Write It Down, Make It Happen: Knowing What You Want And Getting It (Paperback)

There are 20 Chapters which cover everything from Knowing what you want and setting goals, Gathering ideas and suggestions, Being prepared to recieve what you seek, Getting unstuck, Changing ones environment, what Resistence means, Letting go and creating balance, Giving thanks and Handling a breakdown, on to Raising the bar and really going for the gold in our goals and dreams.

She challenges the reader to think BIG. On page 26 she lists questions we need to ask ourselves i.e. Can I have more than on goal? On page 33 she reminds the reader that writing down our dreams is like a message we send to our brain that we are ready or as she says "Open for business."

On page 53 she suggests a Tidbit Journal where we simply jot down ideas and thoughts that come to mind as we go about our daily life. This is really helpful as is her overall suggestions about journals or diaries, since we can often read what we wrote a week, month even a year ago and some gem of wisdom will jump out at us or we will simply be reminded that we are making progress and succeeding.

She is also wise because she drives home the point that we have to make the effort and NOT give up. This was really important to me because I had begun to get really depressed and wanted to give up, until reading her words about not allowing the negative to defeat me.

Using my computer I also took her suggestion but changed it a bit, and made a File where everyday I try to write a letter to God or My Soul and state what I seek need want and desire. It is like a private conversation. This has really helped me focus better. I think my friend Mark must have read her book as well because he shared with me that he writes a letter to God everyday as well, rather than pray.

This may be an odd notation, but I also loved the fact that the books cover has a fountain pen writing the words "knowing what you want and getting it." I find using a nice fountain pen and keeping a journal is a soothing and classical gift I give myself. In fact I would suggest that this book would make a GREAT gift along with a nice fountain pen for a Graduate or anyone seeking a positive change in their life.

Now I wanted to share some more of how she helped me focus and obtain some desires and needs. Bought a new Marjolein Bastin journal on April 2-01 after reading Write it Down, Make it Happen: Knowing What You Want and Getting It! by Henriette Anne Klauser. So here is what I wrote: We want and need a small two bedroom cottage with hardwood floors, lots of windows, near a lake, river, creek or ocean. With fruit trees and an area for a big garden as well as chickens and maybe some goats. With good water pressure, two phone lines and cable. And a lilac bush, and shade trees. All at a good price we can afford.

Six months to the day we got a call from our friend Cindy up in the Mother Lode (Sierras of CA) telling us that her neighbor a real estate lady had a colleague who had a woman friend who had a cottage that she wanted to know if we would like to look at. The woman wanted to move to Mexico and was looking to "unload" the cottage fast. We said we would love to look at it and within a few days we drove up, saw it and said yes. And it has ALL the things we were focusing on when I wrote in my journal what we wanted.

So we moved in 11-01 and in March of last year we spoke of how we really needed a better car, since the one we had would overheat when we drove and it was an older '87 car, and one we still own and love. November we got some unexpected funds and were able to buy a brand new '93 car.

I had also been wanting a decent dining room set since I had painted a picnic table that we still love, in a whimsical Mary Englebreit collage and had been happy with it but it was way to big for the dining room. Well, ..in January I found the perfect round (what I wanted) oak dining set and at a close out price, and bought it.

Lest you think this is all about Give Me, Give Me, Give Me, it isn't that at all. I simple have with the aid of this book, been able to rid myself of the fear of want or the fear I am not going to find what we need. Need is the key word. It isn't about wanting more "stuff" than someone else. It is all about learning how to focus and really know what one wants. In knowing this our needs become known and the process begins to tale shape.

It also has opened me up to being more generous with all I have, so that others are blessed as well. You cannot keep the blessings that come to you, just for yourself and this is something the book tries to share.

And yes I still keep a journal and re-read Write It Down and Make It Happen over and over a lot and still glean wisdom galore!

Her thought is, not only do we motivate ourselves and our subconscious by writing our thoughts and plans and dreams down, but in turn the energy of the outside world becomes more focused for us as well. I really do believe this. I haven't done all of the assignments yet, but I intend to.

Ironically some of the examples and assignments she suggests, I have done in ignorance of this book and the results are just what she predicted, so I know it works.

What I particularly like is that this book is not a "Rah, Rah", happy yuppie book, like some of the ones out there but a more thoughtful approach for a person to carve out the life they want. This could work for many walks of life and is just not applicable for the middle to upper class income.

We all have dreams, when we put them on paper we are quite a bit closer to realizing them they we ever thought.

The table of contents is below so you have an idea what is covered.

Introduction

Write it down make it happen

Knowing what you want: Setting Goals

Gathering ideas: A suggestion box for the brain

Getting ready to receive

Addressing Fears and Feelings

Getting Unstuck: Writing through to resolution

Doing it easy: Listing

Focusing on the Outcome

Changing your Environment: Get near water to write

Scripting your daily life

Becomming Committed

Stacking Goals: Raising the Bar

Starting a Group: What by When

Taking the Initiative

Writing letters to God

Resistance has Meaning

Creating a Ritual

Letting Go, Creating Balance

Giving Thanks

Handling Breakdown

Epilogue

Thanks and ever thanks

Bibliography

About the Author

Here is one specific exert that I found was incredible. "Writing about the outcome helps you to stay focused, even when you're not focused - or think you're not. The written word keeps the image steady, unwavering, like a lighthouse beam, steady on. It keeps the goal, the intended consequence in mind.

When you focus on the outcome, write in the present tense, as though you were describing something that is already happening. It call it "writing as reality". Be sure to date your description, because when you read it back later, you will have an eerie sense that you wrote it after it took place rather than before.

Now dig deeper. Not just the outcome, but the outcome of the outcome. Don't just write about what you want, but include why you want it. Why does it make a difference whether you have this or not? And then keep going deeper - why do you want that? And then deeper still, the outcome of that second outcome and so forth, until you hit the core of it."

Very good book for going deep within yourself for the answers that you already have.