" A young couple shared a story about how they had wanted for years to buy their own home but never got the money together to do it. Then one day, after reading about the practice of "treasure-mapping" (posting pictures of what you want in life somewhere in your office or home), they decided to put a picture on their refrigerator of a new house, the kind they dreamed of owning. "In less than nine months, we'd made the down payment and moved in," said the amazed husband. His wife added, "Alongside the photo of the house we eventually put a little thermometer that we filled in as our savings toward a down payment grew." I have heard many similar stories about how treasure mapping has worked for people. I have also read books and attended seminars that explain why. Most of them discuss what happens to the subconscious mind when you send it a picture of something you want. Because the subconscious mind only communicates with vividly imagined or real pictur

t picture. Without advertising our goals to ourselves, we can lose sight of them altogether. It is possible to go an entire week, or two or three, without thinking about our main goals in life. We get caught up in reacting _109 110 and responding to people and circumstances and we simply forget to think about our own purpose. I have an example of how this practice worked in my life: Three years ago I was interested in giving more seminars on the subject of fund-raising. I had co-authored a book called RelationSHIFT: Revolutionary Fund-Raising with University of Arizona development director Michael Bassoff. We had done some successful seminars on the subject, and I wanted to do more. So, on the wall of my bedroom I put up a white poster board, and on that board I put up a lot of pictures and index cards with my goals on them. I wanted to have all those goals in front of me when I woke up each morning, even though I only spent

One of the index cards I had pinned to my goal board simply contained the bold-markered letters, "ASU." It was almost lost among the hodgepodge of photos and goals I'd covered the board with, and I'm certain I only barely noticed it each morning as I got up. I put it up there because I thought it would be great if I could give seminars to

Arizona State University, especially now that I was living in the Phoenix area. I really thought nothing more of it. One day at the offices of the corporate training company where I worked, I was asked to shake the hand of a new employee, Jerry. I asked Jerry to come in and sit down. We talked in my office for a few minutes about his joining the company. I asked him about his family and he casually mentioned that his parents were living in town, and that his mother worked at ASU. Normally, that would have meant nothing. ASU is a very well-known and oft-mentioned presence in the Phoenix area. But something went off in my mind when _110 111 he said that, and I know in hindsight that "something" was my daily view of my goal board. My ears perked up when he said "ASU" and I asked him, "What does your mother do at ASU?" "She's the chief administrative assistant to the development director at the ASU Foundation," he said. "They're in charge of all the fund-raising at the University." I reall