Intention is magic

If someone said to me “Think of something you want in your life, then set the intention to have it by writing it down. Then wait. It will come true,” I would tell them to shut their stupid woo woo face because if that was true, I’d be celebrating my 15 year anniversary with Justin Timberlake.

But then this really awkward thing happened. I started actually doing it – and my intentions, to my pure shock and awe, actually started to come true.

Let me elaborate. Ever since I was a little girl, I dreamed of being a published author. Years later, I toiled at building my platform and I practiced my craft daily. Okay, sort of daily. Okay I read a lot of motivational books about writing daily and then wrote sometimes, but the point is I tried like hell!

Fast forward to today, I finally felt at a place where I was ready to write my book. If you go the traditional publishing route this is quite the ordeal. First, I needed an agent. To lure an agent, I needed to create a book proposal (think college term paper that makes you want to poke your eyes out). Once the proposal was done, I queried agents. This takes a massive amount of time researching who is interested in your genre and querying each one by specifically meeting their guidelines. Then, you can expect the agents to take 1- 3 months to return your email, if they even return your email at all.

My point is – the process is agonizing, takes months to complete, and is only attractive to masochists. 

I sent a batch of 5 queries (it’s customary to send out 30), and waited. Crickets. Then a rejection, then another rejection. More nothingness. One of my favorite agents Erin hadn’t responded yet so I held out hope. Then, right before Thanksgiving, Erin wrote me back and asked to see my proposal. Huzzah! I started running around my kitchen island like Kevin in Home Alone.

But then, more crickets. Like an infestation of crickets. Two months worth of nothing. I even sent her a follow up email. Chirp chirp. Whatever, her loss. Time to start querying another batch.

In my January plan book in the goals section, I wrote a small list of intentions for the month. First on the list, “Sign with an agent.” This was impossible because at that point, no agent seemed to care and they take weeks if not months to correspond back and forth. But all that was irrelevant. It was my goal – so I set my intention. I will sign with an agent in the month of January. Period.

After writing it down, I put down my plan book and went about my day. I heard a ping. An email came through. From an agent. But not an agent I had queried – an agent who found an article I had written. She asked if I was writing a book and if so – if I had representation. She wanted to get on the phone the next day.

I ran over to my computer and quickly emailed Erin. I told her someone wanted to represent me and in so many words told her to get back to me now or never. She got back to me in 5 minutes.

The next day I interviewed one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. The one who reached out to me was incredibly sweet, kind and encouraging. But Erin was everything I ever wanted. We were instantly in sync. A match made in heaven. And her excuses for taking so long to get back to me were legit, so she was also forgiven.

And? I’m signing our contract this week. It’s January 18th.

Intention is magic.

Do all of our intentions come true? No. Like God, it isn’t a genie. The world is made of a complex system of souls with their own destinies, intermingled with the freedom to choose and to stumble and make mistakes. Sometimes certain intentions make ripples that just aren’t meant to be.

But I find most of the time, setting an intention is the first step to creating magic. I can’t explain how it’s possible, I just know it works. By writing it down, by meditating on it – we put the wheels in motion.

When I write my goal, or set my intention in my plan book, I then go over to the daily goals and say to myself “what is one thing I can do today to make this come true?” Sometimes it’s making that important phone call or researching web designers, or finally sending that email.

Sometimes I do nothing and the email gets sent to me. See? Magic.

Anna Lind Thomas is a humor writer who founded the humor website for women, HaHas for HooHas. She’s also one half of the popular podcast The Anna and Susannah Show. Anna is happily married with two young daughters and a bulldog.