I downloaded a free e-book book from Amazon this weekend (it's now back to $2.99). It looked like a book about financial management, and since I want to learn more about this subject, and I've picked up some real gems from Amazon's list of 100 best-selling free Kindle books, I decided to try it. Well, I've only read a couple of chapters, but it seems to be mostly about the Law of Attraction (LOA) as it applies to personal finance. I may comment further on the book, when I've finished, but I do want to comment on the LOA. It's been huge for the last few years.
Various permutations of the LOA attribute success, getting what you want and so on, to a process usually called manifesting. Manifesting is supposed to be a result of your ability to align your thoughts, vibrations, feelings, and/or internal images, with the Universe or God or something like that. So you don't so much get things as you manifest, or somehow assist the Universe, in creating them. On a first pass this seems patently ridiculous, doesn't it? But these books and movies, such as The Secret, are absolutely chock full of testimonials from people swearing that they, indeed, were able to manifest things such as Rolex watches, BMW's, and checks with lots of zeros in the amounts. So what's up with that?
Honestly, I'm not really sure. My opinion at this time is that it's mostly (or completely) about changing your own attitude. Your attitude is everything, and if there is any "magic" here, I think it may be in our ability to pick up attitudinal signals from people around us. For example, after reading a book on Positive Thinking years ago, I began to notice that when I was feeling positive and "up," strangers reacted very differently to me than when I was feeling "down." Even when I was down and made every effort to control body language, speech, and appearance, people still acted in accordance with how I really felt, not how I tried to appear to feel.
I remember a young woman who worked in my office. She was in no way beautiful. She had rather coarse features and was rather ethnic-looking at a time when that was not in vogue. But she seemed to believe she was a knock-out, and she totally projected that. Everything in the way she dressed, styled her long hair, and presented herself, said "beautiful lady." And men were very, very impressed. I've since noticed many other women with that "attitudinal beauty." I've also known a lot of women who had nice figures, good hair and features, but who did not project beauty, and were largely overlooked.
A second element is your own expectations, and what you will permit for yourself, what you will allow yourself to anticipate and strive for. If you don't believe in yourself, or in the world's ability or intention to provide for you, then you will tend to not see a lot of real opportunities, and you will have a pessimism-based risk aversion that prevents you from taking advantage of even the opportunities you do perceive.
I've read, and observed, that people's stations in adult life often mirror the socioeconomic levels in which they were raised. Men who were brought up by wealthy, entrepreneurial fathers are far more likely, regardless of education and intelligence, to end up at approximately the same level as their fathers. Men who grew up in poverty are much less likely to have achieved wealth. There are many elements that contribute to this phenomenon. However, attitudes, beliefs that support accepting for oneself this kind of achievement, and especially that support the effort required to get there, are probably near the top of the list.
Now, this is not what the LOA is supposed to be about, not at all. But, I've noticed that one of the almost-universal elements in LOA methods is a strong focus on gratitude. Becoming aware of all the good things that come to you, and that are in your life. Developing a strong concentration on these positive things, and a refusal to dwell, or do more than barely notice, the negatives. Learning to reframe negatives as positives. Isn't this actually a reworked form of Positive Thinking, with a strong overlay of magic?
Whatever it is, I believe it can work, if it results in people really changing their fundamental beliefs about themselves, their potential, and their abilities. And perhaps the element of magic makes it easier for us to buy into these new beliefs. By adulthood, most of us have formulated pretty concrete ideas of who we are and what we are capable of, of what we can have and what isn't for us, even though we think we'd really like it. I think the LOA method's primary role in change, then, is not invoking the help of some higher power, but in changing what we believe we are deserving and capable of.
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Various permutations of the LOA attribute success, getting what you want and so on, to a process usually called manifesting. Manifesting is supposed to be a result of your ability to align your thoughts, vibrations, feelings, and/or internal images, with the Universe or God or something like that. So you don't so much get things as you manifest, or somehow assist the Universe, in creating them. On a first pass this seems patently ridiculous, doesn't it? But these books and movies, such as The Secret, are absolutely chock full of testimonials from people swearing that they, indeed, were able to manifest things such as Rolex watches, BMW's, and checks with lots of zeros in the amounts. So what's up with that?
Honestly, I'm not really sure. My opinion at this time is that it's mostly (or completely) about changing your own attitude. Your attitude is everything, and if there is any "magic" here, I think it may be in our ability to pick up attitudinal signals from people around us. For example, after reading a book on Positive Thinking years ago, I began to notice that when I was feeling positive and "up," strangers reacted very differently to me than when I was feeling "down." Even when I was down and made every effort to control body language, speech, and appearance, people still acted in accordance with how I really felt, not how I tried to appear to feel.
I remember a young woman who worked in my office. She was in no way beautiful. She had rather coarse features and was rather ethnic-looking at a time when that was not in vogue. But she seemed to believe she was a knock-out, and she totally projected that. Everything in the way she dressed, styled her long hair, and presented herself, said "beautiful lady." And men were very, very impressed. I've since noticed many other women with that "attitudinal beauty." I've also known a lot of women who had nice figures, good hair and features, but who did not project beauty, and were largely overlooked.
A second element is your own expectations, and what you will permit for yourself, what you will allow yourself to anticipate and strive for. If you don't believe in yourself, or in the world's ability or intention to provide for you, then you will tend to not see a lot of real opportunities, and you will have a pessimism-based risk aversion that prevents you from taking advantage of even the opportunities you do perceive.
I've read, and observed, that people's stations in adult life often mirror the socioeconomic levels in which they were raised. Men who were brought up by wealthy, entrepreneurial fathers are far more likely, regardless of education and intelligence, to end up at approximately the same level as their fathers. Men who grew up in poverty are much less likely to have achieved wealth. There are many elements that contribute to this phenomenon. However, attitudes, beliefs that support accepting for oneself this kind of achievement, and especially that support the effort required to get there, are probably near the top of the list.
Now, this is not what the LOA is supposed to be about, not at all. But, I've noticed that one of the almost-universal elements in LOA methods is a strong focus on gratitude. Becoming aware of all the good things that come to you, and that are in your life. Developing a strong concentration on these positive things, and a refusal to dwell, or do more than barely notice, the negatives. Learning to reframe negatives as positives. Isn't this actually a reworked form of Positive Thinking, with a strong overlay of magic?
Whatever it is, I believe it can work, if it results in people really changing their fundamental beliefs about themselves, their potential, and their abilities. And perhaps the element of magic makes it easier for us to buy into these new beliefs. By adulthood, most of us have formulated pretty concrete ideas of who we are and what we are capable of, of what we can have and what isn't for us, even though we think we'd really like it. I think the LOA method's primary role in change, then, is not invoking the help of some higher power, but in changing what we believe we are deserving and capable of.
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