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When Michele Woodward shared that Pam‘s green candle prosperity tip got her an $11,000 windfall within 24 hours, she had my attention.

I’m all about easy ways to let money in, and this sounded perfect. 

Apparently it derives from a Native American tradition: the process is to light a green candle on any calendar day with an “8″ in it.  Attracts abundance and prosperity.  (Supposedly.)

So the next “8″ day that rolled around, I had a brand new green candle burning.

And while it smelled great (“lotus bamboo” – yummy!), there were no obvious cash windfalls on the heels of it.

Maybe my candle just needed a little longer to get warmed up, I thought. 

We fired up the flames on the next “8″ day.  Still no out of the ordinary money. 

Later I heard Michele say you’re supposed to set an intention as you light it. 

Duh.  That makes sense.

But even after setting my intention while lighting it on the next eight day – and this time I lit two candles (one was a darker green in case my hue was off) – still nada. 

I began to look at my candle suspiciously. 

Maybe it didn’t know the Native American tradition. 

Maybe it needed to hang out with other successful green candles to catch on.  Maybe I needed to let it burn longer.  Or maybe not so long …

… or maybe, as Nancy Barry-Jansson suggested on the GVU watercooler call today, I was falling prey to the watched pot syndrome. 

Everyone knows that syndrome, right?  That the watched pot never boils.

After all, don’t all our best manifesting stories come from times when we were just goofing off with something, playing around with a new idea, and not really paying too much attention to it? 

When we forget about it, and don’t remember it till we’re already looking at the physical manifestation of it – that’s when the stuff happens most magically.

• That’s how it worked with my first pray rain journal entry: a personal miracle manifested within hours. 
• And the first time I wrote out a page of “I am worthy” affirmations I had spectactular results the next morning. 
• And the first time I scripted, before 48 hours lapsed the very “impossible” thing I’d spoken about had happened.  (That’s one of my favorite stories from Adventures in Manifesting.)

But the next time I picked up each of these manifesting techniques, I didn’t do it with the same lightness and fooling around that I had initially.  Now that I knew they worked, I expected big things to happen.  And I looked out for those results with an eagle eye.

I think that “eagle eye” sometimes serves as a sort of unmagic wand.  Where it keeps the very thing we want from flowing in. 

Because watched pots never boil. 

Specifically, the Watched Pot Syndrome states that:

When one is anxiously focused on an anticipated result, that specific result is suspended indefinitely in time until the very moment one looks away.

(I made that up, but you already knew it, right?)

This phenomenon is observed most often with important incoming emails, red lights turning green, and phone calls from cute boys.

• It’s why my dad walks away from his fishing pole or lights up a cigarette to get a bite on the pole. 
• It’s why the first thing I used to do after sending out a newsletter was take the dogs on a walk, because if I stayed glued to the computer to see how it was received, no one would write.  (And I mean no one.)  If I left the computer, especially to engage in something fun, I was deluged with positive responses.

So the green candle big money windfall might just be waiting for me to stop looking for it.

But by now the green candle is sort of ticking me off – especially when Patty told me she’s had lots of clients report great results with it.

My opportunity here is to soften the eyes, lighten the energy, have more fun with it – and not take it so personally when Master Manifester Jeannette Maw doesn’t get the results she thinks she should be. 

Can anyone else relate?

Related posts:

1. Let Us Count the $ Ways
2. Guest Post: Magic Lists from Pernille
3. Want It Good or Want It Bad?

Which archetype are you when it comes to your manifesting habits?

As with traditional archetypes, we likely exhibit a combo, and notice that it changes throughout life.

But one or two archetypes may dominate our personality and behavior when it comes to our conscious creation habits.

Keeping in mind this is just for fun (we’re not hung up on labels), see if you recognize yourself in any of the following:

The Natural
Doesn’t know the term deliberate creation and isn’t familiar with law of attraction, yet this person practices it day in and day out.  (Often to the chagrin of their LOA savvy partners.)  They’re gifted at easing into vibrational alignment and natural allowers. For them, living in alignment to what they want is simply a way of life.

The Militant
Likes to work hard at achieving their manifesting goals. Follows a strict routine to the letter.  The more complex and involved their manifesting ritual is, the better.  Satisfaction isn’t had until they’ve checked off a long list of LOA practices and techniques each day.

The Procrastinator
Knows about law of attraction and the magic of manifesting and will get around to doing it … one of these days.

