Your Thoughts Do Not Create Your Reality, Stupid.

[zenmaster]

to be honest, it's when I stopped thinking about it that the cheque came

That's a technique chaos magicians use in regards to sigils. Apparently forgetting the desire empowers it for whatever reason. It's something I'm still trying to figure out.

it's because the attachment to the idea of having your desire met paradoxically serves as an obstacle to your desire being met, because that attachment comes with the worry that it will not be met.

But it's not a paradox. All desire has a binding quality, regardless of purity of intent. You can think of it as an expression of love (a la M. Ficino). When there is rapprochement in thought and design, then provisions are made for the magical circumstance. It's simply that if the object of desire is some metaphor or allegory for a disassociated aspect of self, then the energy goes toward emphasizing that limited self-reference. How could it be any other way?

In other words, before there is worry, there is something lost or disowned. Any request must also be referencing and addressing the same position of abandonment.