Losing the "attraction" to the Law of Attraction.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008

It's been over a year since I started "Attraction Hacker", and it has had its ups and downs. Over the past few months, it's been mostly DOWNS. There are numerous reasons- work, family, other interests, etc. But on reason stands out above all: I lost my attraction to the Law of Attraction.

It's not as though The LoA wasn't working, because in the few months after I started the blog, I went from 0 readers, to over 100 subscribers to my news feed. I was even making a few dollars a week from my Google ads and other affiliates. It was a nice feeling, and I even cyber-connected with others on the LoA journey. But then it stopped.

I'd like to imagine this happens to a lot of people. After the initial excitement wears off, you fall back into old ways and old mental patterns... and eventually, your unconscious mind starts attracting all the same old crap it did before you were practicing the Law of Attraction. How many people were moved by "The Secret", like I was, and are now back at square one?

The big question then becomes: How do you get back to that place of excitement? And my answer is: I don't know.

One thing that has helped me, though, is Joe Vitale's audiobook version of Zero Limits. In it, he discusses the Hawaiian healing technique known as "Ho'oponopono". While Vitale's "The Attractor Factor" is still my favorite of his books, Zero Limits is really good.

It had been months since I even thought about the Law of Attraction or The Secret or anything like that. Then, one of my wife's friends talked about going to a workshop teaching "Ho'oponopono", and it reminded me of Joe Vitale's talk last year, where he mentioned he was releasing a book on the subject. I went to Audible.com, sure enough, the book was available to download to my iPod.

I'd like to say that I was totally re-invigorated and all the old excitement came rushing back... but I can't. Things are better, to be sure. But I've still got a ways to go. And as the books says, I'm continuing to "clean".

Now... I, the "hacker", am asking anyone who stumbles across this post for their "hacks". What do you do or have you done, to stay on the Law of Attraction path?

at 10:30 AM 14 comments Links to this post  

Tags: hacks, joe vitale, Law of Attraction, zero limits

How to Clear your Brain with GTD
Tuesday, November 13, 2007

GTD stands for "Getting Things Done", and it's something I struggled with a long time. But I've been helped a lot in recent months.

Your brain is an amazing thing. It allows you to understand language, do maths, catch a ball, and appreciate music.

But in some ways, your brain is really, really dumb. Or, rather, your brain doesn't always work the way you would want. This is especially noticable when you try to remember things.

Consider this: what if you took an important file home, and you absolutely, positively had to remember to take it back to work the next day. If you forgot, you would lose your job - it was THAT important.

How would you make sure to remember it?

Ideally, you would tell your brain to give you a reminder, something like "when I walk out the front door tomorrow morning, I want you to remind me about the file."

Wouldn't that be great? But have you noticed that our brain doesn't really work like that?

Instead, once you tell your brain to remember something, it will start to remind you at almost random times:

• You'll be watching TV that evening, when suddenly your brain will pipe up: 'whoo there, don't forget to take that file tomorrow.'
• As you're dropping off to sleep, you'll have the thought 'I'd better remember to take that file tomorrow.'
• Your brain might even wake you at 3:30 in the morning to remind you: 'musn't forget that file tomorrow.'

Then, the next morning, the cat has made a mess in your shoes, you're busy getting the kids off to school, your shirt needs ironing, you can't find the keys, and you're running late. As you rush out the front door, still cramming some breakfast into your mouth, what does your brain forget to remind you? That's right, the file. It might remind you when you're half-way into work: 'hey there, did you remember that file?'

You see, our brain is not very good at remembering things exactly when it needs to. Instead, it reminds us randomly, at the most inappropriate moments- often when there's nothing we can do about it. This is the best it can do.

Now what if you're trying to remember 10, 20, or 50 important things at once? Your brain is constantly reminding you of things you haven't done. This results in a very busy head. Does your head ever feel like this?

One the other hand, have you ever noticed that once you've safely 'captured' an item, your brain relaxes? For example, when I'm cooking, I might notice we're nearly out of oil. About 10 times while I'm preparing, cooking, or cleaning up, my brain will remember 'we need more oil'. Then once I walk over to the shopping list and write down 'oil', all the reminders stop. My mind relaxes, and I forget about it. I forget so much that I don't think about it again until I'm off to the shop, and I pick up the shopping list.

