What is the Law of Attraction and Does it Actually Work?
Over the last few years, the law of attraction has started gaining more traction.
Starting with The Secret back in 2006 to progressing into a global movement.
The power to see what you want and manifest it in your life sounds like something out of a Marvel comic…
Now, millions of people around the world are claiming LoA changed their life and you can find endless law of attraction stories online.
But, is there some truth to it?
In this article, we’ll dive deep into the law of attraction, visualization, manifestation or whatever you want to call it.
You’ll get an idea of what it’s all about, and the number one mistake people make with the law of attraction.
Ready? Let’s jump in.
What is the Law of Attraction?
There’s a lot of different LoA meanings on the internet, but here’s my favourite way to describe it:
Whatever you think, and whatever you put out into the world, is what you attract.
I don’t think anyone would argue that if you smile more, then more people will smile back. If you help more people, more people are going to help you.
However, most people who follow the law of attraction lifestyle seem to think something completely different.
They believe that if they imagine themselves drinking cocktails on a beach living their dream life, then that will magically happen.
I’ve had someone tell me they were going to imagine themselves winning the lottery as their plan to make money.
Surprisingly, it doesn’t work like that. Who’d have thought it?
So, how does it work? If I can’t use it to make things appear then what’s the point of it?
The Number One Law of Attraction Mistake
At its core, the law of attraction is just a fancy word for visualization.
But, as I pointed out simply visualizing the end goal isn’t going to get you very far. It’s what you do once you have these goals in place that determined your success.
The law of attraction, while a powerful concept, is only a tool to help you on your journey.
The people who succeed with LoA use these visions to manifest that desire and passion to take action every day. The thought of one day achieving their goals is enough to make them act upon their goals.
So, using our example of someone wanting to spend their day on a beach drinking cocktails.
One person will see this goal of being on a beach and think that to get to that point they have to imagine themselves on the beach every day.
Another person will know that in order to get to a point where I can lie on the beach, I need to have a certain amount of money or freedom that will enable me to do so.
They know that they need to develop certain skills or build a business and consistently take action on these goals until they get to their dream lifestyle.
Which of these two imaginary cocktail-lovers do you think will be further ahead in 3 years?
A Quick Lesson in Physics
No, there won’t be any homework.
One of the key principles in physics is that energy can’t be created out of thin air. Energy can only be transferred from one form into another.
By this statement alone, it should be clear that you can’t put energy into thinking about something and expect that thing to appear.
You have to give something first to get the rewards. In this case, it’s action.
It’s determination and passion and holding onto the idea that one day, somewhere down the road, you’ll be where you want to be.
Aspirations are realised through action.
Until you firmly plant that idea into your mind, the law of attraction is never going to help you.
Class dismissed.
How to Use the Law of Attraction to Make Your Dreams A Reality
We’ve covered how you should be using the law of attraction, but how do you actually implement it into your life.
It’s one thing to say “you need to set goals and take action” – but what does that process look like?
Here’s a quick step-by-step process you can use to get started.
Step 1: Depth is More Important than Width
When trying to come up with a clear vision of where you want to be in the future, you need to get specific.
It’s no good saying you want to be a lawyer with a PhD in medicine that travels the world with an online business that teaches people about fitness.
Although that’d be one heck of a resume…
Instead, you need to choose one thing and stick to it. Don’t change it after 3 months because you don’t think it’s achievable.
You need to have laser-guided focus and never lose sight of the end, no matter how difficult it becomes.
Step 2: Starting at the End
This might seem counter-intuitive at first, but starting at your goal and working backwards is the best way to create a clear path to follow.
Now that you have a vision of where you want to be in life, you need to work out how you’re going to get there.
This can be done in any number of ways. But I’d start off by working out exactly what it would take for you to be living the life you dream of.
Is it earning $20k a month through an online business, or is it $3,000 a month and having the freedom to do whatever you want? Or, is it having a high-paying job in an office and being able to afford amazing holidays a couple of times a year?
Whatever it is, you need to spend a bit of time coming up with a specific goal that, when reached, lets you live this lifestyle.
Personally, I value freedom at the moment. I’ve always placed freedom higher than wealth, and coincidentally I’m now working as a freelancer in Thailand. I’ll let you decide whether or not that’s a coincidence…
Step 3: Making Your Goals A Reality
Once you have a specific goal, you can start taking action and getting to work.
The way the world is shifting, my number one piece of advice I give to people is to learn a profitable skill.
I won’t go into detail here, you can check out the podcast episode I did all about how to thrive in a skill-based economy if you want to learn more.
In my case, I started with web design and coding. Then, I transitioned into writing, and now I’m doing marketing. The trick is to find something you like and become amazing at it.
You need to become so good at it that people are willing to pay you for your skill. This doesn’t actually take as long as you think, and you’re probably much closer to making it a reality than you think.
Once you find something, it’s just a case of learning how to turn it into a career. There’s a huge amount of information on the internet. Do a search on “how to make money doing X online” or “how to become a better X”.
Take courses, watch videos, read articles, learn from industry experts and most importantly – don’t stop growing. Developing a growth mindset is perhaps the most important thing you can do.
Read: “How to develop a growth mindset”
That takes us into the fourth and final step…
Step 4: Take Action and Learn to Love Failure
You probably saw this one coming. But, I can’t stress enough how important it is that you become an action-taker.
Don’t be someone that spends all their time learning and consuming content, never thinking they know enough.
The best way to learn is through experience. The easiest way to experience is to try and to fail.
I failed more times in the last 5 years than I’d care to admit. Most entrepreneurs fail 4 times before finding success.
It’s a normal part of the process. By breaking your self down and constantly building yourself up stronger each time, you’re always going to learn and grow and eventually you’ll reach your goals.
Now, I’m not going to sugar coat it. The journey is damn hard. There will days you want to give up and go back to the life you were leading before. You’ll think your dream of living in a beachfront villa is stupid and that you’re a fool for ever thinking it would come true.
This happens to everyone.
Your brain is designed to seek safety and comfort. When you do something that puts you outside that comfort zone it’s a natural reaction to get you to stop.
If you can make it through those difficult times, stay consistent, and keep taking action – I guarantee you’ll become an entirely new person by the end.
The Rest is On You…
Remember, the law of attraction is a tool to make you passionate enough to pursue this path and achieve your goals.
Hopefully, I’ve made it clear enough in this article that a vision board isn’t going to change your life by itself.
Keep that vision in your head of where you want to be. Keep focused on that end goal, but use it to fuel the fire inside of you. Use it to take action.
Now, it’s over to you.
As always, thank you for reading. Don’t forget to listen to the podcast episode if you haven’t already and be sure to leave us a review if you enjoyed. It really helps us out!
Until next time.
Peace.