Today I had my hair cut by a man in hemp pants in a small upstairs conference room of the office building where I’m a temp.

As I stared at the small, zen-style fountain in front of me (conference rooms don’t have mirrors), he shared with me the power of positive thinking.

“This haircut is the missing piece.  With this, you’ll get the job you’ve always wanted.  I promise.  Within two weeks.  You’ll see.”

I laughed.

“You laugh, but I’m serious!  In two weeks — by Halloween, you’ll get the job you want.”

“That would be really awesome,” I answered.

“You just have to do one thing.”

“Yeah?”

“Show up!  Show up, and be yourself.  And everything will happen for you.”

Skeptically — “Okay.”

Now, the cynical side of me thinks this guy is full of it.  And, really, so does the idealistic side of me, a little.  But you know?  It can’t hurt to hope.  So for the rest of the month, I’ll make a special effort to reach for what I want.  And maybe, at the start of November, I’ll go back to that silly conference room, stick my head in the door, and say, “You were right.”

After he’d finished brushing the loose hair from the back of my neck, he looked at me and said, “It must be a trip to get your hair cut in a conference room.”

It certainly was.