VISUALIZE

1) to recall or form mental images or pictures
2) to make visual or visible
3) to form a mental image of
4) to make perceptible to the mind or imagination

I believe in bucket lists, dreams, and goals and in the plan it takes to make them come true. I believe that you must write your goals down, tell them to someone you trust, and most importantly you must believe in them by visualizing them.

You can make your dreams come true. 

You can make things happen.

You, your mind and your heart are powerful entities

and when they are in sync, magic happens. 

At the beginning of 2013, I set some big goals and lots of small ones -- I aimed to balance feeling accomplished while still pushing myself. Outside of my tangible goals, I have my lofty dreams, the ones that are closer to my heart than my brain, but are just as (if not more) important as (than) my goals. 

My top three "dream come true" moments in 2013 are as follows:

Now of my top three "dream come true" moments, none of these were goals I set for myself at the beginning of the year -- none of them had an initial plan. Instead, these fall into the dream category (well...maybe not bungee jumping, but just go with it), dreams my heart visualized.

I did set a goal to go on a cruise -- and once that plan was in action I knew I needed to jump at the opportunity to make a dream come true, swimming with dolphins. 

Bungee jumping was neither on my mind nor my heart at the beginning of 2013 (skydiving is though!) -- but when I was asked by a friend if I would join her in surprising one of my best friends in a group bungee experience, I agreed immediately. It was then I learned that spontaneity is an ingredient of dreams, and decided that bungee jumping could be a "stepping stone" toward skydiving (sorry Mom!).

Some dreams come out of a plan and some dreams come from spontaneous action. But there are other dreams -- that no matter how hard you visualize them, plan for them or go for them in moment -- that don't end up how you imagined. But they can still end up perfect.  

Although the only time I have written about Macklemore was when I finally saw him in concert last year when he opened the Heist tour in Seattle, I have been a faithful fan of his since I was in high school. In college, I used to listen to The Town endlessly because I missed Seattle so much. Also because I was in Michigan at the time, I missed seeing him at Bumbershoot in 2009. But despite all that, I have followed his journey over the years, and I have wanted to meet him ever since I can remember. I truly cannot think of any human being I have wanted to meet more than him. I have never been a fan anything in the capacity that I am of Macklemore. 

This meeting is something I have visualized for years! I pictured myself telling him what a big fan I am of him as a person -- as Ben Haggerty, the man who overcame an addiction. How much I admire his lyricism, and wish I could be half the wordsmith that he is. I wanted to congratulate him on his fully-deserved success and stand at awe in front of man that is truly dedicated to his art form. I wanted to tell him how my favorite song is Vipassana and how we love to listen to Stay at Home Dad at work. I pictured him signing my Shark Face Gang tank top and taking a picture with me. 

When I met Macklemore, none of that happened.

First of all, part of my heart had already given up on meeting him -- he had become too big too quickly. Secondly, I didn't expect after JUST missing him at a charity event, that I would get a call from a co-worker a few hours later saying "I just saw Macklemore get out of the elevator at Pacific Place. Now is your chance -- get over here!" So in pursuit of making dreams come true -- I tore out of my office faster than Richard Sherman on a pick six (with or without a shoe...you decide). 

Then it was a matter of tracking him down. My co-worker and I peaked in every storefront window of Pacific Place (thankfully there are not too many stores, and it is an open layout -- all the better for stalking!), keeping our fingers crossed that he wasn't doing his Christmas shopping in Victoria's Secret. We got to the top floor without any sign of him, we were getting ready to throw in the towel, besides...my phone battery was about to die anyways so "good thing" we didn't find him. 

In a last ditch effort (because you don't go running through the mall for nothing...), we took the sky bridge over to Nordstrom. I was thinking about how thankful I was that my heart was finally beating normally, and not pounding in my chest when my co-worker grabbed my arm, stopped me in my tracks and said three words that made my life complete... "there he is".

I quickly went into denial, then panic and then after some social media stalking to confirm it was him -- I knew what I had to do. Despite the fact I was shaking more than when I went bungee jumping, I somehow got the courage to walk up to him and somehow I managed to forget absolutely everything I wanted to say:

"Hi...I will try not to draw any attention to you, I just wanted to tell you what a huge fan I am --" "Thank y.." "I saw you open this year in Portland and I saw you open last year in Seattle --" "Yah? Aweso..." "And I am just a huge fan I love your work I love everything you do and I love you." (WAIT...WHAT?! I BLURTED OUT I LOVE YOU?! Oh come on brain...) "I appreciate..." "And I love Tricia I met her in Portland and I told her congrats on your engagement. I am really happy for you guys." "Thank you." "Do you mind if we take a picture?" "Of course not." (Note: yes I am in italics and yes there is no punctuation for a reason. I was speaking a mile a minute and he couldn't even get a word in. Unfortunately, I turned into a typical starstruck fan.)

So really, as much as I believe in the strength of visualization -- some instances will cause it all to fly out of your ears. Thankfully despite the fact that I was talking at the speed of sound and word vomiting "I love you", he was so gracious and humble as I spoke to him. He didn't act too busy or laugh at my weirdness -- he simply smiled at me while I spoke to him and listed to me like I had the most important things in the world to tell him. And after I spilled my guts, took a picture and began to walk away -- I ran back over to him (like any normal person?!) and asked for a hug, to which he responded "Yah, absolutely".

The moral of this blog post is make your dreams happen -- whether that may be through goal setting or complete spontaneity -- and don't wait! I am such a planner, but after seeing that some of the most amazing things that happened to me in 2013 were things that did not start with a plan, I am reminded that I need to be present in the moment. As you start go map out where you want to be in 2014, I encourage you to not only set attainable goals, but really listen to you heart and VISUALIZE.