Developing Focus

The Law of Attraction is pretty simple. What you focus your attention on tends to manifest itself in your world. It works all of the time, it is just that most of us don’t recognize it as such. You can see it at work all around you. Some people seem to have all of the “luck.” For most of us, life is a mixed bag or ups and downs, good days and bad days. And there are a few that just don’t seem to have any luck at all.

I think the difference is made when we discover that we can choose and direct our thoughts. The difference between success, mediocrity and failure is in the thoughts we choose.

Successful people think about what they want and ask how can they get it. The rest of us think mostly about what we don’t want and ask why we get what we don’t want some or most of the time. The difference is in the information we feed our subconscious minds.

So, just exactly how do you change or develop focus. How can you stop thinking about what you don’t want and start thinking about what you do want? The answer is simple, but it takes a little bit of work. Relax, it is pretty easy. You can dramatically increase the possibility that you will get more of what you want out of life if you write down your goals. Even if you never look at your list again!

But, if you are reading this, I’m guessing that you want more. And that means it will cost more. The cost is in a few minutes spent each day just looking at your list and asking the question, “how?” It isn’t important that you know the “how” part when you write out your goals. What is important is that you review your goals daily and ask how can I make this happen?

When you ask the how question, it turns on the magnificent computer called your subconscious. The best time to look at your goals is just before going to bed and upon waking. Perhaps you should keep your list of goals on the nightstand. When you ask in the morning, it sets the tone for the day. At night, it directs the subconscious to work on your goals as you sleep. Even though your conscious mind is on hold during sleep, the subconscious is always working.

Do this for twenty-one days and it will become a habit. Do this for a while and you will discover many answers to the “how” question popping into your mind at various times during the day. You may want to carry a notepad or voice recorder to keep track of these. When answers surface, don’t question the feasibility, just take a moment to note the idea. It may not make sense now, but may be significant tomorrow, next week or next year.

Write down your most important goal on the back of your business card and put it in your wallet when you will see it every time you pay for something.

Pretty soon you will be spending much more time focused on what you want and less on what you don’t want. You will see resources you would have overlooked in the past. Things like articles, books and programs on TV that may have answers to the “how.” People who may be able to help you seem to show up for no reason. Opportunities will start appearing as if from nowhere. You will take actions that you would have postponed before and get results that may have never happened when you were focusing on what you didn’t want.

This all will seem almost magical when it starts to happen, but it isn’t. Cause and effect still works. Remember that thoughts create feelings. Feelings create actions and actions create results.

Getting What You Want

What Do You Want?

I talk to a lot of people who think life isn’t fair and seem to have more than their share of “bad luck.” When they walk into the room it seems like the lights dim and there is a cold draft. They seem to be eager to share their latest bout of misfortune. After sharing, they seem almost pleased at the proof they just provided that “life sucks.” Then they wait patiently for you say that you are sorry to hear about that.

Next time this happens, ask them, “What do you really want?” instead of offering sympathy. Is it rude to ask questions instead of offering the expected sympathy? I don’t think so. It could be a learning process for both of you.

Odds are they won’t be able to answer the question. Actually only about one out of ten of us can truthfully answer that question. Lots of us are upset when we don’t get what we don’t know we want. But, we have never taken the time to “place the order.”

No matter what you believe, getting what you want is fairly simple. Decide what you want, develop an action plan and begin taking action. Periodically check to see if your actions are getting you closer or farther away from your goal. Modify your action plan if it isn’t getting you closer. Continue until the goal is achieved.

Place Your Order

Just taking the time to write down what you want increases the chances of getting it. Even if you never look at your list again. If you want to increase the odds that you will achieve your goals you might want to look at them frequently. I will talk about that in a future post.

For today, I will just encourage you to take a few minutes to “place your order” if you haven’t already done so. The Universe is waiting...

Driving

Years ago...

I read an article in a magazine devoted to mountain bikes. The article was about things that you could do to improve your riding skills. The part that stands out in memory talked about always looking where you want the bike to go to avoid spills. I kind of dismissed the thought as being kind of silly.

