Goals to have in life – 3 lessons from the Law of Attraction

One of the goals to have in life is the power of positive thinking. My sister got me a book called “The Secret” for Christmas 2010. It is based on the law of attraction and explains that the more we tell ourselves that we are successful, the more we'll behave as if we are. We will start to carry ourselves like successful people do, we'll dress like they do, we'll talk like they do and we'll start hanging out where they do. Opportunities will start coming our way.

T.Harv Eker says that our “Thoughts lead to feelings. Feelings lead to actions. Actions lead to results.” By applying the law of attraction, we can start to take control of our results by taking control of our thoughts.
The Law of Attraction can teach us some wonderful life lessons. The following three lessons in particular stand out for me.

1)Practice the Attitude of Gratitude

If we are focusing on gratitude, we can’t be negative. Positive and negative thoughts cannot co-exist. As we climb, we lift the other person. Gratitude means thankfulness, counting our blessings, noticing simple pleasures, and acknowledging everything that we receive. It helps to learn to live our life as if everything were a miracle, and being aware on a continuous basis of how much we've been given. This shifts our focus from what our life lacks to the abundance that is already present. Giving thanks makes people happier and stronger, it strengthens relationships, it increases health, and it reduces stress.

It is critical to take time each and every day to focus on what we are grateful for. Some people do this in the morning before or after they visualize their desires; others prefer to do it in the evening. It is good to focus on all of the things in our life (most of which we take for granted) that we are grateful for—our health, our job, the nice weather, electricity, running water, our pets, our friends). I read an article recently that took this to an extreme level. It talked about how we never thank kettles for efficiently providing us with hot water in less than two minutes with almost no effort on our part. When you think about it, the kettle is a remarkable product, when was the last time you replaced it? You see, kettles quietly and diligently get on with the job without fuss or complication. This is a valuable find! Especially if you are like me and need more than two cups of tea per day.

The kettle story was a humorous one but it goes to say that no matter what your situation, there are always things to be grateful for. The more you focus on what you are grateful for, the more things and experiences you will attract to be grateful for.

2)Focus on Success

When I was in high school, one of our teachers said something that has stuck like glue to me to this very day. Grades in high school range from A to F - A being the best grade possible and F being a Fail. On this particular day my class was receiving our geography test results. They were not good. They weren't quite F’s but there was a lot of D’s and C’s. We all felt pretty low but the teacher explained that we were focusing on the wrong thing. He knew we were capable of achieving higher grades. We were almost done with our penultimate year in high school so we just wanted to get through rather than succeed. He said we were “thinking D and becoming D”. He then said if we wanted to achieve higher grades that we must ‘Think A, become A”.

Looking back, this is a great analogy to use in order to focus on your goals. My mother heard this story later that day and constantly drilled this mindset into me. What we focus on expands.

This focus shift does not happen overnight. A good way to shift our focus is to start a success journal or diary. You can write down your success from the day (you can write as many as five) first thing in the morning or before going to bed at night. When I started this process, I sometimes struggled to find one success in my day, never mind five! However, when we are looking for things to be grateful for, we will find that we begin to appreciate simple pleasures and things that we previously took for granted. It can be as simple as a conversation you had with a colleague during the day, a business meeting, football game or even doing the dishes! It can be an accomplishment that you are proud of. This gets you focused on your success and you can create more tomorrow!

3)Associate With Like Minded People

The late Jim Rohn knew the importance that the power of a positive attitude can have in taking charge of our own life. Jim was an American entrepreneur, author and motivational speaker. When speaking about negative people, he said “Don't use their vocabulary, don't use their excuses, and don’t use their method of drift and neglect.” Jim said to walk away from these people.

In seminars, I have been told that an entrepreneur is “a person who solves problems for other people” My definition of a sales professional is “a professional problem solver”. A sales person has a product that can solve a client’s problem. Sales people have a message that they have to get out into the world. Lisa Sasevich, known as the “Queen of sales conversion”, said that as a sales professional you’re “gift is unique, and if you don’t get it out there into the world, we all lose out”. The same can be said about us as human beings.

This “trying to please everyone attitude” stems back to when I was in high school. I would try and associate with absolutely everybody I could. We can be drawn in by other people’s attitudes. If you are a positive person and you hang around with negative people, they will rub off on you. Some of these people are complainers; they judge others or even spread negative rumours around the place.

When I was younger, I was afraid to give my own opinion in case it didn't go down well with others in my school. Even simple opinions on football were a big “no no” in my book. I made the mistake of not having my opinions heard in order to please everyone. Wilson Luna, the Australian small business mentor, said to “blow your own trumpet”.

Do this in a humble way of course but never be afraid to speak your own mind because as Dr Seuss once said “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.”

Have you read the secret? What lessons from the law of attraction are your favourite?