The Law of Attraction (LoA) is the belief that "like attracts like" and that by focusing on positive or negative thoughts, one can bring about positive or negative results.

Serendipity means a "happy accident" or "pleasant surprise"; specifically, the accident of finding something good or useful while not specifically searching for it.

These definitions are provided by Wikipedia.

Does this mean that you can sit around all day like a spiritual icon and expect the world to deliver all your wishes to you?  I don't think so.

What is missing from the definition of the LoA is action.

Action is a critical component of the LoA.  Not only must you focus on achieving certain goals, you must also take actions towards these goals.  The Law of Attraction focuses on the thinking part to point out that your thinking can have conscious and unconscious impact on the actions that you take.  The LoA does not prevent or restrict you from taking any and all actions in order to produce what you are thinking about.

A great example I just read was to image you want to test the LoA by imagining a purple feather showing up in your environment in the next 24 hours.  If you are expecting to use serendipity instead of the LoA then you would just continue with your day as usual and see if a purple feather shows up somewhere.  This would also be trying to see of the LoA had triggered your reticular activator such that you will notice a purple feather that you would not have noticed before.

Instead of trying to rely on the world providing your purple feather, a more probably success method would be to seek out the purple feather.  How about performing a Google image search for a purple feather?  How about visiting the local zoo or some other place that has peacocks or other birds that might have blue feathers.

There is the old saying "Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration".  I don't know what the percentages are for the LoA in relation to thought and action, though I suspect many people assume it is something like 99% thought and 1% action.  More likely, it is something like 20% thought, 80% action.

That 20% thought can be quite powerful and influence much of your actions so I don't at all discount that 20%.  Just don't get deceived into believing that the LoA means sitting around thinking to yourself about how to achieve your goals.

Take action, now, to achieve your goals.

Have you ever tried to make a change in your life and encountered resistance from others?  This is common and there are different ways to cope with this.

A first place to start it to think about why does their resistance bother you, or in other words why are you resisting their resistance?  How about completely accepting their resistance as a fact of nature and not allowing it to affect you any more than the fact that the other person surely has many other opinions that differ from yours.

It is common that we resist other people's opinions when we are not secure in our own decisions and opinions.  If we are truly confident in our position, it makes much les difference if others agree or disagree.  Think about at work a person that has been recently promoted to a leadership position.  It is common that people that knew this person previously as their peer, may challenge this new leader much more than they would if a stranger came in and was assigned as their leader.

One way to build confidence in your new decisions is to be around new people that did not know you before.  This allows you to see their reactions without the confusion of their past expectations of what you used to be like.

This is also the same as children as they grow up.  It is often difficult for parents to see how much their children have grown.  It is often others that accept them as adults before their parents.

I heard a story about Jesus that when he came upon a village that was resistant to his teachings, he would go around them.  He said to his followers something like "There is no reason to spend our time trying to talk with those that are already set against our teachings".

So, be like Jesus, don't waste your time on those that are resistant to the changes or grown you are experiencing.

When thinking about the Law of Attraction and positive thinking, most people are mistaken in believing that this means that nothing bad will ever happen if these are used.  This couldn't be further from the truth.

No amount of positive thinking will ever stop things outside of our control like natural disasters or human aggression.  Nor will it stop us from making mistakes or just doing plain stupid things.

What the Law of Attraction can do is to improve the likely hood that we put ourselves in the environment and prepare ourselves to more likely notice opportunities that will improve the likelihood that the things we want show up in our life.

Positive thinking can help us to respond to the circumstances of our life in a way that benefits us, versus hurting us.  When the results of our life are not what we want, we can take control and respond in a way that will benefit us, or we can react in a way that may be harmful to us.

Think of it this way, if you are waiting a long time for someone to show up for a meeting or date, how could you respond?  You could get upset and express that to them.  Does that help you?  It may make you temporarily feel good to get mad at the person, though does it make for a productive meeting?  Maybe there are some other ways to respond.  You could decide to do something else and no wait for the person.  You could decide that it is not important and be happy that they showed up.  You could express concern that you thought they might have been hurt.

How would you feel if a doctor says your body is reacting to a medicine you just received?  Now, how would you feel if the doctor says that your body is responding to the medicine?

Try taking control of your life and respond  to situations instead of reacting.

Have you ever been in a situation where someone points out a fault of yours and it makes you feel uncomfortable or embarrassed?  I know I have.

When observing successful people, I have noticed that they often have a way of turning these uncomfortable situations to their benefit.  I am struggling for the exact name of this technique, but it is that the person, instead of trying to hide or ignore the fault, they accentuate it.  Like, "It's not a bug, it's a feature" or "If you can't hide it or fix it then feature it."  Let me give you an example.

