Strive to Achieve or Manifest your Desires?

Many of you will have come across the phenomenal marketing success that is The Secret. Indeed I’ve promoted it in Next Steps in the past. If you, like many others, have tried to apply the teaching of The Secret and use the Law of Attraction to manifest your dreams and goals, but are not seeing the results, then read on to discover where you are going wrong?

The Secret emphasises the Law of Attraction and promotes the belief that the Universe or God is like a big warehouse in the sky, storing all the good things that you are waiting for in your life. Some people take the view that all they have to do is think about what they want and hey presto; it will appear on their front door. A bit like sending a mental fax or an order form.

Now I see evidence of the Law of Attraction almost every day either in my own life or the lives of my clients - being in the right place at the right time, coincidences, manifestations etc.! Being something of an expert in goal-setting and having a results-focused mindset, the answer to achieving our desires is a little more complex.

There are two schools of thought regarding getting or achieving what you want - the school of Acquisition and the school of Attraction.

In the West, it is the school of acquisition that has and is dominant. When you decide what you want, you take action until you get it. If the action you take doesn’t get you the results you desire, then you keep taking different action until one strategy works and your goal is achieved.

Society on the whole admires and rewards those who apply the science of achievement, even if they have to tread on a few people’s toes to get what they want. Of course these high-achievers, dedicated to their causes have contributed greatly to the world in all fields from business to science. But the flip side is that perhaps people, who don’t achieve the same levels of success, or worse, don’t even try, are viewed as weak, unmotivated and lazy.

The school of attraction’s central beliefs are ‘like attracts like,’ ‘thoughts are energy,’ and ‘you become what you think about.’ This philosophy is more Eastern and is concerned more with ‘being’ not ‘doing.’

So with two schools of thought available to us, why aren’t more people living their dreams? Michael Neill the US coach and motivational speaker offers this thought. He states that ‘people are attempting to use the principles of attraction as a new set of tools for acquisition.’

Motivation always requires motive, the reason why something is important to you. Herein lies the problem - it is the reasons why people want the new car, boyfriend or bigger bank balance. The belief being that having what they want will make them happy. The thinking goes something like – if I have more money, I will be able to do more of the things I enjoy doing, and then I will be happy. The equation is Have, Do, Be. However the Law of Attraction and the main teaching of the Secret states that it works the other way around. If you can be right now the person you would be when you achieve your goal or acquire the object of desire, then it is that energy that attracts the good things into your life. So the equation is Be Have Do.

Of course wishful thinking is not enough; you still have to take action. You have to put in motion a chain of events. We all know the phrase, ‘knowledge is power,’ but knowledge is only potential power, you have to do something with it, you have to take action. You might be trying to manifest the perfect relationship, but without going out and meeting people, it is unlikely to happen. By taking new actions or having new conversations you will create new outcomes. It is the Law of Cause and Effect. If you keep doing what you have always done, in terms of behaviours or thought patterns, then you will continue to get the same results.

Behind every goal we are working towards is the desire to feel more of a positive emotion - love, fulfillment happiness. If we can tap into that emotion now, (because we already know what it feels like, if we didn’t we wouldn’t know its absence) then we are harnessing the power of the Law of Attraction. Combine this with the Law of Cause and Effect and you are on to a winning formula.

So if you have been trying to ‘acquire’ your goals by using the law of attraction and it hasn’t been working, take a closer look at your motives. What do you need to change in your thinking to get what you want?

Article adapted from an article by Michael Neill at www.geniuscatalyst.com

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