The key is, that until our brain believes that something is handled, it keeps sending us reminders.

Knowing that our brain works like that, we develop little techniques to help us. With the important file that you need to remember - you might put it in the front doorway, so that you can't physically leave the house without stepping over it. I've done that before - it's very effective. And the thing is, once I believed that I could not possibly open the front door without noticing the document - guess what? I could completely relax.

This is so important that I'm going to repeat it:

Your brain can ONLY relax when it trusts the external system that you're using.

Now, what happens if you put your items into a system that the brain doesn't trust? Well, you're just transferring what the brain has to worry about.

Have you ever put an appointment into your diary, but then missed the appointment because you forgot to look at your diary? That would be an example of an external system that your brain won't trust. Now, instead of reminding you 'don't forget the appointment', your brain has to remind you 'don't forget to look in your diary'.

Your brain won't relax, it won't stop giving you reminders, until it knows that the thing is handled.

The key to getting everything done that you were supposed to do, and having a quiet, relaxed head at the same time, is putting everything you need to do into a system outside your brain, that your brain trusts.

This is where GTD comes in handy. GTD is a productivity system designed by productivity guru David Allen. You may have seen it mentioned in other places- it's currently taking the internet by storm.

But why is GTD so popular?

Well, there are lots of reasons, but one of the main ones, is that it's a simple, easy to understand system, that your brain can trust. And it's a system that allows you to put practically anything of importance into it.

Which means that your brain gets to relax.

A relaxed brain is quite hard to appreciate until you experience it for yourself. All of a sudden, you get MORE done, in LESS time, and have more fun doing it as well!

Give GTD a try... I'm sure you'll find it useful, and it doesn't take long to learn. There are a ton of blogs about the subject, and one of my favorites is 43 Folders, or just Google it.

at 5:20 PM 1 comments Links to this post  

Tags: getting things done, gtd

Greeting, and some advice
Monday, November 12, 2007

It's been a while, but a lot of exciting things have happened in the past few months, and I can only attribute it to the Law of Attraction. First off, I working towards getting out of the corporate rat race, and into my own business, so I devote more time to things I love -- like preaching the news of the LOA. In that vein, I've signed-up with "SuccessTracs", a great coaching program from Peak Potentials.

In the few calls I've had, I've been blown away. I've always been such an independent "do-it-yourself" kind of guy, and I was thinking I could make the switch to my own business with no problem. But my wife had been doing the coaching for a while, and I could see definite changes in her business... so I took the plunge, too. Now, we're using a lot of LOA techniques, and getting my vision as clear as possible. And it's great to have a person tell me straight out, "GET CLEARER!".

It's easy to say, "I want a new house"... but getting clear means "how many rooms?" or "what color is the carpet?" or "what does the front door look like?". If you're working on attracting things into your life... why not attract the EXACT thing you want, in every detail?

I'll be sure to update my progress. Things are looking wonderful.

at 5:07 PM 0 comments Links to this post  

Tags: Law of Attraction, peak potential, success, successtracs

I'm attracting a ton of work...
Monday, May 21, 2007

Wow, it's been almost 2 weeks since my last post. That, of course, doesn't mean that I've exhausted all ways of "hacking" the Law of Attraction. I've just been super busy with work.

My latest intention: Work will calm down, and I'll have plenty of time each day to attend to Attraction Hacker.

at 3:53 PM 5 comments Links to this post  

Tags: Law of Attraction

Be Rich AND Happy, and one LoA Misconception
Wednesday, May 9, 2007

One of the blogs I like to read is the Get Rich Slowly blog. They offer practical wealth-building advice, and the information is usually top-notch. However, 2 recent posts have sort-of "irked" me.

Very quickly, the first one is titled "Which is More Important: Money or Job Satisfaction?". It's my belief that we shouldn't be prioritizing these things, because once we do, we'll always view the 2nd choice as inferior, and consequently attract less of it. Money and Job Satisfaction are of equal importance, and both should be given the highest priority. The comment I posted on the site says it's not a "zero-sum game". There's enough of both to go around, so why settle for less?

