In this vlog, Mary Schiller reflects on the twelfth day of her 30‑day challenge to follow her dreams. She recounts how, after focusing on what she truly wants, she revisited a group‑coaching program she ran years ago and felt a strong sense of validation when she discovered another successful creator offering a similar program. Mary interprets this synchronicity as evidence that the universe delivers ideas on a "silver platter" when we listen to our inner calling, reinforcing her belief that coincidences don’t exist. She shares practical updates: rewriting 5,000 words of her novel, researching and preparing for a longer‑stay French visa (including a language test and watching French films with subtitles), and dealing with a denied socialized‑medicine application that will require legal assistance. Throughout, she emphasizes a mindset shift from "I have to" to "I want to," urging viewers to keep moving forward despite setbacks.
Chapters
It is day 12 of 30 Days of Following My Dreams. It is July 19, 2024. I am out a little bit early today. I forgot my earbuds, so I'm hoping you can hear me all right. There's not any construction happening here in the park at the moment, so got my fingers crossed. It has been a really interesting week, and I want to share something with you that I have learned that, uh, I think is really, really important. So something kind of incredible happened last night after I finished making yesterday's video. And to give you a little bit of backstory here, about 3 years ago I ran a program, a group coaching program. I can't remember if I ran it once or twice. I didn't go back and look, but it was one of the most impactful programs I have ever run for me personally. It also was great for the participants. I got some tremendous feedback, really, really positive feedback. And I remember at the time not really knowing what to do with it after that. I didn't run it again after the first or second time. I can't remember again how many times that I ran it, but it just— I didn't know what to do. And so it's just kind of been lingering in the back of my mind all these years. Fast forward to this week, and this is the lesson that I really want to share that I think has just been so crucial, is that I think because during these past 11 or 12 days now that I have been really allowing myself to focus on what I want to do and really just letting everything else go. Like, I really haven't done anything at all in these past several days that I have not really actively wanted to do. I have now come back to the topic of that program that I ran all those years ago, and I have seen it in a completely new light because completely new light. It's been kind of incredible. And so last night I was looking around, Googling, thinking, I wonder if anyone else is offering something similar to this. And I wasn't really seeing anything. And then for reasons that I can't explain— I don't believe in coincidence, so, you know, take that as you will— uh, I went on Instagram to someone's account who I follow sporadically. I don't even know if I actually follow this person, but I look at their stuff every few weeks. And it was incredible because this person had done a live stream about the same basic topic that I want to do this new offering on. And I'm not going to share any details about any of this, you're going to have to wait and see. And they had a group program coming up in a few weeks that they were talking about. And I thought, wow, isn't that interesting that this person is doing something that is similar, pretty similar to what I was thinking of doing? And you might say, well, you know, that's kind of a bummer that someone else is doing it, especially this person is incredibly accomplished and very, very successful. But I actually had the opposite feeling. Because for me it was like, okay, this really successful person is seeing the same thing I am, except I have a very, very different perspective on this topic. Again, not ready to share anything that I am going to bring to it, and I know for a fact from feedback that I have received over the years that it's going to be something that is really going to connect with people who already follow me and maybe bring in a lot of people who don't yet follow me. So I went to sleep last night just feeling on top of the world because I felt not only validated, but like, just, I don't know, I felt like I had stepped into a new world almost. So when I got up this morning, it literally felt like I was in a different life. It felt like I was now living a new version of Mary. It was bizarre. And then another thing happened, which I am also not ready to talk about because I haven't investigated it thoroughly, but I found a very interesting online platform having to do with writing that may be the answer to a question that I've had for a long time. And so I don't know, I, I wish I could say that it was coincidence, but again, I don't believe in coincidence. I have a course on Insight Timer called 7 Days of Serendipity where I talk about the fact that I don't believe in coincidence or luck or anything like that. It seems to me that this is how life works, that we are designed to listen to what's calling to us to do keep following it, take the steps, and things just show up, show up, show up. That's just how it works. The actual work that we have to do is not all that big because all of the ideas are handed to us literally on a silver platter, it seems like. I mean, in, in my case, it literally felt like, oh, I was allowed to see this person's livestream— was actually the recording of it just to bolster the idea that I already had and let me know, yes, Mary, this is a great idea, but your take is going to be your take and it's going to be awesome. So basically, if most of the work is already being done for us, what are we waiting for? The video I had yesterday for day 11 was about time and how time is available to us, we just have to use it. And I think we need to stop saying things like, I don't have time, or I have to do this other thing, or I need to do this other thing. What if we changed that to I want to do this instead of I should do this or I have to? I just don't want that in my vocabulary anymore. So I am going to get started with my day. I'm actually going to the supermarket right now because it's going to be very hot here. So let's go through the day and see what happens. I'll catch up with you in just a moment. It is just after 5 PM. It's time to call it a day. I have worked pretty hard today. I have in total now gone through the first part of my novel, the setup scene. I'm still actually in it, but it's about 5,000 words in. I really wish this was going faster, this process of rewriting, but that's okay. 5,000 words is 5,000 more words than I had redone when I started, so, you know, I'll take the progress. For French, I did some investigating on how to apply for a longer stay visa to see exactly what requirements are needed. Found all that out, and we are going to pay for the French test probably tonight and sign up for that. That won't happen until October, so we still have time to study. I also was watching a French film with French subtitles. If I am logged into Netflix, let's say, here in France, French films don't have English subtitles. So unless I use a VPN or something, I am stuck with French, which is great because it's good practice for me. We did get some somewhat disappointing news today in that our application to get on the socialized medicine plan here was denied. However, they did give us a way to fix that, so we are probably going to have to go talk to an attorney here, which is fine. Um, it's just an extra step, but we will get there. So all in all, it was A successful day in some ways, a little disappointing in other ways, but that's life, right? We just keep going, and that's what I'm gonna do. So I will see you tomorrow.
