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The Law of Attraction gained a huge audience with the global success of The Secret a few years ago, and is still followed by many although there also seems to be a bit of a backlash against it's popularity these days.
Whatever your opinions of the Law of Attraction, the principles can still help authors and writers on their journey. In this post, I explain some of the principles using my own experience in the hope you will find it helpful. It is more of a personal post than usual, and as ever, I appreciate your comments.
The basic principles (according to Wikipedia) are:
- Decide what you want
- Ask the Universe for it
- Feel, behave and know that you already have it
- Be detached from the outcome
and the extra piece that is very important is…
- Focus on doing what you need to in order to achieve it. Take action and it will manifest itself.
How can the Law of Attraction help you as a writer or author?
- Deciding what you want from your journey as a writer is important if you want to achieve goals along the way. If you want to write a book, you need to make that decision and then work towards it. If you don't know what you are aiming for, you will not make a career or a success from your writing or your books.
- Ask for it and believe you can have it. This is related to positive affirmations and is a lot about how worthy you feel. Can you say out loud “I am creative, I am an author”? You need to be sure that you can achieve what you ask for, or it won't happen. Whether you ask God or the Universe, or just yourself for what you want, then you need to have this positive energy behind it. You can be a writer, you can be an author, you can sell your books.
- Act as if you already have it. Again, this relates to affirmations. I started to say “I am creative. I am an author” as an affirmation when I decided to write my first book. I didn't feel creative and I did not have a book so I was not an author. 8 months later, I was still saying those phrases as affirmations and I had my first book for sale on Amazon.com How to Enjoy Your Job. Another 9 months later, I had started my business “The Creative Penn”, claiming the word creative as it applied to me. At that point, I did feel creative and I was an author. Fantastic!
- Be detached from the outcome. It isn't not caring about what happens. It is about taking the unexpected in your stride and changing direction as things happen. I wanted “How to Enjoy Your Job” to be a success and make me a speaker on the corporate circuit. I was thrilled when it was selling on Amazon.com and then I started getting speaking requests. I then realised that I wanted to share my knowledge about self-publishing and marketing. I wanted to be in the community of authors, NOT the corporate world. So I changed direction and started The Creative Penn, which I love! I didn't feel too detached from the outcome at the time of deciding on book success, but I have gladly changed direction along the way.
- Focus and take action. The hardcore LOA teachers might say that your desire just manifests, but the more realistic ones say you have to focus and work for it. I am a believer in the latter concept! Once you have decided on what you want and you have the mindset to succeed, you then have to put in the hours and the effort to make it happen.
You can have what you want, but what will you do to make it happen, and what price do you need to pay?
How can you use the principles of the Law of Attraction in your personal journey?
Image Credit: Flickr Creative Commons ignaciosanz
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