Second, and sort of related, is the post "There is No Secret: The Myth of the Law of Attraction". I've actually been struggling with a post I'm working on about the misconceptions behind the LoA. I'm struggling because the entire subject is focused on the negative perceptions, and therefore becomes antithetical to the practice of positive attraction. I really don't want to shift focus to the negativity... but there's still a part of me that wants to "set the record straight", if you will. Consequently, that particular post has been sitting in my "drafts" folder for 3 weeks.

About this particular post, though, he actually sums up his own misconception fairly well:

Wealth requires more than just thought — it requires action.

Exactly. So many people have the misconception that the Law of Attraction stops at "thinking", but that's only the first step. If you're familiar with any NLP theories, you'll know that there is a common thread in that most of them involve a three-step process. In The Secret it's "Ask, Believe, Receive"... but the same idea can be presented as "Think, Feel, Act". All you have to do is look at Rhonda Byrne as the prototype: She didn't just stop at thinking about making The Secret, she opened herself up to receive help and backing, and then went out and made it.

at 10:41 AM 13 comments Links to this post  

Tags: Law of Attraction, rhonda byrne, rhonda byrnes, the secret

Time Suck O'Meter
Tuesday, May 8, 2007

Coming from the Simpleology newsletter, is the website "Time Suck O Meter". It's an interesting idea:

Top 1000 most time saving, and
Bottom 1000 most time sucking sites

The site gets its stats from the BrowserBodyguard toolbar, which is supposed to help your web surfing experience stay on task. If you find a site that "sucks time" instead of providing any real productivity, simply mark it as a time-sucker. Conversely, if you find a site that is VERY helpful in your productivity, you can mark that as a time-saver.

The data sample of Time Suck O'Meter is obviously pretty small right now, as there are only 8 sites in the time-saver column, and 11 in the time-sucker column. If more people use the toolbar, though, it could provide a useful way to find sites that will help in day-to-day productivity.

Of course, as it stands now, I'm trying to figure out how "Google Netherlands" can save you time, but "Google Australia" will waste your time. My guess, is that since I don't speak Dutch, I will go to Google NL and immediately leave... but if I go to Google AU, I may actually search for something and waste some time. :) Also, I hope that they have some mechanism in place to prevent an inevitable onslaught of spammers... because right now, some (lots) of the links seem to be pretty "spammy".

at 9:33 AM 1 comments Links to this post  

Tags: Law of Attraction, productivity, programs, simpleology

Link love to a link love post...
Monday, May 7, 2007

Aaron at Today is that Day threw a little link love this way in his post "Self Improvement and Law of Attraction Link Love, Volume 13". He links to my "Maximize your Visualization" post... so THANKS!

His "Link Love" category page has all of his previous link posts, and lots and lots of great info. It's a great way to find new and interesting blogs.

at 9:36 AM 0 comments Links to this post  

Dyer: How to Get what You Really, Really Want.
Thursday, May 3, 2007

First off, Congrats to Scott at Keeping the Secret on his recent marriage!

Second, also from Keeping the Secret, is an excellent video from a Wayne Dyer seminar. It's over 2 and a half hours long, and I'm only about a third of the way in, but so far it's absolutely wonderful. Wayne Dyer is such a great speaker, and this video/seminar really has an intimate feel about it.

Set aside some free time, then head to Keeping the Secret to watch.

on a sidenote: I just found out that my "page rank" in Google went from 0 to 3. It doesn't mean a whole lot, I just thought it was kinda cool. Also, Technorati is at 198,242 and Alexa is 860,049. Onward and Upward!

at 9:49 AM 1 comments Links to this post  

Tags: keepingthesecret, Law of Attraction, wayne dyer

10 Steps To Maximize Your Visualization
Tuesday, May 1, 2007

I read an interesting article called "12 Steps to Turbo-charge Your Visualisation", and I thought, "I can get those down to 10". So here goes:

1. Thirty minutes before bed, go to a private, secluded spot.


2. Get as comfortable as possible- sitting in a comfy chair/position and wearing loose clothing.


3. Close your eyes, and let all your thoughts drift away - both external and internal.


4. Imagine one thing which you "choose to have" most. Make it very specific. Either something tangible (new car) or intangible (new job).


5. Imagine yourself receiving that one thing.


6. Focus in on the thoughts and feelings you have with that one thing in your possession.


7. After laying down to sleep, keep your visualization in your head, and let it be the last thing you think about before sleep.


