Firstly, you need to realize is that the ‘Law of Attraction’ is at work in your daily life as you read these words. This may be a big surprise for you but what you need to realize is that the life you live is a perfect mirror image of what’s happening in your head. Unfortunately, most of what’s rattling around in the normal person’s mind is doing them damage rather than good because, left to its own devices, the subconscious mind is both backward looking and negative, constantly ‘enabling’ you – and that’s obviously not the correct word – to repeat all the learned reactions that are, currently, creating your life. In other words, as a result of the normal mind’s inner turmoil, it follows that the normal life is also in turmoil.

It doesn’t matter if you’re aware of or not, the ‘Law of Attraction’ is a reality in your life. I’m not certain, from reading some of the reams of stuff – often misleading stuff – on the subject, that many will have fully grasped the extraordinary importance of this situation. But say that you have. You already have a firm grasp of the fact that, to quote ‘The Secret’, your thoughts become things – what’s going on in your mind ends up manifesting in your life. You may have grasped this all-important concept intellectually – but intellectualizing these facts and being able to put this ‘manifesting’ into practice is a whole new ballgame.

If you don’t consciously take action each day to make certain that you’re in the right state of mind, then it really doesn’t matter how much you understand the way life works, you’re simply fooling yourself into the nice cosy notion that this ‘Law of Attraction’ can change your life for the better.

To truly practice the so-called “Law of Attraction” you need to clear your mind. There’s little point in filling your mind with thoughts of things that you want – no one knows for sure what they really want. Here’s a far better idea – fill your mind with the only place and time we are – the present moment. If you do that, you will coax your subconscious away from its obsession with both the past and the negative. You will become abnormally focused – efficient, effective, inspired and inspirational. In a clear and focused state of mind you will attract the very best in life, enabling you rise to places that normal people couldn’t imagine.

Surveys testify to people being more fearful, stressed and bewildered than ever before – even a world war didn’t give rise to such abject fear as we are witnessing in a century where we all swallowed the idea that humankind was finally rising to a new plane. In fact, the wartime spirit that galvanized nations throughout the second world war, has vanished from a world where obsession with money – fear or losing it, wanting more, not having enough – is the order of the day and it’s every man for himself. What the hell is going on – and I use the world ‘hell’ advisedly because it appears to me that the normal life is much nearer to hell than heaven.

Bestsellers like ‘The Secret’ and ‘The Power of Positive Thinking’ point towards a brighter, better life if you use your mind in the appropriate manner. In contrast, Barbara Ehrenreich in her book, ‘Smile or Die’, claims that positive thinking has destroyed the US and ruined the world.

Having worked in the self help ‘business’ since 1996 – having started out before it was fashionable to confide in your friends or colleagues that you were ‘into it’ – I am firmly of the belief that people reading these self help books are not just fooling themselves but are a danger to themselves and those around them. They read a little, get a ‘feel-good’ after-glow, perhaps even put a little of what they’ve read into practice for a bit and then con themselves into believing that things are either better or, even more dangerous, about to get better – the all-too-common general excuse for taking no action while the wheels come off your life.

Books don’t change your life. Action changes your life – real action on a daily basis – action that you have to take yourself. And I’ve seen precious little evidence of action. Sure, I see lots of reaction – but everyone reacts, we’re experts at is and it makes matters worse rather than better.

So, close up your self improvement books and ask yourself this probing question? What action could you take right now that can improve your lot if life? Not knowing your life, I’ve no idea whether major change is called for or, perhaps, it’s just something little. But I do know this – I am regularly questioning myself, challenging myself to ensure that I keep taking the little and large actions that need to be done to push – yes, you’ve got to push yourself – my life towards more and more happiness and excitement. And I regularly see the results.

Never mind the jargon of Personal Development, there are lots of common expressions that describe the physical results of being ‘out of tune’ and, strangely enough, these generally refer to the main centres in our body which ancient mysticism calls the key energy centres or ‘chakras’. Let me explain by way of example. If you’re nervous, you might have what we describe as butterflies in your stomach – the physical manifestation of your state of mind. If you’ve something upsetting or unpalatable to say, you might feel a lump in your throat. If you’re feeling down you might have that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach – a key energy centre often referred to by successful people when they talk about gut feeling. And how come that nerves and upset can bring on a ‘tense nervous headache’?

The simple fact is that, whether you’re aware of the scientific explanation or not, you do know that your state of mind creates these physical knock-on effects. Where am I going with this? Well, the normal state of mind, which psychology has concluded tends towards the negative, is the cause of all manner of ills and, crucially, is the source of discomfort in our everyday lives. The normal subconscious mind directs our energy inward – and, as a result – our best efforts. Sometimes we are all too well aware of the results of our negative state of mind: low self esteem, no self confidence, an unease in certain circumstances, anxiety, stress (all the way up to panic) and depression. But these are the obvious examples of a more subtle and deeply-rooted problem.

This inward focus of our energy means that we don’t have a sufficient amount of energy available to invest in what we should be doing right now and it is this ‘disability’ that keeps normal people within the confines of a not-too-bad, normal life. And as our universe and your life operates so that you get a return on the energy that you put into the act of living, with precious little investment comes little or no return. It’s no big surprise then that people lack fulfilment.

You must break this vicious circle of self destruction. You have to start investing more energy in your life, by putting more of you into living in the here and now. Get going, right now, by taking a couple of minutes, sitting somewhere where you won’t be disturbed, closing your eyes and simply listening to the sounds that you hear. This silences the constant noise in your head and drags your subconscious mind’s attention away from its inward self-destructive obsession and enables you turn that inward energy out into a universe that is simply waiting to respond to presence in the here and now.

Psychological research also confirms that our lives are dictated by our subconscious mind’s view of the world. We learn our ideas of how the world works, who we are, what our strengths and weaknesses, our own self image during our early years. Our perceptions, which over time gradually become deeply held beliefs are stored in the depths of our subconscious and, in as adults, when faced with a situation where we have to take action, our actions will be dictated not be what is actually happening but by what we think is happening, based on our deeply held beliefs. In this way, normal people are unable to spot opportunity when it stares them in the face, because it is contrary to their normal expectations.

The outcome of this automatic process is that our subconscious perceptions, learned during our formative years, become our beliefs. These dictate our expectations and our behaviour and, as a result, our beliefs create our lives. Or, put another way, you achieve what you believe. Or put in an even more factual manner, we live down to our expectations.

You have to give yourself new beliefs – you must believe that you can achieve all that your heart desires. You have to be able to make a massive impression on your subconscious mind to ensure that it can focus on what you want to achieve to the extent that it believes that it is part and parcel of and a logical step up from your current life. Believing is not wishing hoping and wanting, believing is seeing, feeling, hearing smelling and tasting. Your five senses are your interface with the world. They are what you used to develop your views of your self-image during your formative years. As adults, we pay little attention to our senses, preferring to use what we learned in our formative years to make sense of today – and, in the process, make nonsense of it!

You must explain to your subconscious mind what it would be like to achieve your goal. It has to see it, feel it, hear it, smell it and taste it as if you already have it. You can make a powerful impression on your subconscious mind by handwriting the experience of the outcome, as if you’re there already, using all five senses, writing in the present tense. But – and this is a ’health warning’ – be careful what you wish for, for a focused subconscious will set about bringing about what it believes to be the life that you live – remember, that’s what its’ doing already.