Law Of Attraction Didn't Work For Me

35 years ago, at the tender age of 15, I happened upon a book called "Think And Grow Rich".

I don't remember if it actually mentioned the Law of Attraction by name, but it certainly covered the topic well: All I had to do was focus - with intention, and purpose, and will - focus my thoughts on the object of my dreams , and it MUST manifest.

I was in heaven!

Because I finally had The Answer to all my miserable problems. All those people I despised (there were quite a few, actually) could EAT my DUST. Maybe I would send them a postcard from Successville...

Nah. I'll hire somebody else to do it for me. I'm not going to dirty my hands.

In the meantime, I've got some thinking to do! (But that's just a formality, right?) So I focused and I intended and I willed and I thought... till the cows came home. (If you're not from Mississippi, that means 'a long time'.) And lo-and-behold...

Nothing happened. Not even maybe.

It wasn't from lack of effort. I literally slept with that book under my pillow. Just in case the magical information might seep into my subconscious whilst I was sleeping.

Eventually, the book faded away and I returned to my state of hopeless quiet despair. With the inevitable conclusion: there's something wrong with me. I was so devastated, it would be YEARS before I would even consider the possibility that I could improve myself. (Imagine my glee when I found out the author, Napoleon Hill, died poor. Now that's irony!)

Anyway, I put all my faith into a plan that failed; for numerous reasons.

Here's a big one: My motivation was faulty.

See, I really did have a problem with my classmates at school. They all seemed so happy. And I KNEW I was a miserable excuse for a Starkville Mississipian.

For some strange reason, I blamed my misery on outside forces: I blamed my peers. I blamed my parents. I blamed God. I blamed myself. I practically blamed the hot summer winds that blew through the tall pecan trees. Because as long as I was blaming, I didn't have to evaluate and honestly assess the situation.

Now in my case, there really was a lot of pain that I had NO intention of dealing with. Blame distracted me from that pain.

Too bad my blaming took so much effort. It's like using a hand pump to pull water out of the ground so you can keep a rock wet. You work really hard to pump up some blame, then it peters out so quickly. So you have to pump some more. Otherwise that rock of pain will dry out and I'll have to deal with it.

If you stop blaming, who knows what would happen? Not me.

But if I could just think and grow rich... then I'd show everybody! Including those pecan trees. I’m pretty sure they were talking about me behind my back...

So, with a motivation of revenge and validation and vindication, I failed. Or did I? Maybe if I'd looked a little closer (admittedly an almost impossible task at that age) I would've seen the shifting sandy foundation I stood on, and maybe cleaned it up a little.

At the time, I thought I only needed powerful thoughts to create what I wanted. (And mine lacked the punch, anyway.) I thought I had to grit my teeth a little harder, clench my fists a little tighter, furrow my brow a little deeper. And stare with just a little more intensity.

I never once thought to look down at my feet - to see where I was standing. To notice what I was pushing off from.

Motivation matters.

Now, it's usually the first thing I look at when I want to achieve something. "Why do I want this? Let me look at my foundation. Because that's what I'm 'attracting' reality out of."

Your foundation holds much more power than the thoughts you hold up and place on the shelf; like little glass figurines on display. More of the action - more of the 'attraction' - comes from the foundation.

So that's the real law of attraction - we 'attract' out of the TOTALITY of our beingness - and not the tiny sliver of thoughts that we're aware of.