What happened in the past does not always predict the future.  Regardless of past experiences, you can choose a different outcome.  Here is true story from my own life:

When I was 17, my pet parrot flew away.  It had been awhile since I had trimmed his flight feathers and a gust of wind set him aloft.  He flew up into a tall tree and stayed there until another blast of wind sent him flying.

I never saw him again.

Over the next two decades,I spoke to several people who had experienced the same sad situation having lost parrots to flight.  “Once they takeoff,” I was repeatedly told, “You’ll never get them back.”  Not a single person said that they were able to recover their lost, beloved birds.

In my late twenties, while I was living in Seattle, WA, the situation repeated itself.  This time, Juggles, my blue front amazon, was on my shoulder and a strong wind set her flying.  She, too, went up into a tall tree.  My heart sank as I realized that I would never see her again.  But I caught myself and resolved that I would get her back!

Regardless of my own past experience, regardless of the repeated lamentations of others who had experienced the same thing, I set an absolute intention that I WOULD get her back.

Juggles perched in the highest branch of an enormous pine tree in the middle of a large park.  I sat down and imagined what it would be like to have her with me again.  I refused to tell anyone who might doubt that I’d get her back choosing to only tell friends and family that would support me in my belief that she would return.

For a week I camped out in the park sleeping under the tree and spending my days visualizing how it would feel to be reconnected with her.  A young man who frequented the park would often sit with me and I told him how I was certain that I would get Juggles back.

Unfortunately, at the end of the week a storm blew in; the wind dislodged Juggles and after circling overhead three times, she flew away.

The next day I called animal shelters across the city.  An employee at one of the shelters told me that someone had just brought in a parrot.

I drove to the shelter and, yes, it was Juggles.

What transpired to make this a reality?  As it turned out, the young man who had sat with me in the park was speaking to a friend on the phone the night the storm set Juggles to flight.  His friend lived nearly ten miles from the park.  As part of their conversation, the young man told his friend about my lost parrot.

That evening, the friend happened to watch a television show about parrots and discovered that parrots like to eat sunflower seeds.  He remembered thinking how ironic it was that, on a whim; he had purchased sunflower seeds for himself just that day.

Out of the millions of homes in Seattle, Juggles chose to land on that man’s fence the following morning.  He put out a line of sunflower seeds that ended in a large cardboard box and captured her.

My own personal experience was that this was impossible.  Several other people had similar experiences that reinforced that there was no way that this could have happened and yet it did.

Why?  I believe it is because I held tight to my belief that Juggles and I would be reunited.  Even in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds, I never gave in to fear and doubt.

What are you facing that others tell you cannot be done?

What are you trying to do that you have failed at in the past?

As Crosby Stills and Nash sang, “Don’t let the past remind us of what we are not now.”

Reality is a projection of your belief.  You, alone, decide what your mind will focus upon.