots of ideas and then…I tend to stagnate in a state of confusion.

Mike says that the trick is to focus on a big wish like ‘happiness’, ‘wealth’ or a ‘livelihood you love’ and then take baby steps towards it. It doesn’t matter what those steps are, but you’ve got to keep moving because unlike the postman, the universe is not going to come knocking at your door.

There were many dead ends for Mike. He loved the idea of public speaking and landed a couple of gigs, but nobody was paying him. He kept going, asked for advice and a door would open, then another…until he became one of those bestselling self-help people who are raking in six figures plus. He also met a woman, fell in love and became a dad. Yay!

I can do baby steps. It’s the working out how to get to the end result that fries my brain and according to Mike, I don’t have to do that…I’ve just got to keep moving forwards and bear in mind that ‘thoughts become things’.

When I think back over the past few years, I can see how things have unfolded according to my thoughts. I had segued from journalism to PR and I wasn’t enjoying it. I missed being part of a team. Now, I work for a virtual agency and am part of several dream teams. Yay!

Somewhere along the way, I decided that PR wasn’t really what I was born to do. I missed writing. I wanted to spend my days penning articles and books about wellbeing. Then, as if by magic, I placed a couple of articles in magazines and was commissioned to write two wellbeing books that are on sale now – in proper bookstores! I also did some writing shifts for a newspaper and loved every minute of it.

However, there is no way I can survive on the money I am currently paid to churn out words. It is not making me rich any time soon. How on earth do I achieve wealth and abundance AND indulge my passion for writing?

It doesn’t matter. It’s not for me to work it all out. I’ve just got to keep going. Baby steps.

Mike also says you should try lots of different things. The more doors you open, the easier it is for the universe to deliver your dreams. Mike did speaking gigs, a subscription programme, a fabulous initiative called Notes From The Universe (sign up, it’s great!) and he wrote self-help books that sell a lot.

He’s doing the kind of things that set me on fire. I discovered that I love public speaking, which is strange because I used to hate it! I did a course in stand-up comedy in 2019 and experienced an adrenaline rush like I’ve never known.

The things I fancy doing are – speaking engagements, writing books, writing a novel (I am making some progress here), running wellbeing events (my plans for that were scuppered by the pandemic) and some successful e-commerce (our little greetings cards business is booming and I’d like to grow it). Running through all of this is my inborn desire to lift people up. I like making people laugh. I love it when a glum friend is cheered up after spending time with me. This is what I need to bring to my work.

It’s so liberating to let go of the ‘hows’. I’m good at taking action and as long as that is all that is asked of me, I’ve got this. I’m fired up. Watch out world.

Now, one thing I have learned over the past few years, is that this feeling of being all fired up invariably passes and there often follows a slow slide into despair. Why doesn’t anybody want to pay me properly for my words? Why does PR make me feel so stressed? How is it that others manage to make ‘easy’ money, but it seems impossible for me?

It doesn’t matter. This is to be expected. Once the intention is set, the universal cogs start to whirr and you are heading in the right direction – forwards. I’ve seen it in my own life. There’ve been times when I’ve thought ‘Is this ever going to get any better?’ and it always does!

And there is always gratitude to bouy you in the hard times. It’s freezing here at the moment and every night, when I lie there cocooned in my duvet and favourite blanket made from possum wool, I thank God that I am not homeless. How lucky am I to sleep in a warm bed each night, next to a man I love (even if he does snore)? I never lose sight of how much I have to be grateful for nowadays.

Anyway, it’s official. I am playing the matrix. I know what the rules are and I sense that luck is on my side. It doesn’t matter what the dice say, it’s all good. Magic is afoot! Anyone can play this game and we are all winners.