I believe in magic. Sounds a little woo-woo but I’ve noticed that sometimes, if we wish for something hard enough, it can become our reality. ‘Wish’ perhaps isn’t the right word. It’s more setting an intention, having a deep-seated desire and a belief that it is possible for us. I’m convinced we can manifest things into our lives.

‘We get more of what we focus on,’ I’m so often reminded of this. Not just in the day to day, this seems to be true in the grand scheme too. I have example after example from my life alone. Only really apparent in retrospect, I can see so much of what I’ve got is what I’ve wished for — either directly or indirectly, meaning to or not. A story for you:

Brad Pitt was voted People Magazine’s ‘Sexiest Man Alive’ the year I started college. He was a hot topic (still is, in my opinion). On my first day of registration, in a long queue, at my turn the lady barks, “Name?”

“Pitt,” I say. “Julia Pitt.”

“Pitt … like Brad?” she clarifies, scanning her list.

“Yup,” I confirm.

Paperwork and meal-card in hand, I head to the cafeteria. Behind me I hear tittering as a group of senior sorority girls gather in: “Oh my gaawd! That’s Brad Pitt’s sister!”

“Like, how do you know?”

“Seriously, I just heard!”

I laugh to myself at the ridiculousness, thinking nothing of it. After dinner, in a room of several hundred people of whom I know none, I hear my name being called across the crowd, “Julia! Julia! Come ride the bus with us …”

And so it began. I got invitations to parties, to join clubs, sororities, I even had my mail opened on occasion. No one ever asked if it was true (I’d never have lied) they just assumed.

The hubbub subsided but the rumour persisted. In my final semester, a friend and I were discussing ‘famous’ alumni of our school. Meat Loaf’s daughter was one. My friend pipes up, “Yeh, and Brad Pitt’s sister went here too.” I burst out laughing.

I often thought I should write him a letter. “Dear Mr Pitt, you don’t know me, but thank you for greasing the wheels of my college career …” I thought about this often, mentally composing that note. Never did it. Where would I send it? But I somehow wanted to pass on my gratitude.

Years later, all that quite forgotten, I end up living in Los Angeles. Through a series of coincidences I get a job as an assistant to an actor. He gets cast in a movie: Fight Club. Who do I end up seeing every day at work? Mr Pitt himself. What is the likelihood? How is it a girl from tiny Bermuda, with zero connections, should end up working alongside The Sexiest Man Alive? Magic.

I never told him. I only actually revealed my surname on the last day of shooting as we wrapped. He was excited, said he’d never met another Pitt before who wasn’t family.

I told him he had a whole bunch of family here in Bermuda then. But I forgot to mention the college connection. I didn’t say thank you in the end. Perhaps I need to write that letter after all.

British comedian, John Bishop was recently on TV talking about his dreams coming true. One he shared was, from a boy, always wanting to play football for his home team Liverpool. Sounds a familiar story … but this guy never gave up on that hope. He stayed passionate about the game, even though life took him in a different direction. Until one day, out of the blue a retired Liverpool star player (his football hero) actually called him up to ask if he’d play on their team for a charity football match. He ended up, not only wearing his favourite FC colours, but playing alongside his football legends. Perhaps not exactly as he’d imagined ‘being a footballer’ as a kid, but years later he fulfilled his great desire and ultimately got what he asked for.

It doesn’t just work for frivolity however. Five years ago, I was in a very unhappy situation, far from home, feeling alone and under threat. In my heart I knew I needed to extract myself. Theoretically it seemed terribly unlikely, but I pictured the life I wanted: here in Bermuda, with my family, doing work that fulfilled me which accommodated my responsibilities and my joys. I knew what I wanted it to look like. And despite potentially major obstacles, here I am with virtually everything I had hoped for and envisaged. Even down to the car I drive. Luck? And a bit of magic.

“So many of us choose our path out of fear disguised as practicality. What we really want seems impossibly out of reach and ridiculous to expect so we never dare to ask the Universe for it. I’m saying, I’m the proof that you can ask the Universe for it.”

These are the words of funnyman Jim Carrey, giving a commencement speech at Maharishi University. If you haven’t seen the clips of it on YouTube, I highly recommend them. For a goofy guy, he shares some powerfully profound and inspiring wisdom.

We can equally wish the worst on ourselves too. There have been troubled times when I have wished circumstances to change, when I felt I didn’t have enough and wanted more (money/love/time/security … etc.). And I didn’t get it. Wasn’t the Universe listening then?

In truth I was just getting more of what I was focusing on. In that desperate state, my focus was on my lack, on my feelings of helplessness, on my worry: being strapped for cash, being lonely etc. Making more of the very things I was trying to change. When we’re clinging on to an idea with desperation — all we’re going to get is more desperation.

What are the keys to manifesting the positive into our lives? There are books on the subject. The best-seller, The Secret (Atria Books, 2006) by Rhonda Byrne, for example, which I haven’t read. For me, it’s been trial and error. What seems to help is getting very clear about what it is we want, being as specific as possible and knowing why it is we want it. We have to believe it’s true for us, experience the emotions of it as if it’s happening right now. Clear away any blocks we might be holding onto in the way. Then be open to our dreams coming true in whatever form it might take.

Jim Carrey said: “As far as I can tell, it’s just about letting the Universe know what you want and working towards it, while letting go of how it comes to pass.”

Is this all just wishful thinking? Perhaps. But if it’s a choice of being positive and hopeful or pessimistic and closed to possibilities in the name of being ‘realistic’, I say, bring on the magic. We never know what we might pull out of the hat!

PS A section of last week’s column, ‘Road to Joy’ didn’t get printed. For the final questions of Robert Holden’s ‘Happiness Interview’ and for more about the upcoming ‘Follow Your Joy’ Workshop, see the full article in the online archives.

Julia Pitt is a trained Success Coach and certified NLP practitioner on the team at Benedict Associates. For further information contact Julia on (441) 705-7488, www.juliapittcoaching.com.