There is a lot of 'stuff' out there at the moment about letting the universe do the work. You've probably seen some of it. 'Write your desires on a piece of paper and burn it. Then let the universe/God/your subconscious create it for you.' Or something similar.

The problem is, how can you believe in what you are asking for? What I mean is, suppose you ask the universe etc to make you rich (over 80% of people think they want to be rich). Can you believe it will happen? Because most of the exponents of these schemes insist you have to believe or it won't work. Now, I find it pretty hard to believe I will suddenly become rich.

However I don't find it hard to believe that I will suddenly become $2,000 better off. And this may be the key.

Let's stick with money for a moment – because it is easy to work with. Let's say that I desire to be $50,000 better off. I can't immediately conceive how that can happen so I need to work out a believable scenario. How about:

If a couple of new clients book me for a short talk, I will be $3,000+ better off. It is quite possible that this will happen. I can believe in this.

If, instead of squandering this $3,000, I use it to pay my basic living costs for a month, I could finish that book I have been working on for the past couple of years. I can believe in this.

If my editor is happy with the book, it will be available for sale within 3 months. I can believe in this.

If my book sells 10,000 copies, I will receive $50,000 in royalties*. I can believe in this.

What do you know? I have a believable route to my goal! In four months or so, I can be $50,000 better off.

Now I can write my goal on a piece of paper and burn it!

It may be that my $50,000 will arrive in some entirely different way, of course. The point is not how it manifests, so long as I can believe it is possible. Maybe that is how the car park space thing works. It is entirely believable that someone will pull out of a space just as you arrive. Since you can believe it, the universe (or whatever) allows it to happen.

How about you? Can you work out a believable way that your dream/goal can become a reality?

By the way, you may notice that I have to work for my $50,000. That's because, in my reality, nothing happens until someone does something. If you can work out a scenario you can believe in where you take no action, good for you.

• To reassure any authors who might think my royalty figure is optimistic; I own my publisher, so I get to keep the profits!