The False Starter
Gets excited by someone or something (The Secret is a common catalyst to this archetype) about playing with law of attraction, but after a couple days of no results they retreat into old habits. Until the next time they get revved up … and so the cycle continues.

The Story Teller
Limits their manifesting success by telling a story about what they’re good at and what they have trouble with.  (“Why am I so good at rock star parking, but can’t get a second date to save my life?!”)

The Disbeliever
Accuses known law of attraction fans of selling snake oil. Doesn’t believe deliberate creation works and makes fun of those who do.

The Student
Has read every book and watched every video about deliberate creation, freely and supportively shares that knowledge with others, and doesn’t apply it themselves.  (The negative side of this archetype shows up as the Authority who is quick to point out, as a self-appointed expert on all things LOA, what we should all do different.)

The Uplifter
Spreads good vibes by walking the LOA talk of consistently finding something to appreciate in life, and by example inspires others to the same.  Everyone naturally feels better in the presence of an Uplifter, who will generously share the ins and outs of deliberate creation when asked.  Their positive outlook is contagious and you are most likely to find them in the vortex.

Did I miss any?  Please share!

The value of identifying our archetype(s) is that it increases our awareness and may stimulate us to a new way of embracing the art of deliberate creation.

At least, it did for me.  I don’t believe I’m a slave to my archetype.  Rather, that I can choose how I want to go through life with manifesting skills at my side.

I invite you to do the same!

Related posts:

1. Bridging the Manifesting Gap
2. Q&A: How Much Time Should I Spend Each Day?
3. Three Rs of Manifesting

Everything we hear from Abraham (the most popular source for law of attraction guidance) lately is “Get into your vortex,” “Get into your vortex.”

Because the vortex is where everything that we want is.

So it often leaves a person wondering, okay - how do I get in there again?

The answer is simple: Feel good.  Be happy.  Find a good reason to smile.  Relax and enjoy.  Get inspired.

I’m finding that super easy to accomplish by just answering a vortex-inspiring question or two.

Here are some of my favorites:

• What’s so great about this moment?
• Wouldn’t it be nice if … ?
• What do I love most about him/her?
• What’s the good news?
• What’s right about this?
• What went my way today?
• What did I do a great job of today?

Let’s test it out now, shall we?

Pick a question, any question (from above), or make up your own similarly vortex-inspiring question.  (Share it with us if you do, please!)

Spend a minute or two answering it and see if you don’t find a noticeable improvement in how you feel!

That’s how simple it is to practice vibration management.

We’ve really no excuses, do we?

Remember this quote from Abraham (as shared in yesterday’s Get What You Want newsletter):

“If you pay the price of happiness, the manifestation will come. We promise.”

I can’t wait to hear your answers to these questions, because I suspect we’ll be surprised at how simple the answers are as well as how effective the process is!

Related posts:

1. Values: Quick Ticket to Raising the Vibe
2. Abraham’s Vortex
3. My Breakup in the Vortex

Big question recently came up about the role of Law of Attraction that I wanted to run by you all.

A wise colleague asked a great question about the balance between fully accepting this moment as it is and using Law of Attraction to bring something new into life.  

She wants to understand the line between complete acceptance of what is versus asking for more – when the asking is potentially an unconscious escape from what doesn’t work now.

She felt turned off by the materialistic bent to Law of Attraction, which she doesn’t feel jives with living in full acceptance of what is.  She astutely recognized that when she believes she needs something in order to be happy, there’s a problem.

Her exact words: “It seems to me to also be a possible trap of the ego to acquire more in the pursuit of the happiness that lives just beyond our fingertips.”

I initially answered that effective deliberate creation involves realizing that nothing outside of us can make us happy – no person, no thing, no experience dictates how we feel.  

Rather, that we choose how we feel and that’s the heart of manifesting – managing our vibration (thoughts, feelings, energy).  Not relying on or expecting something or someone else to do that for us.

I added that an important part of successful manifesting is releasing attachment, that as she rightly noted if we NEED this thing in order to feel fulfilled, happy, etc. we’re missing the point about “like attracting like.”  And that Law of Attraction isn’t something we use to “fix” life, but rather it’s how life works. 

LOA is not (just) a tool for “getting things.”  In fact, I don’t think it’s so much a “tool”  as it is the heart of how the world works.  And the better we understand it, the more empowered we are to enjoy life.

