The magic of making room for what you want

This is a simple tale. No metaphysical magic implied but the real world kind that comes from when you move things around to make space for the things you desire. 

I give to you the tale of the new fridge that just wouldn't fit.

We have a guest living with us. She is a long time friend and business associate. Her specialty is helping her clients remove friction from their business and home spaces. Having her living with us is a little like having a genie in the house--things just start working better because of the small changes she recommends and implements. 

One evening she asked me about the small iceberg forming under the ice maker in the freezer.

"Oh yes, the freezer doesn't keep a consistent temperature--we want a new one but none of the fridges we've looked at will fit in the space. They are all about an inch too tall unless we get rid of that cabinet above the fridge. We are already short on usable storage."

That area of the kitchen isn't really storage. The cabinet is too high to use so we usually do things like pile bags of pretzels on the of the refrigerator. Its an area of clutter we never quite mastered.

"What if I can fix your storage problem"? 

Cabinet-GONE!

"Ok, but I don't see how you can". 

Thus began a whirl wind of our guest  doing spacial drawings and creating 3-d mock ups with cardboard in the kitchen to show us a variety of ways we could redo storage. She moved items around showcasing her mock ups to show us how to reclaim space and get our counters back. 

After a week of a variety of prototypes, a solution was decided on that would give us four times the space we'd lose from the little cabinet and give us additional clear counter space. 

We took a trip to IKEA and found an occasional table that fit the space but needed some minor changes to be perfect. We installed it the next day and started moving items into their new home. The kitchen felt larger and easier to move it. 

Even if we didn't get the fridge I felt the effort was completely worth while. (also, I was a little afraid of removing the cabinet and possibly screwing up the look of kitchen if I botched it--so if nothing else happened I was good to go).

The next day Keri and I went for dim sum breakfast and decided on a whim to go up to the IKEA and get some small shelves that our guest pointed out that would help which would clear up some counter space. While up there we went to the neighboring Big Orange (not the real name of the store) to order a new blind for the kitchen.

Lo and behold Big Orange had fridges on sale! And there was the one Keri had just told me about for $1500 off list! 

Wow! I was very excited about this synchronicity and called the sales guy over.
Just then Keri noticed some scratches and a small dent. I wasn't too put off because of the price reduction but Keri was significantly less enthused. I told the sales guy we were interested in getting the fridge but then he said 1. delivery wasn't free, 2. they wouldn't take away the old unit and 3. we would have to bring the new unit in ourselves--it was their policy. WTF??? We bought from Big Orange before and they included all of that for free. 

The scratches, the difficulty with delivery (it weighs over 300lbs!!! not likely I'm going to be able to move that even with our guest helping!) It started to feel "hard"--like I was about to force something to happen because the deal seemed so good. Even though I was excited by the savings I realized my inner compass was swinging away from it. Keri said she felt it too so we walked out. 

In the evening Keri wanted to shop for some pretty baskets for our new storage unit and asked if we could "just look" at the fridges at Giant Yellow Tag (also, not the real name of the store). We went out and Giant Yellow Tag  was also having a sale! 

I walked the aisles not seeing an option that was good for our kitchen. Just as I thought we ran out of inventory Keri called me one row over. 

There in front of us was a floor model fridge for $300 less than the one we saw that afternoon at Big Orange. No scratches on the outside and when we opened it they hadn't even taken out the packing materials--essentially a brand new unit. It wasn't the same maker/model but comparable in every way! Plus purchase included full install plus disposal of old unit. 

After paying for the unit, taxes and extended warranty (you want extended warranty that fo sho) the total was the same as the pretax on scratched unit we saw earlier! 

We paid the good man and our new fridge will be here thursday. This afternoon we removed the cabinet and the area is ready for our new toy!

No metaphysical mumbo jumbo here. But I have found time and again that when you intentionally make your circumstances ready for the thing you want, that thing has a way of turning up. I think its more like our minds are then trained to go on an intensive search to make the magic happen. 

What works, works. 

Give it a try. Think of something you really really want. Then do the things you know you need to do to make that thing fit in your life. See what happens. Then send me a message. I want to hear!

There is a law of attraction but it isn't what you think it is

Remember The Secret? It says some pretty wacky things especially the notion that thinking about something will bring it about (such as you can't get fat unless you think about fat or car spaces show up because you magically make them appear).

So lets just list off all the things the Law of Attraction (LOA) isn't:

1. Magical thinking--such as thinking something really hard will cause it to happen.
2. A cosmic or universal power handing over stuff because you had the exact right thoughts.
3. some other woo that says you can sit on the couch and wait  for the magic to happen.

But weirdly it IS about your thinking and it IS about how things respond to you when you believe and think certain thoughts. And most bizarrely, a lot of it all happens without seeming "effort". How it not be list one but still be all the things list one seems to imply.

Let me explain.

Everything we do and say begins with a thought. And guess what? Our thoughts, while not necessarily true, still drive how we act often in subconscious ways that inform people how to respond to us. Our thoughts drive decisions that take us in certain directions--sometimes insignificant changes to routine result in big outcomes. What we don't take into account is all the information we are taking in and filtering out based on our thought patterns.

I'm sure you've experienced the phenomenon of buying a car in a certain color. As soon as you start contemplating this car you start seeing lots of these kinds of car on the road in the same color you plan on getting. It's as if these cars just pop out of nowhere. That's not quite it--the cars were always there. You just see them now because you are thinking of them.

If you apply this to the seeming good luck that follows LOA adherents you can see a connection between what they think and believe and the kinds of opportunities that seem to arise. The luck is simply them seeing the opportunity and then taking advantage of it. The belief that this is possible--that the opportunity is meant for them makes them extra resourceful, charming and ready to step up to the situation in a way that makes it work out. The signals they give off in body language and choice of words sends the message "I'm available--come play with me."

The same goes for so called bad luck. The same opportunities are out there for the person who just can't catch a break but they can't see them. And when they do see them or the opportunity is pointed out to them they act in self defeating ways (many times subtly and unconsciously) that make the opportunity not work out. They choke.

Even when a person who more or less has a positive LOA factor doesn't carry off what they want, they shrug it off, saying it wasn't quite the right time or whatever and that something even better is "on it's way". And yes, like magic, something does come along that fulfills the expectation of the LOA belief.

THIS ISN'T THE MAGICAL HAND OF FATE!

The rub in all this is that it can't be really manipulated by rituals and secret systems. You can't simultaneously attract nice things into your life and believe your life is cruddy--until you handle your belief in the so call cruddy aspects you won't see the good you have in the first place. This is why gratitude is one of the foundational practices for LOA. You become wealthier simply by acknowledging the good things you already have--you "see" them and and they make a positive appearance in your life whereas before they were dull and unappreciated--nearly invisible. Gratitude itself is a belief altering, sight expanding practice.

A person that wants to harness some LOA magic doesn't have to pretend things are going great. They simply have to be prepared for things to go well, to see good, to expect good situations and above all to feel that those much desired things are open and available to them.

It all boils down to ingrained thought patterns. If you find yourself harboring beliefs that separate you from they things and experiences you want in your life, it's time to start questioning those patterns. Once you start unwinding the beliefs that are contrary to your best life you may find yourself surrounded by experiences that "a person like you" would never have had before. Those experiences are already there waiting for your eyes to refocus to let them in.