8. Anytime during the night, if you wake up, clear your mind and visualize your thing again as you fall back to sleep.


9. After waking up in the morning, start back with Step 2.


10. Find times throughout your day to take a few moments and repeat Step 4,5, and 6.

I know this is "Law of Attraction 101" for most people, but it never hurts to have a gentle reminder. There have been plenty of times where I'll go days without stopping to visualize, and typically I find myself getting kind of grumpy - or more specifically, my wife starts finding me grumpy. After taking a few moments to myself, I'm usually able to do a "180" and I feel much better.

at 1:48 PM 1 comments Links to this post  

Tags: Law of Attraction, meditation, visualization

Law of Attraction in Pop Culture
Monday, April 30, 2007

In a post last Friday, Joe Vitale had a funny "ps":

Last night the famous action-packed movie Die Hard 2, starring Bruce Willis, was on television. The lead character, who barely survived terrorists in the first movie, is again barely surviving bad guys in the second movie. At one point Bruce Willis says, "Why do these things keep happening to me?" I said out loud to the screen, "It's the Attractor Factor, bro." Until he gets clear, he'll keep attracting the same stuff, and never realize he's the magnet. Not being clear makes for a great movie but a lousy life.

I love movies and TV, and pop culture in general, so I started wondering if there are other movies/shows that indirectly reference the Law of Attraction.

1. My Name is Earl

This is a fairly obvious one. In the show, Earl used to be a "bad" guy doing bad stuff and wasting his life away. After he wins the lottery and learns about "karma", he decides to do only good things, and even makes a list of all people he wronged so he can make it up to them. As he's working through the list, we see all sorts of positive things happen to Earl... and when he slips and starts focusing on the negative, we see negative things happen to him.

2. Perfect Strangers

Okay, I may be dating myself a bit, but I used to love this show. Also, it's a classic example of the LoA in action. First off, you have Larry, constantly negative and expecting bad things to happen, and surprise - they do. Then you have fun-loving Balki, who has no concept of "can't" or "impossible", and he always comes out on top. Even when Larry tries to pull him down, Balki moves forward with his plans, and they usually work out great. About that time, Larry decides to follow Balki's plans, but his motivation typically comes from greed and need, and NOT true goodness and desire. Larry will take Balki's plans, go WAY overboard, and fail.

3. American Idol

This is a classic example of the "action" in Law of Attraction. In the preliminary rounds, quite often you see kids say things like "if I don't get picked, I'll die" or "they HAVE to pick me" or something similar. Then, they get in front of the judges and are absolutely horrible singers. It seems like many of these people are living their lives JUST to get on American Idol, and eagerly wait for the next auditions. They aren't in a pure "receiving" state, and therefore won't be able to attract much of anything.

A singer utilizing the LoA will let go of any need to be on American Idol, and spend their time practicing their singing and enjoying the gift they have. All the while, letting their heart and mind be open to endless possibilities around them... and if A.I. is one of those, great!

4. The Breakfast Club

One of my favorite movies from my youth... and also a classic examination of the Law of Attraction. In the beginning, all five students are stuck in their pre-defined roles, and focus their attention on the negative aspects of their lives. Claire tries to play her emotionally distant parents against each other, Andrew is afraid to seen as "weak" by his father, Brian is afraid to be seen as "stupid" by his parents, Bender thinks his life and his father are the worst of all them, and Allison is so afraid of being rejected that she intentionally separates herself from everyone. Not coincidentally, they all seem to have tons of problems, which has led them to Saturday detention.

By the end of the film, they have let go of their preconceived notions, and start to realize that their lives CAN be better. If those characters persist in that notion, they will lead much happier lives.

5. Lost

The LoA problem with "Lost" is right there in the title. The characters focus all their energy on the fact they are lost, and also trying to figure out the strange things that are happening on the island. If they spent their time on the beach focusing on positivity and manifesting an airplane passing by... they could change the name of the show to "Found".

Also, they talk about the people on the island who weren't in the plane wreck as "The Others" - which instantly puts a wall up between them. They should learn, we're all one - there are no "others". If they let that go, then it's quite possible they could build an entire paradise on the island.

at 2:24 PM 0 comments Links to this post  

Tags: american idol, breakfast club, Law of Attraction, lost, my name is earl, perfect strangers, pop culture

A few quick successes...
Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Posting will be light the next few days, as I've got some other projects working, but I thought I'd share a few small successes I've had recently.

