Back in the fall, I started thinking about goals for 2012. More specifically, I reviewed my list of WIGs (Wildly Improbable Goals). Martha Beck talks about them in her book, Finding Your Own North Star. WIGs are goals that seem almost impossible but they are things you really, really want in your life.

A WIG that I have had for years is to study French in France. I lived in Switzerland many years ago and became fluent in French but haven’t really spoken the language in twenty years. It’s been a dream of mine to sit in a café in Paris and speak French with someone who can correct my grammar and my accent (and tell me cool stories about the history of Paris). I don’t think it will take long before I can speak French again, ably, if not fluently.

So I reviewed my list, added a couple of new WIGs, then put it away and forgot about it.

A couple of weeks later, my sister Donna called me. “What do you think about going to Paris in April?” she asked.

Donna told me that a friend of hers is planning to do the Paris Marathon and she was thinking about going to watch her run.

I said I’d think about it, but a part of me started to get excited. When this kind of synchronicity happens, it’s usually just the first of many.

About a week later, my husband and I were talking about vacation plans for 2012 (he has to plan his vacation time at least six month in advance).

I asked him what he thought about me going to Paris in April.

His response was, “We can’t afford it.”

I told him I was committed to our get-out-of-debt plan and I wasn’t going to go into debt to visit Paris.

In my mind, I continued the conversation (you know how you do that? The person you were talking to leaves the room, and you keep thinking of things you wanted to say?) Anyway, here’s what I was thinking at Tom: But if I assume I can’t afford it, I won’t think about it and then I definitely won’t be able to go. If I keep my mind open, maybe something will happen or I can figure out a way to pay for it and then I’ll be able to go.

About a week later, I was talking to a friend about staying open to possibilities and I ended up telling her my philosophy about WIGs and how I was hoping to go to Paris but I needed to figure out how to pay for it.

She said that, as a retired flight attendant, she could get me a “buddy” ticket to Paris. “It wouldn’t be free,” she said, “you’d have to pay around $120.”

As soon as she said that, I said, “See? If I hadn’t kept my mind open, I never would have mentioned it and I’d never have known that I could possibly get a ticket from a friend!”

By now, I know that my trip to Paris is a done deal. I don’t know all the details about how it’s going to happen and how I’ll pay for it, but I know it’s going to happen. I’ll keep working hard at the things I know how to do, and some other unexpected, helpful, thing will happen that I can’t even imagine yet.

My friends, Evie and Allie, two amazing shaman, have a meditation CD that I love. In it, Evie says to “see your prayer already answered,” and then let go of the how.

Once you set a goal or name an intention, you set something in motion that is beyond your own efforts. Once you declare to the Universe what you want, the Universe will work on your behalf in ways that you cannot imagine.

What are your WIGs? Take some time to think about what you really want that seems almost impossible today, then write it down and see what comes next.