The Secret

I talked to an old friend on the phone today, Christina Porter. When she found out I was in NY, she asked me how I managed to go from Boston to NYC within weeks and holding minimal cash. I replied with an, "I don't know. I just really wanted a challenge, something new. So I went looking for that."

I chat with my co-workers at the restaurant all the time. Today, being a Sunday, was quite dead. So I spent a lot of time chatting with our bus boy. He's a guy like me, 21 years old and from Bulgaria. We are both new to New York so we talked a lot about the city, about Bulgaria, Japan, random life happenings. Somehow we got onto a related topic to spirituality, so I asked him if he was religious.

He replied, with a, "not really." and that sparked a conversation about what we do believe in. Apparently we have similar outlooks on spirituality. Then he mentioned to me "the secret."

Instant Deja-vu.

Back in Tokyo Sebastian, Amanda and I talked a lot about the secret. They introduced me to the concept, although I think I've known about the secret for a long time. The secret to what, you may be thinking. The secret to everything of course.

Apparently it was a film? I don't know. But the secret its simple really. Do you want to know?

Do you really?

I'll tell you...the secret is to believe. But what does that mean? It means to trust, and believe that your life will be the way you want it to be.

Does that make sense?

Let's take a step back for a second, while I give you an example. The first time I heard about the secret from Sebastian, and the conversation went something like this.

Kyle: You should come to my shamisen concert this weekend!
Sebs: Yeah sure... How did you get into shamisen anyway?
Kyle: Well I don't really know. I just really wanted to play it...so I did.
Sebs: Oh okay, you must know about the secret.
Kyle: The what?

And that's how I learned.

The secret isn't a theory telling people that their lives are going to be perfect and wonderful all the time. No not at all. The secret is just to envision what you want. Understand what you want, and know what you need to do to get what you want. Start doing what you need to do, and believe that things are going to work out. If you truly, and honestly believe they will work out, then they will.

What I'm saying may sound pretty ridiculous to some...but how ridiculous are our goals and aspirations? Isn't it worth doing everything possible to be what, and who we want to be?

I wanted to play shamisen. So I went to a performance, happened to meet a teacher there, and started taking lessons from him. He lent me a shamisen, and eventually helped me get my own. Of course life didn't just hand me a shamisen and say, "play Kyle...play away." No not at all.

I found out what I needed to do, and life just guided me along the way. I jumped at all the opportunities life gave me, and because of that, I reached my goal of learning how to play the shamisen. I honestly believe that things will work out in a positive manner if we let them.

Does this mean that if I sit in my bed tonight, envision myself with a million dollars, and believe I'll get it, that tomorrow a million dollars with fall onto my bed? No. If I want that million, I will have to understand the realistic ways to get it, plan out how I will get it, and start initiating my plan. Then life will guide me along the way if I let it.

Maybe this isn't the secret that the film speaks of, but it's the secret I follow. And maybe it's not much of a secret, is it?

I try to live each day as positively as I can. I know what I want from life, and I know how I can get that. So far life has given me what I want, and that isn't a coincidence.

As silly as the secret may sound, we just need to believe.

Like that woman in the station said last month. Stay warm, stay safe...but above all, stay focused. If we do that, life will guide us along our own paths.