Putting the Law of Attraction to Work
With so many books and websites about the Law of Attraction and manifestation out there, there’s surprisingly still quite a bit of confusion surrounding the process. I mean, its a nice theory and all… focus on what you want and the energy of your thoughts will bring those things your way. Sounds easy enough, doesn’t it?
But putting this magic spell into practice seems to be a bit more difficult. Here we all sit, visualizing our butts off, chanting delightful aspirations while we practice deep breathing. Yet, besides a general feeling of relaxation, our manifestation skills just don’t seem to be working.
Are we not breathing enough? Maybe our visualization technique is off. Could it be the chanting? Do we need to be louder?
Before you give up hope, here’s something I bet you didn’t know: The Secret really does have a secret… its just going to require a little action on your part.
See, trying to visualize a million dollars just mysteriously appearing in your checking account is kind of like trying to dodge all the raindrops and not get wet - its just not going to work.
Why? Is the Law of Attraction just a bunch of hype?
The answer is no.. The Law of Attraction actually does work. The problem is, we’re all missing a small but very important piece of the puzzle.
When the gurus told you to visualize your success, they assumed that this visualization would put you in a different state of mind. Believing that success was yours for the taking, you would approach things differently, Ask for that raise, take the leap and start your new business or finally open that investment account you’ve been talking about for the last two years. They thought that with your newfound confidence, the necessary behavioral changes would just naturally occur.
That’s why they all stress how important it is to really believe in what you’re visualizing. Its this belief that should register the change in your perception and thus, your behavior.
But its kind of hard to believe that you have “all the money you need” when you’re really wondering how your family is going to eat until your next payday. As much as you like the idea of that million just appearing in your bank account, you never really believed it would happen just like you wouldn’t be surprised when you weren’t able to dodge all those raindrops. And that’s where the Law of Attraction begins to fall apart: telling yourself that everything will work out is easy - believing it with all your heart and soul is something else altogether.
So the question then becomes: how can you achieve the belief you need to put the Law of Attraction to work? The answer of course, is success. The more you succeed, the more you’ll begin to believe but the problem is generating those first few successes. Kind of a catch 22, isn’t it?
Fortunately, there is another way to approach this whole “manifesting your destiny” idea and lucky for us, its actually pretty simple: you can’t think your way into a new way of acting but you can act your way into a new way of thinking. That’s Richard Pascale, I think, in case you’re interested… somebody please let me know if I’m wrong.
In any event, its both brilliant and true, regardless of who said it first. So when the manifesting gurus told you to think about your success and well-being, they actually had it backwards. Because as long as you’re struggling just to make ends meet, you’ll never really achieve that staunch belief that you have everything you need. And if you don’t believe it, you won’t behave as if you do. And ergo, if your behavior doesn’t change, neither will your circumstances.
So, we’re going to go at this from a different direction. We’re going to teach ourselves to act in a way that is harmonious with our visualizations. We’re going to change our perception by first pretending that its already true.
And we’re going to do this one together.
Here’s how it works:
The first thing you’ll need to do is create a list. Yes, a list… I love them. It keeps me focused and on track so if you want to play along, you’re going to have to trust me on this one.
The trick however is that this list isn’t going to reflect the things you want… No, no, no… its going to reflect your life as if all your dreams had already come true.
For example, instead of writing down “I want to be financially independent” you would write “I am financially independent”. By the same token, instead of writing “I want to lose weight” you would write “I am in great shape”.
But unlike your daily affirmations in front of the mirror, the list doesn’t stop there. Under each of these affirmations, you’re also going to list the reasons that you’ve made that statement. In short, explain how you can make such a claim.
So, if you’re statement is “I am in great shape”, then your reasons for making such a statement might be “I work out regularly” or “I eat a balanced diet that is free from processed and junk foods”. Ideally, you’d want to write both of those reasons by the way, along with any others that you think justify your claim of being in great shape.
Essentially, what you’re doing is defining your actions. You are writing down the way you would behave if you were living the life you’re dreaming about. Someone who is financially independent would want to make sure they stay that way by saving a percentage of their income, looking for new ways to make money and learning about investing and the like. Likewise, someone who is physically fit would probably spend some time lifting weights, stretching, running, swimming, etc. You get the idea.
Make as many statements as you like and give them as many reasons as you want. Take some time to think about it and feel free to adjust or edit your list as you go. Address all the different aspects of your life - health, wealth, spiritual and mental - because as we all know, a balanced life is always best.
Are some of your goals a little bigger than you can handle right now? Not a problem - just break them down into smaller, doable steps. Paying off $15,000 in student loans is a pretty hefty goal but paying off a $500 credit card is certainly a manageable task.
Use this list to incorporate in all those things you’ve always wanted to do. Learn Tai Chi for example or take a few classes at your community college. Study a foreign language, play a musical instrument or travel around the world. How do you define happiness? If you had all the time and money that you would ever need, how would your life be different? What would you do? How would you spend your time?
And most importantly, how would you ensure that it stayed that way?
When you’re done, you’ll likely end up with something that looks like this. That’s my list by the way, or at least the way my list stands to date. Some of the things on my list are already true but they are things I like and I think they’re important to my overall picture, so I added them to remind me that I’m already on my way. Notice that all my statements are in the present tense as in I am doing them now.
And that is the key. Because in order for me to act into a new way of feeling, I have to know what those actions should be. Once I’ve defined them - and this is important - I have to find a way to make them true.
See, I can visualize having no credit card debt all day long but as long I keep whipping out that credit card, my debt isn’t going to go away. I can imagine that I’m in fantastic shape but if I’m living on pizza and carbonated drinks, I’m probably not ever going to see those six pack abs that I want.
So then my success becomes a simple matter of choice. I can choose to act in a way that is consistent with my aspirations or I can choose to do something else. Either way, its still my choice. The beauty of this is that while there are some goals that will require a bit of time and effort, there are others that you can adopt immediately. Maybe you can’t really start behaving as if all your bills are paid because, well… they’re not. But what you can do is start saving a small amount from each paycheck or paying a little extra on each bill. And regardless of how limited you might initially be in some areas, there’s certainly nothing to stop you from really focusing on other, more attainable areas.
For example, you can start working out right now. You can stop smoking, stop drinking or grab an apple instead of a candy bar. You can start writing that novel, scoping out a spot for your garden and checking out martial arts dojos around town. So, even though you can’t adopt all of these new behaviors at once, you can start making a dent.
And that’s how you begin to build those success stories we talked about earlier… the ones that will teach you to believe in yourself and in the Law of Attraction.
Does it really work? Well, technically there’s no real way to prove that the Law of Attraction exists since it is after all, based on the energy of thought and the Universe’s response to that energy. But even if the entire idea is bogus, you’ll still be saving, exercising, reading, traveling, learning, playing and connecting with yourself in a way you never have before. So really, I don’t see how you can fail.
I’ll be tracking my progress with this experiment here - if you want to join in, feel free to post your list or even just a specific aspiration in the comments section and let us know how you’re doing 
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