Zig Ziglar was approached by one of the members of his audience who said, in a disapproving voice "I hear you get paid well for those fancy speeches you make."  Zig's response was "Mama, where did you hear that vicious rumour.  That is absolutely incorrect.  I do not get paid well, I get paid exceptionally well."

Do you see how Zig did not try and ignore or lessen the accusation?  Instead of saying something like "Well, I earn it because of the value I provide" or "I don't get paid so much compared to others".  I can clearly see how neither of these methods are as powerful as not only agreeing with what we are being accused of, but making it even bigger.

I have also seen this in business negotiations before.  I have seen a successful person, if they are buying something and have reached their bottom price which they believe to be reasonable and the seller continues to ask for more money, the buyer, instead of raising their price to meet the seller will start to lower their offer and tell the seller clearly that if they want to make the deal they had better act fast because the price will continue to go down.

I am proud that I was just able to use this technique.  I was involved with a business negotiation and the other party asked for more money.  Instead of trying to justify my current offer as per the contract, I agreed with them and said that I was also willing to ignore the contract and take more money for myself, though I suggested to be fair, we follow the contract.

I want to reinforce this behavior that when someone points out something that is intended to be a negative judgement of me, that instead of being defensive or disagreeing with the person, I try to find a way to agree with the person and accentuate what they are noticing to my benefit.

How important is giving to charity?  Is giving money or time away with no expectation in return of equal or greater value as doing something that benefits you?

My initial impression is that this is similar to making an "art" film versus a commercial film.  I hear an interview with Harrison Ford many years ago and he was asked why he didn't seem to do "art" films.  His was response was that he didn't see why an "art" film couldn't be commercial.  In that light, is it required that charity be a money losing proposition?

Is it enough to be the best, most positive, most helpful, most loving and also most productive, profitable, and improving person possible.  Why is there a need to separate these things?

I think it is great to help people and you can do it for your own reasons.

I have been putting off doing some simple things over the last few days.  Why do I want to improve this?

I want to improve this because these tasks are easily within my ability to do and I have enough time to do them.  I will get a feeling of accomplishment when I spend a complete day to fulfill my tasks.

I'm trying to figure out what is the root cause and solution for this issue.  I guess part of the issue is that I'm not passionate about the things that are on my To-Do list.  Sort of like if on the list is to take out the trash and you keep putting it off.  I mean, how passionate about taking out the trash can I be?  One way to look at it is that taking out the trashing is something that must be done with no need for passion.

Let's think about taking a shower.  Am I passionate about taking a shower each day?  Not really.  Do I have to come up with all sorts of reasons to take a shower?  Nope.  Why not?  Because taking a shower is just something I do.  I have been brought up that part of being a civilized person is to regularly bath.  It is just part of who I am, no need to think about "Why" or if it something that I'm really passionate about.  I also don't regularly suffer form procrastination on this issue.

Maybe it would be helpful for me to define "Who am I."  For example, if there is some work related topic that I am procrastinating about, I can ask "What type of worker am I?"  I'm looking for an answer like "I'm an astronaut, writer, business person, or leader."  From this you can ask yourself, "What does x, act like?"  If the thing you are procrastinating about is something that your profession does, then in order to be excellent at your profession, you should do that, no matter how you feel, actually how you feel shouldn't make much difference.

If I am a blogger, than I write in my blog.  No question or delay about it, that is what I do.  If I am a business person, than I develop business contacts, that's what business people do.  If I am a project manager, then I develop project plans, schedule meetings and write reports.  If I am an internet marketer, then I oversee the development of a website, SEO and product development.

Who are you?

"Don't criticize, condemn, or complain" is rule #1 in Dale Carnegie's 3 Fundamental Techniques in Handling People.

I like this for it's simplicity and logic.  It's does make sense the criticizing, condemning and complaining have are more negative than positive impact.  Despite this, it often feels so good to fall into the trap of these behaviors.  Just like it is easy to get out of control in eating food that is bad for us.

That is an interesting side thought.  Why does it seem that the "bad" things are easier to do than the "good" things?  How often to you hear about someone who is out of control eating fresh fruits and vegetables?  Do you often hear someone on the news saying "I just can't help myself, I know that there are all sorts of sweets and fattening foods, though I just can help myself from eating a well balanced, nutrition meal?"  Isn't it more likely the opposite?

Is it a matter of focus?  The news tends to publish what people want to hear and it seems most people want to hear negative things.  "If it bleeds, it leads".  I'm not so sure it is a matter of the media filtering what we hear.  Look around you.  Do people talk about how they can't help themselves from doing the right thing?  Isn't it more thought of as a struggle to do the right thing?  How many students talk about how they can't keep themselves from doing their homework and getting good grades?

