I have written a ton over the last 38 weeks about awareness, even calling it the key to leadership in a post early in my journey.

Awareness is a thing of beauty and has the capability to result in pain. What I mean is that the truth hurts sometimes.

I have realized that the most painful awareness events are the ones where I learn about myself, or rather accept more about myself.

One of those moments was over a year ago when I heard the phrase, “I attract that which I receive.”

I think my brain cracked a little at this breakthrough; maybe the “pain” came from the inability to deny the truth in that statement.

Everything that happens to me is something I caused or attracted.

Owning that attraction at first was a foreign concept. I understood the premise but couldn’t wrap my head around the simplicity of simply choosing differently and attracting different responses or people in my life.

The past few months my focus shifted towards power. Not authoritative power, but what I can only describe as a freedom only I can cause and the resulting feeling of having personal power over my reality.

As this focus has changed, so have the people and things I attract. It wasn’t until this past week when I got the chance to visit a chapter of the Project Management Institute in southern Alberta, Canada (PMISAC) that I became aware of this change.

I was on the trip to speak at a monthly chapter meeting on kicking off effective teams utilizing leadership tools and techniques. The talk in itself was something I had attracted.

A few years ago I would have never imagined being an international speaker, but about six months ago I declared the intention to grow my speaking career.

I started reaching out to groups and chapters who regularly had speakers at their events and simply asked if I could be considered for one of their events. The response I got was surprising (to me): many different groups were extremely receptive and started inviting me to come talk.

Win – intention met!

At the conclusion of this particular talk I was chatting with a few of the audience members who were interested in learning more about the concepts I had presented on and exchanging business cards with promises of follow up emails to find out how they could engage Bevill Edge.

Instead of just exchanging cards and waiting for an email or a response to one, I decided to continue the power I had experienced from stepping outside of my comfort zone.

I was going to be in town for another day, so I asked the gentleman if he would be interested in talking more over coffee. He immediately agreed and began planning the location and time.

Wow – how powerful!

When I was ready to leave the event, another individual approached me and asked if I would be interested in grabbing lunch to talk further. I paused before agreeing to mentally claim the win of attracting such an event to happen.

The next day consisted of a few meetings full of great conversation and connections that I would’ve previously missed out on because it was more comfortable to choose the normal, polite business card hand-off.

How many powerful events have I missed out on because I was unaware of the power I held when I chose to attract that which I receive?

Have you missed out on an opportunity to make a change and choose your reality?

My intention this week is to ask myself “What do I want to attract?” before responding to a situation.

Jessica Soroky, CSM

Only 21 years old, Jessica is already a Certified Scrum Master with two years of practice in agile delivery and team leadership. She is also the youngest participant in The Leadership Gift™ Program and its growing worldwide community of leaders and coaches. After five years of non-profit development through Nellie’s Catwalk for Kids, Jessica continues her leadership journey in state government, not-for-profit, and private sector leadership studies.

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