Go after what you REALLY want.

     It's like, duh, isn't that a no-brainer? Not really. People don't realize the power of pursuing something that they REALLY want. They settle instead for what they think they can get. They settle for "good enough." Ah, but what they don't realize is that there is absolute magic in pursuing what you REALLY want.
     But isn't that selfish? Hell no. It's normal. It's beautiful. It's courageous. When you pursue what you really want you're leaving the great mass of humanity behind. You're entering a rarefied atmosphere that only the courageous inhabit. And it doesn't matter what level of success you've achieved. It doesn't matter how close (or how far) you are from attaining what you really want. But that you have the desire— that is everything!
     Because in that desire there is magic.
     First the practical aspects of pursuing what you really want. It's easier than you think. Think if you're a guy (I just happen to be a guy— please don't hold it against me!) and the matter of asking out really attractive women. Well, the thought is, 'She'll never go out with me. She's too beautiful, smart, successful, (fill-in-the-blank here).'
     But the thing is those women rarely get asked out just because most guys are thinking that way. So those fantastic women are easier to ask out than the more ordinary ones.
     It's like a pyramid. Here's another example. I'm a writer. So all the common wisdom when you want to get an agent is to submit to a new agent just starting out. The agents handling the top writers would never consider an unpublished writer like you!
     So just about all new writers submit to the newer agents (again, back to the pyramid analogy, picture the newer agents on the bottom and the really great, experienced agents on the very top) and guess what— the newer agents are absolutely swamped with submissions. While the guys at the top that everybody's afraid to submit to— they are getting a mere trickle.
     Who's more likely to respond? Somebody getting 500 submissions a week or somebody getting 2?
     I have sent letters to the president of a major magazine, a major university and the president of the United States and gotten responses from the all.

Image what you really want , not just what you think you can probably have.— Catherine Ponder

     There's a series in Golf Digest called 'Make Me Better.' Well, that's all well and good: I want to get better as a golfer (and in everything). But the series I'm looking for is 'Make Me Great!' (Why just "better"?)
     Now we're getting to the magical part. Check this out from Zorba the Greek author Nikos Kazantzakis:

By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it. The nonexistent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired.

     In other words, if you want something badly enough, the Universe will provide it for you. Is it as simple as that? You bet! Oh it may take a while. It may involve your intense effort. But it will happen. You can bank on it. The Universe will direct you on a path to whatever it is you desire with a blazing passion.
     I remember reading about a famous writer. He found a treasured antique. Absolutely priceless. But this writer had a friend who wanted that selfsame antique WAY more than he did. (And this writer was wise in the ways of the world.) He gave the antique to his friend. When others questioned him as to why he gave the antique to his friend, he said, "I had to give it to him; he wanted it so much more than me."
     If you don't want much, that's no crime. But I think most of us want so much ("Make me great!") and are afraid to seem selfish or greedy or pushy and end up backing off what we really want. And when that happens the passion fades, the magic ends and the Universe no longer helps.
     And of course you know how to get the magic back— go after what you REALLY want.
     Go for it!