How much of this is also a factor of what we define as "good" and "bad"?  Last night I was in bed soon after 9pm.  This wasn't difficult for me, it was a conscious choice and I was happy to do it.  I went to bed at that time because I wanted to get up at 5am this morning.  I know that if I go to bed at 11pm it is very difficult to get up early, therefore it was not difficult to go to be early.

So, maybe this also is affected by goals and our clarity towards our goals.  If our goal it to have a long term healthy relationship with people, we should realize that criticizing, condemning and complaining will damage this long term relationship.  If instead, we are only interested in immediate gratification and satisfaction, then these strategies may seem to have value.  The same can be said for healthy versus unhealthy food.  If we are focused on our long term health and well being then eating healthy is an easy choice.  If instead, we are focused on the immediate pleasure, than the unhealthy choices may be the most attractive.

This is part of it, and there are still external factors. 

I read another positive experience with Toastmasters so I decided to just do a little more research about how it might be possible to fit this into my schedule.

It turns out that there are clubs that meet during the week at lunchtime, so those would be perfect for me.  It looks like there is still some time in my schedule to fit this in.

I've also been thinking about how I want to find some time to spend more time developing a business, probably an online business, or even the success coaching business.  Right now M-F is pretty much filled from waking to sleeping.  There is probably 1 or 2 hours that I could squeeze in there, though haven't found anything consistent now without taking something out of my schedule.

That would mean, either less time doing my current employment or less time with my family.  So far, I would prefer to find a different way.  I do have the weekends, and possibly the morning on the weekends I could spend some time.  I could also spend less time in the morning writing this blog and reading about personal development.

How long does it take to succeed?  Have you been doing the "right" thing and still aren't seeing the rewards?  Do you figure all this self help and personal development talk is bogus because it's not working for you?

Think about if you want to grow some fruits and vegetables to eat because you are hungry.  One of the first things you might do is to plant some seeds in the ground.  You can think of this like positive thinking and goal setting.  Do most farmers put one seed in the ground and then just walk away?  My mom used to grow vegetables in a patch of ground outside our house and I know she would put in many seeds.

Think of your mind as that patch of ground.  Put in several positive thoughts and goals.  Now our brain is different than growing a plant in that we will have to continue to regularly put thought positive thoughts and goals in our minds to keep them there.

Once you have the seeds in the ground, would you dig them up after one month if nothing is happening or might you be patient?  It will of course depend on the plant.  Some plants grow fast and I've heard that some can take years to grow.  The same for the positive ideas.  Some of them may show results quickly and others will take time.  If you dig up the plant or stop reinforcing the positive ideas, you are killing the seedling.

Be patient.  Continue to fill your mind with positive thoughts.  Listen to various different positive sources about success and happiness.  Continue to take actions, even small actions, on a regular basis that will improve your life and the life of the ones you love

It's hard to be involved in the self improvement or self help community and not hear discussions about self esteem.  It makes sense that being happy with myself is a good path towards being successful and happy.  What does Zig Ziglar say, "Business is never good or bad 'out there', it's only good or bad 'in here' (meaning in your mind)."

There are plenty of books and material about self esteem.  I think they have great advice.  Some of the key concepts are "Do first, feel second."  So if you say you have self esteem, instead of trying to find some magic pill that will give you self esteem, then you will be able to do things, first do the thing and the self esteem will follow.

This advice to "Do first, feel second" seems completely logical to me, and it is simple, which I do like simple things, it's sure isn't easy.  It is important for me to remind myself that those areas in my life that I feel uncomfortable and maybe even unsuccessful, I can try doing more in those areas in order to develop that ability and to feel more comfortable.

Think about the things and areas where you are comfortable.  Was there a time, maybe many years ago, when you were not as good as you are now in that area?  Do you think that the person you were many years ago may have felt uncomfortable or unsuccessful trying to do the things that you can now do relatively easily?  How did you learn to do these things easily?  Was it possibly from experience and maybe from learning?

How about we use this in a manner under our control?

Now on the other side of the argument, I often think about weight loss, since it is a well discussed topic in American.  I'm pretty sure there are many overweight people that have lots of knowledge about how to lose weight.  They have seen many work out advertisements, healthy products, weight lost company ads, so they may already have lots of information and access to information.  They probably have tried many different ways to lose weight and they still struggle with it.

Is the advice for these people to try harder?  Try more weight loss programs, purchase more exercise products or classes?  Maybe there is some more fundamental shift that is required.  I had a friend that lost a lot of weight with the help of Overeaters Anonymous.  Despite the religious overtones of the program and the fact that this friend is an Atheist, she still found the overall message and program helpful.  Is a support group critical to develop success?

I agree with the idea of self-esteem and confidence being important.  I still have some open issues about what universal advice people can use to effectively achieve these goals.