In the first post in this series: The Law of Attraction / How long does it take to see results?

…We discussed the importance of feedback

In the second post… cleverly named The Law of Attraction / How long does it take to see results… Part II

…We talked about adding some positive feelings into the process.

In this post we will look at some categories to examine in order to continue improving your results.

Sometimes, feedback isn’t quite as obvious as a fuel indicator going off. Sometimes, you have to look a little bit deeper. For example, if you are a salesperson, and you cut your number of follow ups (or just your amount of time working) by half, and your commission drops by roughly half… the feedback here shouldn’t be too challenging to figure out. If you are a salesperson attempting to break a previous company record, and though you come close, you just can’t seem to get past it… then you might have to look a little bit deeper at feedback from multiple areas of your life.

To use the ‘energy’ metaphor again, you’ll have to begin to consider what energies are present in your life that aren’t consistent with what you wish to achieve.

How do you spend most of your time?

Let’s take a look at this on a few different levels.

A job will typically take up 8 hours or more 5 days (or more) a week. That’s a lot of time. What else do you spend this much time (40+ hours per week) on in your life? Usually the things we love the most… friends, family, hobbies, etc… take a distant second place to our job. This isn’t necessarily bad, but it does make your job a very powerful energy in your life.

So the big question is…

Does your job support your goals?

…I’ve had to look at this many times myself, and many times, the answer has been “No!”

It is obvious what must be done in this situation… change the job. On occasion, you can move to a more appropriate position in the same company… but there are also times when you will have to truly find another place or way to earn income… as one of my college professors would say… “I was looking for a job when I found this one!”

What about your hobbies? How do you spend your spare time? Is it supporting your direction?

There is nothing wrong with taking time to relax… in fact, it is crucial for you to take time to relax… your health (mental and physical) depends on it! Having said that, it is important to find a relaxing activity the helps move you toward your goals… very rarely does watching tv fall into this category. I don’t want to demonize watching tv (that would make me quite a hypocrite), but the average American watches more than 4 hours of tv everyday… I would say that is a bit excessive. On the other hand, I do find it humorous to see someone watching tv, and waiting for commercials to complain about all the things they wish were different in their life.

If your goal is to lose weight, learn to take relaxing walks (or rides on your bike, or swims, or whatever other activity suits you best). If your goal is to start your own business, learn to relax and enjoy researching your target markets.

Another category to consider:

Do the people in your life support your goals?

If you have ever read a book on building wealth, there is a truism that is repeated again and again. If you average the yearly incomes of your closest friends and family members, you will come up with roughly your own yearly income. Obviously, it is not impossible to overcome this, but the easiest way to overcome it is to invite some new energies/influences into your life. Make a friend who makes lots of money (or at least a lot more than you do). If your goal is weight loss, then start spending some time with people who eat healthier and/or exercise more. If you have spiritual goals, join a church or join a meditation group/class (as appropriate for your goals), and attend several times a week.

Fellowship is a concept we usually get from religion. Religions usually build this in to make it more difficult for people to “fall off the wagon”. If you spend 1-2 hours a week at church talking about changing your beliefs and behaviors so you can stop drinking… and then spend the rest of the week around drinking buddies in a house (or bar) full of booze… you’re gonna “fall off the wagon” … so churches usually offer functions or services throughout the week… and if the church (or whatever fellowship group) supports your goals, this may be the best thing for you. On the other hand, if you are promoting a night club, finding an ever increasing number of drinking buddies might be the best thing for the business ( I haven’t found a church that supports this behavior yet… but I’m still looking…;^).

Fellowship doesn’t necessarily involve a church… it is simply spending time with like minded people. Consider who you spend your time with, and how they think and behave (this includes spouse/significant other, family, friends, coworkers, etc.). If you are of a different mindset than most of those people that are close to you, your beliefs and behaviors will gradually become more and more like theirs… for better or for worse. It is wise to spend time in fellowship with people who are moving in the same direction you are.

The final question, which ultimately in some way influences all the others is:

Are your day to day thoughts and behaviors supporting your goals?

The only person you spend %100 of your time with is you. This makes you the most important influence in your life! All changes begin as thoughts, but unfortunately, life is not changed by thought alone. These thoughts must be carried over into behaviors (which will change the other ‘energies’ present in your life).

You can’t have an experience of anything (places, events, or other people) without “you” there. Everything in your life has been filtered through your senses and your perceptions (e.g. your ’sense’ of sight tells you the wall is red, but your ‘perception’ tells you whether it is a pleasing shade of red or not). Your perception will put a useful or less-than-useful spin on everything you encounter in life (internally or externally). This makes it very important to pay attention to how you ‘pay attention’.

The most powerful way to change your perception… to modify the way you look at life… is through a change in beliefs. Beliefs can be difficult to change, though, and usually only change over a period of time (more on quick-belief-change in future posts). How can we quickly change perception?

We change our mood!

Mood, state, attitude, etc. … will alter your perception of everything in your life (and your consistent attitude can gradually change your beliefs as well). As an example, I once worked with a guy who I considered to be a real asshole. Now most of the time (when I was in a relatively good mood), I just thought he was obnoxious and occasionally annoying, but someone it was okay to work with or have a drink with. When I was in a bad mood, though, I thought he was one of the biggest assholes I had ever met, and I couldn’t believe that I was spending any of my time around him, let alone working with him on a regular basis.

What was different? He hadn’t changed, he was still the same asshole he always was (I’m sure there is a different way for me to look at this man, other than as an ‘asshole’… but I’m not certain I’m that spiritually evolved, yet…;^). The only thing that had changed was my mood, and thus my perception.

Keep in mind that no one has ‘perfect thinking’ all the time. On occasion, everyone gets less-than-useful thoughts. What’s important, is that you accept the less-than-useful thoughts (let go of resistance), and then shift your awareness back to what serves you… this is a very powerful meditation!

In my next post, I’ll share some of my own experiences with the law of attraction… what I did differently in each case that got the results quickly or not so quickly.

keep smiling,

ben