My dreams and the law of attraction

Napoleon Hill was one of the people who believed that we could achieve anything we want to achieve (I recommend his book "Think and Grow Rich" even though it's quite an old book). He said that our minds are our only enemy and that - as long as we believe - we can do anything. It is also the same kind of thought that is behind "The Secret". Yes, this is a blog entry about the law of attraction and I would appreciate if some of you would comment on this because it would be interesting to see what others think.


I have read many books about this kind of topic, with my favourite being "The Artist's Way" by Julia Cameron. It's not really about the law of attraction but falls into that kind of category. It helped me to get back on track with writing. Before I read the book, I had given up on writing. I believed no one would ever want to read my words and that no one would ever pay me to write anything. I didn't believe that the book could help but I was attracted to it AND it was in the wrong section of the book store (maybe someone had put it there by mistake or simply decided they didn't want it and were too lazy to walk back to the section it originally came from).  I did all the exercises in the book though I really hated some of them (because they made me think of things I'd rather forget). About two years after I had read and worked through the book for the first time (I worked through it two more times), I started to get paid for writing. I'm not sure whether this had anything to do with the fact that I read the book and started to get to know my own inner artist a lot better or whether it only happened because I was desperate and had no other way to earn money.

Seagulls are an inspiration for me - and I
don't care whether other people
 understand it or not.

Anyway, since I read that book, I also decided to give other books a try. I started to enjoy doing all those exercises - maybe I enjoyed it so much because most of those exercises required you to write down your answers. However, no matter how much I tried, the law of attraction doesn't seem to work that well for me and I always ask myself: Am I doing something wrong or is the power of the mind overrated? The mind can't overcome the rules behind immigration. So no matter how much I'd like to be a permanent resident of New Zealand, my willpower alone won't help with that and so far no miracle has turned up to solve the problems I have with immigration.


I also learned a lot about how you need to formulate your wishes and all the mistakes you can make. I learned about the "correct" positive thinking - but after a while, it all just gets very exhausting. Maybe I just don't have the right kind of mindset, maybe my soul is not strong enough - I always seem to fall back into negative thinking after a while.

For many months, I was writing into a "Book of Gratefulness". At the beginning of the month, I made a wishlist of things I would like to happen. On the opposite page, I wrote "This month I am grateful for..." and then wrote on that page when something good happened. At the end of the month, I ticked off the things that happened. Some things were really simple, e.g. each month I wished for "one beautiful feather". I usually found more than one.

I also wished to meet Lucy Lawless. Every single month I wished to find a way to meet her. It never happened even though we live in the same country. It still is my wish to meet her one day. There has only been one person who had as much of an influence on my life: Michael Jackson.... and as he is dead, I'll never be able to meet him in this life-time. I also had Ian McKellen on my wishlist - but who I truly wanted to meet was (and is) Lucy Lawless. If I could choose to meet just one person, it would have to be her. But maybe my wish is not strong enough for the law of attraction? Or is the law of attraction not real?

Let's continue with having a look at the wishes on the list. There were wishes like "I'd like to get an A+ in my marketing assignment". Well, easily done - but that's not law of attraction, it was my own efforts that got me there. No miracle necessary. However, in one class I did not achieve my goal because my mark was based on a whole team... and I could not get the team to work hard enough.


There were also quite mundane wishes:

• get cheaper internet (which did not happen because my flatmate refused to let me use the landline for internet, so I had to go for a very expensive wireless USB connection)
• win $5,000 in the lottery (also did not happen)

Then there were wishes like:

• meet a wise Maori who would turn into a mentor (that did not happen, I actually wasn't treated that well by Maori in Whanganui)
• get a chance to be on the river (I haven't been on the river for 1,5 years)
• find a good job in a cafe (I got a job in a cafe but two weeks later the cafe owner decided to close the cafe down, thus I also lost the job)

Those are just a few examples. Of course, there were also some more personal wishes and wishes related to my spiritual beliefs.

In 2012, I have given up on the wishlist and instead I focus only on writing down all the positive things. After all, there doesn't seem to be much of a point in making wishes. Maybe I will now be able to meet Lucy Lawless?

In January 2012, I could add quite a few things to my list. A few examples:

• seeing chicken in trees
• holding pigeons in my hand
• finding lots of nice feathers
• getting a few good writing jobs
• seeing a very gorgeous seagull
• good coffee
• visiting LotR locations

And on and on it goes. I even write down really little things that other people might take for granted. It is said that you can attract positive things to you when you focus on the positive sides of life. Yet, it does not really seem to help in the areas of life in which I would really need something positive to happen.

What is your take on the law of attraction / the secret / positive thinking / whatever you call it? 

How do you make your dreams come true? Has anything helped you to make a dream come true?

Meeting Ian McKellen would be one of my dreams - but why would he want to spend time with someone like me?
And how could I ever get to talk to him without having dozens of other people around who would like to do the same
thing?

Update 2015: In the last few years, I actually got to see Lucy Lawless live TWICE.
And in 2014, I saw Ian McKellen TWICE.