Which isn’t what she’s heard about Law of Attraction.

This is where you come in.  My colleague (and others like her) would benefit from hearing more about this topic, since the way she’s learned about it is simply as a tool to get things. 

(I can’t say that I haven’t contributed to that perception myself.)

She correctly notes there is mistrust about LOA in certain circles because it’s viewed as a technique for material accumulation.  She believes “if one isn’t clean in the desire, deliberate creation becomes an attempt to get things to make the unhappiness of now better with the addition of the desired object.”

It’s not that I’m looking to convince anyone of anything, but she did ask and I agree that this is a rich and important conversation.  Which is why I asked permission to take it public with this community. 

Will you weigh in on this?  What role does Law of Attraction play in your life?  How do you see LOA fitting into the big picture?

Related posts:

1. Q&A: The Role of Apologies in LOA?
2. Q&A: How to Let Go?
3. Too Good to Be True?

Some words of wisdom are worth ignoring. 

Hopefully we spot those words before we learn the hard way that some advice is best ignored. 

Once we understand the role of energy and the power of attraction, we realize much traditional life advice just doesn’t make sense.

Here are a few life tips I might have been better off skipping:

1. Don’t go to bed mad

Talking when you’re mad may not be the best idea for every occasion, I have learned. 

Sometimes a good night’s sleep is the perfect answer for managing present moment conflict.  Many times all I needed was a nice dip back into non-resistant sleep to get my vibrational footing again.  It often allowed me access to a new perspective and a new vibe! 

In fact, maybe the better advice is to immediately go to bed once you get mad.  ha!

2. Don’t do yourself what you can pay someone else to do for less (than what you make) 

This advice is intended to free us up to do bigger and better things, like focus on the 20% of our activities that bring in 80% of our revenue.  (We’ve all been taught about the 80/20 rule, right?)

But what I learned through trying this one on is that it’s not all about the money. 

Rather, it’s about the enjoyment. 

If I enjoy mowing my lawn (which I do), I’m crazy to let someone else do it for me.  If I enjoy walking my dogs, it’s asinine to hire a dogwalker.  If I like vacuuming the carpets, even though I’d pay someone else a fraction of my hourly rate to do it, I’m better off experiencing that enjoyment myself, even if it doesn’t make financial sense to the rest of the world.

Because we know that when we do what we enjoy, good things come. 

Abraham shared that Esther likes cleaning the monster bus, but she likes writing the books even more.  So for her, it might make sense to outsource RV cleaning. 

What I realized is that I enjoy blogging and hosting GVU calls and creating new courses and writing ebooks way more when I have a variety of things to enjoy in life.

So mowing and cleaning and dog walking and yes, even some reality TV, are part of my daily to-do’s even though the experts tell me otherwise.  I’ll outsource it only if I can’t think of a better way to enjoy myself.   

Just because you can make more money doing your thing and pay someone else to wash the car or watch the kids or edit the articles, doesn’t mean you should.  Pay attention to the enjoyment factor.  After all, what else is the point of life?

3. Mr. Perfect doesn’t exist

When I told dad that my on-again, off-again boyfriend had proposed but I wasn’t jumping up and down with absolute joy, he said: “If you’re waiting for a saint, you can stop waiting.”  The implication was that this was as good as it gets.

Dad sure liked that guy.  (Still does!)  Probably the only guy (besides Rick Kreifeldt) he ever has liked.  (And for the record, I didn’t get to date Rick; he was my college boyfriend’s roommate.) 

Anyway, that piece of advice from dad led me to marriage.  We all know how that turned out.

With the benefit of hindsight, I like this advice better: “If it’s not a hell yes, it’s a hell no.” 

Settling just seems like we’re giving up, once we know that we really can have whatever we want.  (And if you don’t know that  by now, you haven’t studied up properly on the power of deliberate creation.)

There’s lots more typical advice out there that can lead us astray from our best life, but these are just the particular tips I went down the bumpy road with.

Would it defeat the point of this post to solicit your best tips for advice to ignore?  ha

We’d like to hear them just the same! 

PS – this post is titled with the past tense of “regret” because I don’t really regret these “wrong turns,” since I don’t actually believe in “wrong turns.”  But I find no need to repeat these steps, if you know what I mean.

Looking forward to hearing yours!

Related posts:

1. Fries From McDonald’s
2. Q&A: How to Enjoy Family Holiday Gatherings
3. Spring Clean Boost