First off, I have a Firefox Extension called "About This Site" that I've tweaked a bit, and it checks various stats about your website/blog. With this, I can check aH's Google Page Rank, Alexa rating, and Technorati rating among many other things. Over the past few weeks, I've been writing down this site's stat every day... and here's where they are:

	Two weeks ago	Today
Google Page Rank	0	0
Alexa Rating	1,501,369	993,765
Technorati Rating	514,674	264,731

at 4:11 PM 0 comments Links to this post  

Focus on... MindHacks.org
Monday, April 23, 2007

Mind Hacks is an absolutely wonderful website with enough info, that it would probably take months to read through all the archives. It looks like it started about a year-and-half ago with mostly just snippets of news articles about personal development, spirituality, and mind science... and then links to the full articles. Since then, there are posts full of multimedia and articles/stories/thoughts about using the mind to its fullest potential.

The most recent post is a video interview with Burt Goldman on the topic "Who is God?". I'm not too familiar with Goldman, but the video is quite interesting... a bit along the lines of Neil Donald Walsch's stuff.

The only issue I have with the site (and it's just a personal preference), is that there's no easy way to jump back in the archives. You can scroll to the bottom and click "Previous Entries", but I like blogs with an archive list in the menu somewhere... maybe I'm just missing it. Either way, you can just manually type in the URL of the month you want - for example, http://www.mindhacks.org/2007/04/ will bring up all of April 2007 posts.... or http://www.mindhacks.org/2006/07/ will bring up all of July 2006.

Overall, a great site... and it has "Hacks" in the name, so I may be biased.

at 3:33 PM 0 comments Links to this post  

Tags: Law of Attraction, mindhacks

Michael Losier - Law of Attraction

The book by Michael Losier "Law of Attraction" has been getting a lot of press and attention in the LoA world recently. There's a video on YouTube that has 75,000 views with him talking about how to make the secret work. He has a few other videos in his YouTube profile as well.

On Oprah's XM radio show, she's continuing the LoA theme started with Abraham-Hicks, and last week she talked to Losier about his book and the Law of Attraction. He'll also be a guest THIS Thursday.

at 9:20 AM 0 comments Links to this post  

Tags: Law of Attraction, michael losier, oprah, xm

Top 50 Productivity Blogs
Thursday, April 19, 2007

From ZenHabits.net:

I love productivity blogs — they’re probably my greatest waste of time. But as they teach me to better use my time, I don’t consider it a waste. If you like reading about productivity, goals, habits, GTD, time management and other such topics, I’ve compiled a list of the best productivity sites for your perusal.

I feel much the same way. I visit LifeHacker multiple times throughout the day, and usually download and try out any software they list or websites they recommend.

The Top 50 Productivity Blogs (most of which you haven’t heard about)

at 1:19 PM 1 comments Links to this post  

Tags: blogs, lifehacker, productivity

The Law of Goog-traction
Wednesday, April 18, 2007

I love Google. I can't remember how I surfed the web without it... though, I think it was mostly through Webcrawler searches and luck. Now, however, Google does so much more than just search, that I started wondering how to leverage Google's free tools along with manifesting my desires and using the Law of Attraction. Here are a few things I came up with:

1. Blogger

I've used Blogger in some form or another for over 6 years, and in 2003, they were bought by Google. It had been a pretty rudimentary blogging system, and in many cases it still is, but there's a LOT more flexibility now than there had been.

This blog is using the Blogger platform, and by setting up my domain name, I can have all my content hosted here under "attractionhacker.com"... and it costs me nothing. As far as the LoA goes, I find that writing about it is for me the BEST way to practice it. Being able to type everything out really clears my thoughts and allows me to focus.

The great thing about Blogger is how simple it is. If you want to create a blog as just a place to get your thoughts out, and aren't concerned about getting readers, it will literally take a couple of minutes to get up-and-running. Even less if you already have a Google account.

2. Google Reader

Aside from using Google to search, this is probably where I spend the most of my Google-time. I've said this before, but every day I come across a new site/blog that I end up subscribing to in my Reader. Luckily, most of the personal development and LoA blogs only post once or twice a day, so it's still easy enough to keep up with. I have to say, almost all of my posts are inspired in some way by what I've read in my Google Reader... at least to the point that something I read helps me view a topic in a new or interesting way.

