LOA vs. Your Money Mindset
By Loral Langemeier
Is the Law of Attraction a bunch of baloney?
After the law of attraction movie, The Secret, came out in 2006, there were a variety of reactions to it. Millions of people were “told” the law of attraction would make anything possible in their lives. Some people tried it and believe in it. Others flat out rejected it, saying it would never work. Some people tried it but gave up when they felt they gave it enough time and effort yet had no results. So, the question, “is it a bunch of baloney?” is a good one that deserves an answer.
Since the movie, my small part in it has actually led some people to believe that I’m successful because of the law of attraction, in and of itself. This isn’t the whole truth.
Whether you believe there are cosmic energies that can bring you wealth and happiness, or not, the law of attraction is based on principles that could help you get through many ups and downs that come along in life — or it could make things worse.
Stay with me here.
Basically LOA is a theory claiming whatever you think about on a regular basis becomes attracted to you like a magnet. The principle is based on all the thoughts and images in your mind, and all the feelings connected to your thoughts, later manifesting as reality in your life. In fact, what you now have in your life has been attracted to you through your mental and emotional outlook.
Understand this. The principle works both ways. What we think about, we bring about. But it’s actually more than that. More accurately, LOA is a 4 step process:
Ask, Believe, Act, Receive
It’s an applied application of Isaac Newton’s second law of motion: for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Unfortunately, since most of us have never learned much about this, we tend to create by default, not by control and intention.
The point is, whether you believe in the principles or not, it happens to every person. If you look at the law of attraction simply from a logical standpoint, it still makes sense. To illustrate my point, think about these examples:
- If you consistently have a negative attitude, bad things will continue to happen to you. Most people would agree, the more bad things happening to you, the more negative your attitude becomes.The opposite is also true.
- People, who always seem to have a positive outlook, attract good things into their lives. Because their lives are filled with good things, their attitude stays positive and more good things continue to enter their lives.
The underlying principle is that like energy attracts like energy.
You’ve heard the old saying, “You are what you eat,” right? LOA theorizes, you are what you think. And I agree, but only to a point.
It’s your attitude toward life and everything that happens that makes the overall difference in the quality of your life. More to the point, if you focus on what you don’t have in life, it’s likely it will remain that way. And self-sabotage will only defeat your efforts. You need to focus on what you do want and believe you are worthy of it.
However, the problem I see here is that most people use LOA to satiate their desire for material things. That’s all fine and good but, in my opinion, they’re missing the bigger picture. So you want that new car, new house, new-whatever. That’s fine, but should it end there?
What about the future? By leveraging LOA and combining it with learning and taking action, you could be generating wealth that lasts for generations.
If you’re the eternal skeptic, and you have trouble believing in things like karma and attracting things with your mind, you might need to look at all of this in a different light.
I profess your mindset and financial conditioning is a primary activator or inhibitor of your overall financial health.
Look at it this way:
We have been conditioned about our money beliefs since we were young. In fact, most of our beliefs were defined between the ages of one and eight years of age. In reality, we are the confluence of hundreds of years of conditioning – through our great grandparents, grandparents, and our parents.
During the early years of our lives, our financial conditioning was influenced to a great degree by those who provided care for us and were influential in our upbringing — our parents, religious educators, and teachers.
Think back to your grandparents. Relative to money and finances, what ideas did they have about money? And, behaviorally, how did that cause them to be in relationship with their money – were they big savers, did they think they couldn’t afford things, were they putting it away for a rainy day … or were they of the belief that money is the root of all evil. Probably for most, they lived through the Great Depression which created generational scarcity. And, unless your parents decided to think and behave differently toward money, you were then conditioned with the same thoughts and behaviors and generational scarcity that’s passed down through the ages from one generation to the next.
Another way generational scarcity impacted our conditioning is that we were never taught to have conversations about money—out loud. It was as if there was some unspoken law that the topic of money was taboo! In fact, surveys indicated that the conversation about money at home was compared to a skeleton in the closet.
Given the fact that we’re not taught to live out loud about money, it stands to reason that we would not be equipped with the proper mindset or tools to learn acquire, manage and grow our financial profile.
For instance, did any of your parents, teachers, or those who conditioned you … sit you down and teach you the very basics of personal finance? Did they show you how to balance your checkbook? Did they teach you the proper use of credit and credit cards? The basic use of cash management, how to budget and pay your bills … much less even think about teaching you how to invest or put money away so that it compounds
A lack of financial understanding brings about fear. And fear can be crippling. It can cause people to worry that their efforts will never be rewarded. When people let that kind of negativity into their lives, they can actually cause themselves to have more problems.
It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
But even with the greatest positive attitude in the world, LOA does not guarantee your dreams will come true. After all, if a person wants to have a million dollars in the bank but only wants to lie on a couch watching TV, chances are it’s never going to happen.
Positive thoughts are one thing. Taking action is another. You have to make the effort, too.
If you want to experience positive effects in your own life, you have to adjust your thinking. The problem is it can be very difficult to switch from a negative outlook to a positive one. So, you’ll probably have to practice — a lot.
A common way to do this is to put notes all around you, reminding you of the positive things you should be thinking. And don’t think in terms of what you want to happen. Think of them as having already happened. This in itself will lift your spirits, and in turn, get you more motivated.
Every day, you should practice imagining what your life will be like once you’ve achieved all of the things you want. If you want to become wealthy, be specific, and spend time each day thinking of what your life will be like once you’re rich. I’m talking actual dollar figures. Create a clear vision! Will it be millions or billions? How many?
Think of yourself building generational wealth, putting your kids through the best college, living in the home of your dreams, waking up in bed with the partner you’ve always dreamed of, getting into the car you drool over, and flying to your favorite place in the world for a vacation –use your senses to experience your visualized state of perfection.
That’s the law of attraction process at its best.
In order to achieve great things, you have to think great thoughts. But you still need to take action to bring those results to fruition.
So, to your question: Is the Law of Attraction a bunch of baloney? My answer is no. It’s not. However, where people go wrong is thinking that it’s a one step process, not four. To fully implement it, you need to ask, believe, act, and receive. Don’t leave any part out of it!
There’s no reason to take my word for it. The proof is in the pudding, as they say. Try it or not. The choice is yours. Just do something to move your life forward.
– Loral Langemeier CEO/Founder of Live Out Loud, international speaker, money expert and best-selling author of the Millionaire Maker 3 book series and Put More Cash In Your Pocket.
To learn more about Loral’s products, CDs, DVDs, Books and Millionaire Maker Game and more, click here.