Several days later I was riding my bike through a parkway that led to an undeveloped area I liked to practice in. The parkway has concrete sidewalks with lots of curves. Crushed granite covered the ground on either side of the sidewalks. I enjoyed this part of my practice because I could go fast on the pavement. As I approached one of the curves I sensed I was a little closer to the edge than usual and I wanted to avoid going off into the crushed granite.

As I approached the curve, I allowed my gaze to wander into the crushed granite to the left because I wanted to avoid going there. Much to my surprise, the front wheel followed my gaze. Right off into the crushed granite and exactly where I wanted to avoid going! The front wheel left the pavement and the knobby tire fought to gain traction in the loose stones. The handlebars were jerked out of my hands and I went sailing over the bars, landing face down on the pavement, sliding another twenty feet on my chest, outstretched arms and fronts of my legs.

I immediately developed a bad case of pavement rash. Stunned, I slowly stood up assessing my condition. My palms and bottoms of my arms were starting to bleed. I looked down at my legs and saw something new on the front of my shirt. It was blood dripping from my chin. Of course the fronts of both thighs were beginning to seep blood.

I picked up my bike and decided to slowly ride back to the house and take care of my new rash. It was on the way back to the house that I recalled the suggestion in the article I mention at the beginning of this post. Instead of looking where I wanted to go, I looked at what I wanted to avoid. Half chuckling to myself, I realized the author was right after all.

Sometime later I re-read the article, probably while recovering from the road rash. I recalled another story I had read about someone who took a class on driving a race car. Part of the class involved intentionally putting the car into a slide and attempting to recover while keeping the car on the pavement. New students almost always failed to keep the car on the track the first few tries at this. The author said that the instructors warned students in advance to keep looking around the curve, focusing on where they wanted the car to go. They added that new students always looked off the edge of the pavement, exactly where they didn't want to end up.

The author thought this would be pretty easy until it was his turn and he found himself sitting in the dirt with the car facing the wrong way. When he played his mental tape of the spinout, he realized that when the slide began, his gaze went straight to the side of the track. To where he didn't want to go and it felt like some mysterious force pushed the car into the dirt. After several more trips into the weeds, he was finally able to avert his eyes and turn his gaze to the roadway ahead and was amazed at the result. He was accelerating out of the turn and on the blacktop. Exactly where he wanted to be.

These two examples of riding and driving are a lot like life. How often do we focus our attention on the things we don't want and wonder why we got exactly what we didn't want?

This peculiar phenomena has to do with the way our subconscious processes information. If you were to think, "I don't want to fail, the subconscious only sees "fail." It thinks that is what you want and goes to work trying to create failure. If, instead you think, "I want to succeed," then it goes to work trying to create success.

If you are frustrated or find your goals hard to meet or are constantly facing roadblocks to what you really want, ask yourself this question. "Am I focusing my attention on what I don't want?" You might want to change your focus and start focusing on what your really do want. If you don't know what you want, take some quiet time and make a list of some of the things you want to do, be and have. 

Start by asking the question, "What do I really want?" The answers may surprise you. The results may surprise you even more.

Attitude

Garbage in?

One of the areas I want to talk about in this blog is "attitude" and how it has a major influence on "outcome." This comes from the idea that is best expressed in The Law of Attraction which says that whatever you focus your attention on, you will get more of. 

When you focus on what you don't want, that is exactly what you are likely to get. And that is what we tend to focus on most of the time. The problem is how to change focus from "what shows up" to something that more closely resembles what you really want to show up. 

I think the "secret" to that is taking control of the input side of your life. What I mean is the things you pay attention to. Things like the news (which is entertainment), the things you choose to read, the people you hang with and other things that your mind takes in. You really do have control over this by the choices you make. 

The mind is a computer and like any computer the "Garbage in - Garbage out" rule applies. Want to improve your thoughts? Choose carefully what information you pay attention to. More on this later.