Another great thing about Reader is the ease of organization. I've got various folders set up and each folder contains blogs on a particular topic. Right now, I've got folders name "LoA","Finance","Blogging","Life Hacks","Health", and "PD". Some blogs have multiple subjects, and I can easily put those in multiple folders - for example, Today is the Day is in both my "LoA" AND "PD" folders. Then if I want to read only the "LoA" topic, I can click on the folder and it brings up ALL the recent posts from every blog in the folder in one stream. If I see an article I want to read more about, or want to read again later, I can click the little star icon next to it, then choose the "Starred items" and bring up everything I wanted to return to.

Another neat thing, not necessarily LoA-related, is that the Reader will compile your reading trends... so you can see which blogs you read more, which folders you read more, and how many articles you read. Right now, I'm reading on average 40 posts a day, and the blog I read most is Lifehacker.com.

3. Google Notebook

Notebook is a browser add-on that lets you clip and save parts of the website you're on. I find it useful when I run across an article that has some great info I want to remember, but don't want to go back to the entire page. Notebook will save the section I highlight, along with the URL of the site, and when I go to my Notebook homepage it lists everything I saved. My Notebook is currently full of inspiring saying, thoughts, and quotes that I've stumbled across. I also use it when I want to quote something in my post, but I'm not logged-in to Blogger at the time.

4. Google Calendar

I personally use Calendar to keep track of when I want my goals to be accomplished. I sometimes struggle with that from a LoA standpoint, because I feel that part of the "receiving" process is just letting go of things like timelines and just accepting that you're going to get what you desire. But it also helps keep my work schedule straight.

5. Google Groups

Groups encompasses both Usenet groups as well as Google's own groups. While I only read these on occasion and never post, I'll often find interesting discussions. From Usenet, I usually read alt.mind.bending or alt.spiritual.enhancement.... and from Google I check out Keepers of The Secret and The Secret Law of Attraction.

6. Google Video

If you search "Law of Attraction" on Google Video, you'll get a bunch of good results from both YouTube and Google Video... like Michael Losier's Law of Attraction video. I've even been known to post a video or two. A lot of these videos can also be found on The Secret DVD blog.

7. Google Ads

If you're looking to manifest a little $$$... go get yourself a website, post up a few Google ads, and watch the CASH ROLL IN. Just yesterday, I got a whopping $.98! If this keeps up, I just might quit my day job. :)

8. Google Finance

After you get all that mad-money from Google Ads, you'll need someplace to put it. With Google Finance, you can find all the great and public companies and invest in them. Then, just manifest their stock prices tripling in value.

9. Google Documents

If you're looking for a free and robust suite of Office applications, I'd highly suggest Open Office. They've got absolutely everything you could ever want, and it's very similar to Microsoft Office. You can even open and save Word documents or Excel spreadsheets in Open Office... so you don't have to worry about compatibility issues with other people.

However, if you don't want to download and install that software... or just want access to your files from any computer in the world, Google Docs is the way to go. And while I haven't personally used this feature, you can submit blog posts from Google Docs... so if you have a long, thought-out post/article and want to have it accessible on various computers, you could type it up in Docs. Once you're finished, just publish it to your blog.

While I may not list any specific LoA uses, it just makes life (and work) a little easier.

10. Gmail

Gmail is great! It handles Spam like no other, has huge amounts of disk space, and is just easy to organize. I set up tags and folders, and have all my other email addresses forwarded to my Gmail account... where it deposits them into their folder. Then when I reply, I can actually use THAT original email address in the "reply-to" section... so I never have to worry about ANY other email addresses. I can access them from one place.

Another nice thing, is when combined with something like Gmail Drive, I can transfer files (under 10MB) between different computers without needing a USB drive or something else. Most recently, I had a few LoA eBooks on my work computer that I wanted to read at home, but I didn't have my USB drive. So I just uploaded them to Gmail... and then downloaded them on my home computer. Very handy.


Wow... this was longer than I expected. If you have anymore ideas about using Google and the Law of Attraction... feel free to let me know or post them in a comment!

at 1:54 PM 0 comments Links to this post  

Tags: free, google, Law of Attraction, manifesting, productivity