There are many who think she was hiding her talent, confused by why she didn’t take that talent and storm the world with it. Others of us are talking about how she wowed the judges, the audience and became an overnight sensation with more than 35 million views of just one of the hundreds of videos of her, now on YouTube.

I say, here’s a lady who knew what she wanted, who has also been sharing her talent with the world since she was 12. I would imagine she’s the most regular choir member at Lady of Lourdes because she enjoys singing. She has won the annual singing contest, sponsored by the local lawn bowling club in her small community of Blackburn, West Lothian, Scotland, because she loves singing and is an extremely talented singer.

She doesn’t fit ANY stereotype.

She shares her talent with the audience she’s with, always has. She sang right where she was in her town. Spent her own money to record a demo tape. And just to be clear, she stated in the pre-interview before she hit the stage,

“I’ve always wanted to perform in front of a large audience. I’m going to make that audience rock.”

She had to deal with other issues in her life, possibly with her confidence, but not with her singing. Her singing is love, mixed with talent.

One thing she has never done is hide her talent. How could she, she’s been singing since she was 12. She has a demo recorded of two songs, Cry Me a River and Killing Me Softly With His Song. The former song even made it onto a charity compilation CD for Whitmore Academy.

Here’s why I like Susan Boyle. She knows what she wants. She spotted an opportunity and went for it. She was herself the whole time, even being a little bit cheeky on stage. Plus and this just cracks me up, she’s enjoying her sandwich, while others waiting to audition/perform sit around looking just a bit nervous.

The backstory of Susan Boyle’s life will continue to be uncovered. She’s only just beginning this part of her journey.

She hasn’t been hiding her talent from the world. I believe the world hasn’t been ready to accept Susan Boyle for being exactly who she is, how she is or accept her for with what she has to offer. Until now anyway.

She’s always been and I hope will always be exactly who she’s meant to be, Susan Boyle.

Now can we say the same thing?

“There are risks and costs to a program of action, but they are far less than the long range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.”  ~John F. Kennedy~

I was overly ambitious when I set out many months ago with my unplanned desire. I then became overwhelmed and depressed when nothing seemed to be working as I expected it would. I felt as though I had been lied to and bamboozled. Mine wasn’t looking like the thing I had come to expect based what other people had told me.

This is the main reason last week I mentioned letting go of our expectations.

Once we decide what we want to do and make a simple or extremely detailed plan about how we will go about accomplishing it. . .

Wait let me stop right here and ask this because it’s pretty darn important, You are making a plan? Now, nod your head up and down 3 to 4 times. Good. Okay back to it.

Once we decide what we want to do, make our plan, let the expectations go and begin doing the work, we seeing what really happens. It is then that we can pick our expectations up and check them to see if we need to reevaluate the expectations.

This is where coaching with someone who has actually mastered these steps is handy.

When we don’t do this, we are more likely to get caught up in “how things are not showing up according to the expectations we hold” as opposed to taking what is showing up and reevaluating either our expectations or our actions, sometimes both.

That’s what I’m doing, reevaluating both. And just this morning Naomi of IttyBiz.com fame said it in a way that I heard. I’m certain others have pointed it out but I was ready for it to sink in and apply it this time. She said, “ambitious stuff takes a lot of time.”

That’s worth repeating.

“Ambitious stuff takes a lot of time.”

This profound statement is doing one of a few things for and to you as you pursue a dream. It is either stopping you from making the effort, making the effort much more difficult than it need be because you’ve set your expectations wrongly or it will cause you to step back and begin a reevaluation of your plan, actions and expectations.

It is especially helpful to be able to set the right sort of expectation for the plan you have in mind. I’m not just talking optimism either.

This is especially true for a large group of us dealing with other issues popping up constantly, yet still willing to take the leap and start the doing.

It is an ambitious thing we do. It may take us more time. It may require more processing. It may require more and frequent reevaluation. It definitely requires us to be more honest with ourselves.

We are literally screwing up our courage like a tightly wound top and string, then pulling that string, even though we know it’s knotted up and tangled.

There is momentum in the pulling and it keeps us going for a while. But eventually we’ll notice a slow down and finally a stopping and then we are on our side, not spinning, not doing and our expectations are shot to hell.

I believed because it’s not ‘just like we pictured it’ that it couldn’t have counted. Because it did not reach my expectations, that made it no good. I beat myself up. I stayed stopped.

Finally, I put the expectations down and then pulled the string.

I accept that knots may appear. Then again they may not. Either way, I am creating fewer problems for myself, which leaves me more energy to deal with the reality in front of me. I am no longer being caught up in the idea of ‘missed expectation’.

It’s invigorating to be in this sort of space, where thoughts can lead to actions and actions can lead to results.  Where having released our expectations, we are free to adjust our actions or our expectations, accordingly based on actual outcomes.

There may be more about expectations from me later. Right now there is some planning that I need to do, especially since I’m taking my own advice.

If you still don’t know what you want to do, it’s time to delve into 20 Ways to $100 Dollars A Day. It’s one of the few places you’ll get all the details to making for how to do and what to do in the same e-book.

Dream big. Start small. GET CAUGHT THRiViNG!

Then he figured out the long hidden secret of success and is now able to get everything he wants in 24 hours.

He gives us a very subtle hint about how he went from struggling to get by to getting everything he wants now.

It’s one single, simple, sentence.  You ready for it?

“YOU MUST DO SOMETHING EVERY SINGLE DAY TOWARDS ACCOMPLISHING YOUR GOAL.”

Ah but we’ve heard that before right and we go right on doing what we’ve been doing.

He didn’t tell us to just DO SOMETHING EVERY SINGLE, ’cause we’ve done something and we’re still in a mental, financial loop struggling and ending up exactly where we started.

He tells us to DO SOMETHING EVERY SINGLE DAY TOWARD ACCOMPLISHING [OUR] GOAL.

We’ve got to do the right something, every single day and that requires a long term commitment, imagination, a plan, patience, persistence and willingness.

That. Ain’t. Easy.

We start asking when will I see results?  How will I know it’s working?  What if it’s wrong and I’ve spent all this time committed to doing something every single day?

Those are definitely stumbling blocks if you make them stumbling blocks.

His post hit way to close to where I am now.

If you have no idea what you want to do then get a copy of 20 Ways to $100 Dollars A Day.  It’s a very good place to start.  I’m combining the blueprints on pages 122, 176, 222 and 231.

With that said, how about we make a plan for the remainder of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009.  Then we commit to following that plan by doing something every. single. day until we GET CAUGHT THRiViNG!

Then rinse and repeat.

You gonna join me?