A couple weeks ago, I was getting very frustrated about how I was handling a certain type of coaching issue that seemed to be coming up a lot with clients. Now, all you smart people out there are thinking, “well, if it is coming up with clients, it is probably an issue for you too.” And you would be right.

So, I set out to deal with it by using tried and true Law of Attraction techniques:

• I envisioned myself dealing with this issue exactly the way I wanted to.
• I really got into this vision so I could *feel* what it was like.
• I even wrote fake journal entries that described what things were like after my issue was resolved.

Then, I made the rookie mistake.

I forgot that I needed to *keep* feeling good, all the time, even when I wasn’t actively envisioning success.

In fact, I completely forgot that the most important part is staying in a place of feeling good and letting “the universe” deliver the results – without me forcing it.

Doh!

I had moments, even hours, when I felt good. And I managed to manifest some other great stuff. But every time I thought about this particular issue, I was feeling pretty crappy.

Doh!

This is just proof that knowing what you should do and actually doing it can be two completely separate things.

Anyway, it took a post from the hilarious Lin M. Eleoff to knock me upside the head and make me realize the error of my ways.

And I immediately corrected my course.

For example, instead of doing the profoundly uninteresting things I was supposed to do yesterday, I decided to get in the car and drive. I had no idea where I was going, but I just knew I would feel GOOD if I listened to really loud music while hurtling down the interstate in My Happy Car.

My Happy Car

So I drove. And drove.

I eventually realized I was 30 miles from home. And I happened to be at the interstate exit that leads to my favorite place, Half Moon Bay. So I got off and drove another 8 miles over the mountains and through the fog. I went to the beach. And I stayed there for 3 hours. Heaven.

All the time I was doing this, I wasn’t thinking about my issue. I wasn’t envisioning what it would be like after I handled it. I certainly wasn’t writing any fake journal entries.

My favorite place in the world, even with the fog

I was doing exactly what I wanted to do, when I wanted to do it. I was playing hooky.

And it felt GOOD.

I was not surprised to find that when I came home, I had all kinds of great ideas about how to solve my problem. It was actually very easy. And of course, it involved dealing with myself first. And then the universe immediately delivered the perfect opportunity to try it out on someone else.

And it worked!

Good feelings create good ideas

I shouldn’t be surprised at all. But it still never fails to amaze me how perfectly the Law of Attraction works when I do it right.

Are there any areas of your life where you are making this rookie mistake?

I consider myself a “realist”, which is just a nice way to say I have pessimistic tendencies.

But, I’m writing it anyway. Because I’m tired of all the gloom and doom.

I, like many people, am not in the financial shape I was three years ago. I love what I do and I’m doing fine in the great, grand scheme of things. But I certainly haven’t replaced the income I had as a VP of Marketing. Not even close.

But… I know that sitting around worrying about money, or the economy, or the Middle East, or what happens when we die, or anything for that matter, isn’t going to help.

Dwelling on the worst case scenario is not going to help.

Listening to the news is not going to help.

As any Law of Attraction guru will tell you, we can choose to be happy or we can choose to be worried, depressed, or angry. I choose to believe that people are good, folks will pay for valuable services, that dying is nothing to be afraid of, and that I have the resources to make things work no matter what.

This doesn’t mean I’m going to be stupid or irresponsible or lazy. It just means I’m choosing to focus on outcomes that inspire me rather than depress me. I truly believe this is the only way to be successful.

Bottom line: I’m not hanging around anyone who just wants to pimp gloom and doom.

Discussing solutions? Fine.

Discussing ideas? Fine.

Talking about something uplifting? Even better.

Otherwise, please kindly take your gloom and doom elsewhere. There’s no room here.

Care to join me in the “no more gloom and doom” movement?

I understand. I also know that sometimes finding that hidden passion is a bit more difficult than we would like. The good news is that there is a solution. I call it “whistling while you work” – named after my favorite dwarfs – because it is all about changing your mental state while you continue to do what you are already doing.

The secret is to stop trying to figure out what you want to DO, and instead identify how you want to FEEL. Law of Attraction experts like Jeannette Maw (www.goodvibecoach.com) tell us this shift in energy can actually help you attract the people and situations that may lead you to your passion. The goal is to find ways to feel the way you want, which then makes you ready to accept that which will help you find and create the life and work you want.

For example, Carol had a vague idea that she was feeling very restricted. She felt like she had no flexibility and no options to change her situation. While she still hadn’t figured out what she WAS passionate about, after some exploration, she determined that the FEELING she was looking for was FREEDOM. Now that is something to work with.

Without worrying about what to do, Carol could go ahead and think of ways to create the feeling of freedom. Carol chose several ways to integrate the feeling of freedom into her day, including eliminating a daily meeting that annoyed her and sketching outdoor scenes during lunch instead of working through it. The shift in energy created by these changes allowed Carol to remember how much she loved drawing as a kid, and she is considering signing up for some college art courses.

Will this turn into Carol’s passion? The jury is still out. But she is much happier and feeling more free. I am willing to bet she is moving in the right direction.

During the last year, several businesses in my beloved community have closed and a few others look like they are going in the same direction. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to figure out what the successful businesses have in common. Here is what I came up with:

1. Happy employees: One of my favorite small businesses here in my community almost always has three or four employees on the premises… the funny thing is that typically only two of them are actually supposed to be working. The others are there just because they want to be there. Some business owners seem to have forgotten that if their employees don’t want to be there, neither will anyone else.
2. A good product: Right now, people are spending money on things they really WANT that help them achieve their GOALS. People don’t want the same old junk – they want something that represents who and what they are and/or want to be.
3. Confidence: Taking the same old crappy merchandise or food (see #2) and putting it on sale won’t help. If you always have big red “sale” signs in your window, we know that really means you want to get rid of your junk. This makes you desperate and “graspy”, which is not attractive.

After I put this list together, I was happy to find that it aligns very well with the Law of Attraction. According to the Law of Attraction, “like attracts like.” What you get in life is directly correlated with what you send into the world via your thoughts, beliefs, and feelings, which are just forms of energy. If you focus on what you want, send out positive energy (thoughts and feelings), and act with intention, you can attract what you desire.

To apply this to my list above:

1. Happy employees → Having positive employees who attract positive customers who spend money
2. A good product → Offering something wonderful to attract something wonderful
   
3. Confidence → Believing that you offer something wonderful
   

What happens if you do all these things? Well, you send out positive energy. And like attracts like.

So, when it comes to attracting success, a business is no different than a person. A business is an organism that projects positive or negative energy, which then allows it to attract success (or not).

Is this an oversimplification? Maybe… or maybe not.