The universe wants you to do some of the work (rude)

I love a sign. I really do. A song coming on at exactly the right moment. The same number following you around all week. Pulling a tarot card and thinking, oh for God's sake, of course that one came out.

I'm very open to all of it. But I've also noticed something slightly irritating: the universe seems to really like making you participate. You don't get to sit there with a candle lit, waiting for your dream life to wander in and introduce itself.

Rude, frankly.

I think this is where manifestation gets a bit fluffy. We talk a lot about asking, visualising, feeling as if it's already yours, trusting, surrendering. All lovely. Then comes the part where you actually have to do something, and that's the part we tend to skip quietly past.

I know, because I've done the daft thing myself. I opened a Pilates studio before I'd ever taught a single Pilates class. I had no idea how it would all work. What I did have was a very clear picture: the space, the people, how it would feel to walk in, and a feeling I couldn't shake.

Nobody handed me a business plan in a beam of moonlight. At some point I just said, right, I'm doing it. Then came the distinctly unmagical bit: finding premises, spending money I was nervous about spending, making decisions I wasn't qualified to make, and figuring it out as I went.

And it worked. Which was a bit of a problem, because once you've done one mad thing and survived, you start wondering what else you've been talking yourself out of.

So I get twitchy when manifestation gets boiled down to thinking positively and waiting. You want more money? Maybe you need to put your prices up. Want a different life? Maybe it starts with the awkward conversation. Want to start something? At some point you have to stop researching it.

And yes, I'm guilty of the other version too. Asking for a sign, getting one, and then going, "Lovely. Could I get one more, though? Just to be sure?"

I can trust my gut and second-guess it in the same breath. I can know exactly what I want and still decide it's too big, too expensive, or just a bit too much.

That's the part I'm getting more curious about. Not just what we want, but what we do the moment we realise we want it. Desire is easy while it's still a nice idea. It gets interesting when it starts asking something of you: send the email, book the thing, say no, say yes, tell someone, start before you feel ready.

I still believe in signs. I still believe some things land at exactly the right moment and I have no sensible explanation for why. But I think we can hide behind all that a bit. Sometimes we don't need another card pull or another moon ritual. We already know. We're just hoping the universe will make the decision for us.

It usually won't.

Maybe the sign isn't the answer. Maybe it's the nudge, and what happens next is up to you.

That's really what The Secret to Desire is about for me. Notice what keeps tugging at you. Trust yourself a little more. Then do something about it: a bit of magic, a bit of instinct, and a bit of what the hell, I'm doing it.

So tell me: what's the sign you've been waiting on that you already know the answer to?

Sam x