This is going to be a long one, but if you’re looking for inspiration you won’t be let down.

When I was 17, life was at an all time low for me. I was on the verge of giving up. I was in college at the time as I had graduated high school when I was 15 due to excessive bullying and abuse. I didn’t have any friends, ate lunch by myself, I didn’t talk to anybody, and I’d lock myself in my bedroom to get away from my dad and my stepmom. I was taking computer courses to major in Computer Science. The thing was, I hated it, but I was good at it. I couldn’t imagine doing it for the rest of my life. I felt lost and on a never ending treadmill of self-doubt. That’s when The Secret came into my life.

My dad had me watch it. At first I was skeptical and decided to give it a chance. If nothing happened, it was no big loss. I thought about the one thing I wanted most at the time. To find what I would love to do for the rest of my life. To find my Dharma. I kept thinking about it and the feelings associated to that desire. A week later, I went into the counselor’s office at the campus to discuss the upcoming semester’s schedule. My counselor informed me that I need a Humanities credit and that I should knock it out this semester. I went online that night to check out available classes. There was only ONE available with one spot left; Acting 101. There was no way in my mind I was going to take acting. I was introverted and shy. No way could I ever do anything like acting. I decided to wait until next semester.

The next day my older sister comes up to me and asks me about my classes. I told her about having to take a Humanities course and the only one available was acting and that there was no way I was going to do it. My sister told me it was an easy A and I’d get the credit and be done with it as she had taken it. I contemplated about it and ended up signing up for it that same night.

I took the class and started opening up a little and kind of enjoyed it although we didn’t do too much. I got the A and as I was leaving on the last day, my teacher pulled me aside. She told me I had natural talent and that she wanted me to skip their second semester and go straight into their brand new third semester just starting. I told her I’d think about it. That week my sister asked me what I thought of the class. I told her I kind of liked it and told her about what my teacher had told me, but I didn’t really care to go on with it. My sister had taken the first and second semester unkown to me. She was excited to hear about the third semester and said she and I could take it together so I wasn’t alone. I hesitated, but gave in to my sister’s pleads. Best decision of my life.

I fell in love with acting and found that I was very natural at it. Doing Improv, I could lead a 90 minute show based of one word from the audience and keep them entertained the whole lot of time. I had people lining up to me after every show asking me questions and praising me on my performance. I felt amazing.

After the third semester, I wrote a goal sheet with 7 things I wanted. At this time, I had really lost focus on The Secret. It came and it went. I didn’t realize at the time that I had attracted the acting class as it had been a while in between since I had originally set up that test goal. On my goal sheet were the following:

1. Train and learn more indepth about acting
2. Sign with an agent
3. Move to L.A.
4. Be on Disney Channel
5. Write a television show and get it picked up.
6. Meet Dustin Hoffman, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Edward Norton (My idols)
7. Own my own production company and write, direct, act in, and produce my own films with each film I produce being a different genre from the last

I hung it up on my wall and stared at it every day for about 5 months before I moved into my mom’s house and put it away. Before my 18th birthday, my stepmom had shown me an article for a local performing arts studio opening in my town. I had heard bad things about local studios, so I tossed it away. Later that night, I found the article clipped out and placed on my bed. My stepmom had dug through the trash and cut it out for me. I decided to give it a chance.

3 months after joining the studio, I was the top student there and one of the best agents was flying down from L.A to have us audition. I signed up, having high hopes. After the audition, I felt like I did amazing and kept thinking about it. A week later out of 300 people, I was the only one chosen. I flew to L.A and met with three agents (One for Film, one for Television, and one for Voice Over). I do over 23 different voices and felt confident going in. That day, I signed.

I went back to Reno and for the next 4 months, I spent every moment with my acting coach. I’d attend every class (Even children’s), I’d hang out with her after school, and she became a mom to me. Everything she said that related to acting, I took to heart. I believed in it fully and was immensely improving. They have ranking systems at my studio like Karate (White, Yellow, Orange, etc.) In 7 months, I was a red. Taking each test and passing. Every scene I put up, I wouldn’t go on until I became the character. If I dropped out for a second, my coach would know which part exactly and inform me. Every bit of criticism I got, I took as constructive and worked on it. If I didn’t do a scene to the best of my ability, I’d leave and practice until I knew it was.

I moved to L.A February, 2010. I stayed down there for two months getting a feel for the environment and fell in love. While I was down there, I auditioned for movies and landed a role on Disney’s new show, Moise’s Rules. It was a quick episode, but I felt amazing being on set and seeing everything move and come to life from a simple script. It was mesmerizing.

I moved back to Reno and immediately went back to my studio. After a month, the director of the studio propositioned myself and this other actor to write a t.v. show for the studio to help promote it. I was extremely grateful and took it. The other actor and myself became close friends as we spent all the free time we had on the show as I was working three jobs and taking acting. About two months in and hundreds of hours put into set building/script writing/etc., an actress, the director’s niece, and I were good friends as we had dated recently and decided to remain friends instead. She had been on Disney a few times and was given the opportunity to have her own show on Disney Channel if she could find a good writer. She had read our script and thought of us immediately of all the writers she knows. I accepted.

I was digging through my closet and found a piece of paper poking out from one of the bottom boxes. I pulled it out. It was my goal list. As I read down each goal, I started to cry. I had completed my first 4 goals on there in ORDER. That’s when I realized my 5th had happened and is expanding as I enjoyed creating the first show as I love doing it and that the action of accepting the offer had lead to a second as the residual outcome of the first. I finally understood how The Secret works and I am unbelieveably grateful.

I’m two months in after attracting The Secret back into my life and this time for every single day for the rest of my life. I watch the movie at least 2 times a day, I’ve read the books on this site, and many more like “The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success (Life)” and “Think And Grow Rich”. So far, every day since the first day of bringing The Secret fully into my life has been a blessing and continues to be just that. I wake up every morning feeling thankful and happy to enjoy the present as it is as everything is becoming that of which I imagine.

I have the script all done and perfect for Disney and I’m leaving soon to go and pitch it to the Executive Producer and the writing staff of the recently canceled show, The Suite Life on Deck. My friend is coming as well as she is the main character as am I. The Secret has worked thus far for everything and I’m excited to see how life keeps unfolding. I have two more goals left on that list. Let’s see how soon they manifest!