More of what you want

“I attract to my life whatever I give my attention, energy and focus to, whether positive or negative”.

Have you ever heard of the ‘law of attraction’? If you have, you’ll know the potential it has to change your life. If you haven’t, get set to read all about it.

In a nutshell it’s all about attracting more of what you want and less of what you don’t want.

You may have noticed that sometimes what you need just falls into place or something seemingly comes to you out-of-the-blue. Have you ever got a phone call from, or bumped into, someone who you were thinking about? When that happens to me I often say “that’s a coincidence I was just thinking about you!” 

“Coincidence” is one word to describe what the law of attraction is. Other words include out-of-the-blue, fate, meant to be, luck, and fell into place. You may have used some of these words yourself.

So what does this have to do with painting your future? Well, if you’re to create a life you love – to really live life your way – you need to be aware of the power of your mind.

You’ll attract to your life what you give your attention, energy and focus to. The question is, what are you giving your attention, energy and focus to?

Often, without even realising it, we think and talk about what we don’t want or what we don’t like. Think about all of the times you use “don’t”, “not” and “no”.  

Imagine what might happen if you started to say what you wanted. 

Don’t think about a pink elephant. What did you just think about? I bet you thought about a pink elephant. Our unconscious mind automatically filters out “don’t”, “not” and “no”.  So it skips over “don’t” to “think about a pink elephant”. 

Here are some more examples of statements about what you don’t want and how they can be re-framed to be what you do want.  

Notice the difference in the sentences. The statements on the left are all about what you don’t want and feel negative. They also don't give you or the person you’re talking to any idea about what you actually want. The ones on the right make it clear what you want and are positive.

When you think about your life, how often do you focus on what you don’t want?  For most people it’s a fairly often. You have the power to change that, now.

Years of practice means our default way of thinking is to focus on the negative. So we think most about what we don’t want. But, the good news is we can re-train (effectively re-wire) our brain to think another way. We can shunt those “don’t wants” out and instead focus on the “do wants”.  

Let’s think about one more scenario before doing an exercise. Your alarm goes off and you wake up tired and grumpy. As you get out of bed you stub your toe. The toast burns and there’s no hot water for your shower. All of which make you even more grumpy. As you drive to work other drivers cut you off, don’t indicate or go too slow. Your day is likely to carry on like that. Why? Because your thoughts are negative and you're choosing to interpret and focus on what is happening in a negative way. Keep thinking them and you’ll keep attracting stuff that makes you grumpy. The law of attraction strikes again!

The exercise below will show you a simple technique to turn what you don’t want, into what you do want. You can use this technique over and over again.

Exercise

Grab a pen and your book, and then find a comfy spot to sit. Draw a table like the one below. On the left side write ‘things I don’t like’ and put ‘things I do like’ on the other side.

Think about your ideal holiday. Start by listing the things you don’t like / or don’t want your holiday to be like. Once you’ve done that go to the other side and write the things you like / or do want.

Now when it’s time to think about your next holiday use the “things I like / want” list to plan it.

You can use this technique to identify what your ideal job, partner, house, car, relationship, and anything else you can think of, is.

Our mind is even more powerful than we can begin to imagine. The more you understand it the more you can really use it to your advantage. 

In exercise #1 you learnt the words you use have power. In this exercise you learnt about turning your attention to what you want rather than what you don’t want. By knowing how you can use your thoughts and words well you really can begin to paint your future!

*** Download a printable PDF version of the information and exercise here ***

If you have any questions or comments, please contact me by email.

Live your life as only you can. Your life, your way. – Tracey x