So I have been on this magical “transformation” of living with gratitude and positive thinking. It’s actually a lot harder than it sounds.. And, depending on the day, its down right impossible.
So, basically, the entire program can be summed up in three words..
*Believe
*Gratitude
*Visualize
#1 First and foremost, you need to BELIEVE. If you don’t believe, you don’t receive. (that’s what I tell my grown kids about Santa at Christmas)
#2. You need to learn to live each day with GRATITUDE. Be grateful for everything you see and hear… and I mean EVERYTHING.
#3 You have to VISUALIZE.. see it, believe it.. feel it… know it..
That’s it! Get those three things in order and you are well on your way to having it all. Or so they say.
Allow me to explain (at least in the way I understand it).
First, you need to BELIEVE.
Believe that you are the only person responsible for the life you have and the only person responsible for the life you want. No one else but you. This part is easy as I have always believed that to be true. You feel fat; stop eating. You hate your job; find another one and quit. You cant stand your parents; MOVE OUT..
The same goes for what you want. You want a new car; save your money. You want to travel the world; well, save your money for that, too. You want to be happy; smile more and stop complaining. 🙂
The LOA basically says that Only YOU can attract the good, the bad, and the ugly. And only YOU can attract the amazing, the exciting, and the fabulousness you want. Think those things and nothing else… and I mean, NOTHING else. Sounds easy, right? It’s not. When you have worried about things your entire life, it’s hard to just stop. And as much as I want to just quit my job and run off to see the world, I cant. I have two kids in college and a mortgage and 4 car payments, and two apartments, and… I could go on and on but I wont because that would mean i’m FOCUSING on the bad and I am not allowed to do that. Instead, I am to choose to focus on the fact that, although some months are rough, I am still managing to do ALL of those things and still get to see some parts of the world every now and then. And for that I need to be GRATEFUL.
Which leads me to point #2..
Learn to live each day with gratitude.
Everyday I start by writing in my newly purchased Gratitude Journal. There are days I sit there and stare at the blank pages looking for something, ANYTHING, to write down. Of course, there are the usuals; thankful for my family, my friends, my dog, etc. That’s the easy part. Coming up with others is where the hard part comes in. It’s only been a few weeks but I can already tell what days were better than others just by my entrees… “thankful for the sunlight” – “thankful I didn’t have to stop and put gas in my car” – yeah, those days were clearly not so great.
The goal here is to focus on the good – even if it’s just that the dog only ate one shoe and not both (yes, that happened to me) and NOT focus on the fact that he ate a shoe at all.. See how it can get sorta hard?
As you begin to fill your thoughts with gratitude and joy you’ll find that this feeling begins to expand and “attracts” even more things to be grateful and joyous over. This continues until your grateful and joyous world is overflowing with love and abundance!!! (OH HAPPY DAY!)
Visualize it.
The last part of this is the Vision Board. I had these grand plans of a peg board with a bunch of pictures but I never quite got around to that..eventually, I will, I promise..but as of right now all I have to reference is a “virtual” board on Pinterest and a makeshift one on my planner. I hear there are classes and stuff on this you can take and it’s supposed to be “life changing” but I haven’t found the time or the energy to actually do that. Again, “one day”. 
Now this one seems pretty self explanatory. I am a BIG believer in lists – lists of things I NEED to do, lists of things I WANT to do, and lists of things I just want. I am also a believer of writing down your goals only makes them more real, more concrete, more definite. The hard part with this particular version is that you need to be clear. You need to be specific. You need to know EXACTLY what you want. How you will get it is of no consequence and does not matter, but you do need to know what you want. So writing “I want to be happy” wont cut it. You need to know what it will take to make you happy and write that.
Well, I hope this helps make things a little clearer and I hope when you see me forcing a smile across my face you will know why.
I also hope that in time I wont have to force it very hard.
One day at a time..
postcardsandpinkumbrellas.com 
Thanks for this post. I like the no-nonsense style here – it’s a bit like LOA boot camp! If you want the results, you gotta put the time in! Thanks for the reminder. I have created a virtual vision board that I can use on my devices, handy when I’m on the go. But I’ve got to remember to look at it. 🙂
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Yeah, I kinda suck at that part… im still learning and I refuse to give up! I am thinking that the girl in the bikini is kind of a stretch.. 🙂
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It’s easy to take all this too seriously. But creating our ideal world should be fun. I forget that myself. but it’s good to read different perspectives. I think that’s where WordPress helps. We can all encourage each other. They say we teach what we most need to learn! 🙂
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