Other times, especially if it’s a really big dream of desire, it doesn’t work like that.

If you’re new to deliberate creation, this “how to” series offers the basics to start manifesting what you want, Good Vibe style.

If you’re not new to this work, these posts will re-inspire you about how easy it is to create what you want!

This is based on my experience as a deliberate creator and law of attraction coach, as well as absorbing a wide variety of manifesting resources (including Abraham, Chopra, Dooley, Canfield, Dyer, Assaaf, McTaggart, etc.).

The name of the game in getting what we want is Alignment!

Energetic (aka vibrational) alignment is your friend. That just means feel now how you would then.   Which usually boils down to feeling some sort of ‘happy.’  (Could be secure, free, successful, acknowledged, validated, loved, whatever.)

Here are 3 steps to creating that alignment. They don’t have to be done in any particular order, and even just one of them can make a world of difference in your manifesting success:

1.  Amp Up Appreciation
Some people have a nose for spotting lies. Others are good at drawing out drama in any situation. Maybe you know someone who has a gift for turning any comment into something sexual. Powerful manifesters develop a nose for Appreciation.  It becomes natural to them – their default setting.

Appreciation is a major key to creating alignment.  Getting in the regular habit of it just takes a little practice.  Or maybe a lot, depending on where you’re at.  But growing the skills of finding things to enjoy and be thankful for creates a powerful energetic path to your biggest and best desires.

Habits that build the thankful muscle include keeping a happiness journal, reading Pollyanna, hanging out with other happy people, listing 5 things you’re grateful for at the end of every day, etc.  Read more about developing appreciation here.

2.  Recover Lost Energy
Sometimes getting what you want is as easy as eliminating a big energy drain from your life. Anything that you’re tolerating drags down your vibe, keeping you from being a vibrational match to what you want.  By plugging the energy leaks and recovering your energetic integrity, you automatically raise your vibration.

How do you release tolerations?  First by recognizing what/who they are, since many of us have gotten so used to them we take them for granted.  Once you know what your leak is, you either get rid of it or get over it.  One way or another, find a way to feel better.

I’ve seen miracles happen for people who finally divorced, quit, or moved.   It sounds contrary to the principles of deliberate creation that we take action in order to feel better (normally it’s “feel better and then listen for inspiration”), but if you’ve got something dragging you down, address it now by eliminating key tolerations to dramatically improve your attraction power.

3.  Vibrate What You Want
Whether you call it Universe, God, the Matrix, the Field, etc.- source energy matches the vibrational signal you send.  (That’s that whole “like attracts like” thing.)

To get what you want, send the signal that says “Got what I wanted!” When you offer that instruction, Universe responds in kind by delivering the goods.  No matter how crazy or ridiculous or impossible the thing seems.  (Is that a cool system or what?!)

How do you vibrate “got what I wanted” before you have it?  That’s the fun part of being a deliberate creator!  Use your imagination and experiment with what you enjoy most.  Some possibilities:

• Some people do daily visualizations, running through the movie of their dream come true.
• Some journal it out in writing.
• Some script out loud (speak as if it’s happened.  We do it at GVU every month.)
• Some use affirmations (“I am” statements being particularly popular among deliberate creators).
• Some “act as if.”
• Some simply find a way to feel now how they would then.

However you do it, when you change your signal from “I want it” to “I am loving it” you are irresistible to success.

And, this is why everyone doesn’t do it.  It’s a bit challenging to break from “reality” and pretend we already got what we wanted.  Reality often gets in the way, disrupting our signal, or sometimes people just feel foolish vibrating what isn’t real yet.

But it works when you work it.

Since Universe can only send what you signal it for, you have to find a way that says “got what I wanted.”  ”All is well here.”  ”Life is good.”  ”Thanks for the win!”  Or something along those lines.  Every time you feel a yearning, dissatisfaction, or lack of fulfillment, that signal holds up the party.

Which is also why the Appreciation practice is so powerful – because in vibrating appreciation Universe hears that you are happy and loving life.  And sends in whatever else makes you feel happy and loving life!

Even if you can’t bring yourself to pretend that your desire is now a reality, if all you did was practice believing that it was coming soon, that optimism and faith serves as a powerful signal, too.

All three of these processes lead to one purpose: align your energy to what you want.  Deliberate creators don’t wait for something to happen before they feel good and get happy.  They get happy first, and then good stuff happens as icing on the cake.

The top 3 frequently asked questions (and their answers) are here, and you’ll find troubleshooting support here.  If you’d like more input, stay tuned for the upcoming free video series at Good Vibe U.

Feel free to share your tips or ask questions in the comments below.

Happy manifesting!  :)

Because if you’re scripting or visualizing or “acting as if” in order to get what you want so you’ll be happier, you’ve missed the point of deliberate creation.

(And many of us do.)

Deliberate creation is about feeling now how you would feel then.  It’s about managing your energetic frequency by feeling better now.  Not waiting for the thing to manifest before you get happy.

So the measure of whether your manifesting process is effective is whether you feel better for engaging it.

That’s the measure that counts.

If it makes you feel better, it works.

Don’t wait for the weight to drop or the money to appear or the boyfriend to propose before you declare it a success.

It is, however, a sure thing that as you feel better now, more good stuff happens.  That other stuff is a side benefit, though, not the main purpose.

If you need the stuff to happen before you declare your manifesting routine effective, you are doing life the way everyone else does.  Depending on circumstances for how you feel.

That’s not deliberate creation.

(I’m reminding myself this as I play with a new process this month.  I found myself thinking, “Sure, I feel great, but is it working?”  D’oh!)

I laughed at that quote when I read it on Karen Nauman’s facebook page this morning.

And realized it’s the exact opposite of the law of attraction tip that lit me up yesterday:

In a recent workshop CD Abraham suggests that we learn to savor the problem as well as we savor the solution.  That was a foreign if delicious thought.

But it’s not that hard to accomplish when you understand how the system is set up.

Here’s how it works according to Abe: when we have a problem we automatically desire a solution.  That desire  creates the solution – on a vibrational level.  In order to experience that solution in our physical real-world reality, we have to become a vibrational match to it.  That just means feel better – or as Abraham says, “get in the vortex.”

So when I savor the problem, which I can do be realizing it’s leading to even better life, I become a better match to its solution.

Okay, that’s how it works in theory.  Does it work in the real world?

It did for me when my boyfriend broke up with me last year.

That’s when I remembered that this awful thing that was happening was HUGE contrast that was automatically taking me somewhere REALLY good, if I would just quit slamming doors and swearing about what a jerk he was.  Once I dialed in on love and appreciation (it took more than a minute, but I was persistent), I became a match to an even better relationship than we had before.  Cool how that worked!

I was thinking Jerry Hicks’ latest hospital stay is what propels him to his desire to live to 120.  Big problems do that – take us to big dreams come true.

That is, when we don’t get stuck in the problem.

When we get a handle on how it all works, it IS possible to savor the “problem.”

Which is an important manifesting technique to practice – because as long as we see big problems as big problems, we block big solutions.

However you find a way to ease up about whatever seems wrong in your life (distraction, acceptance, reframe, etc.), in doing so you open the door for Universe to deliver something ridiculously delicious.

And I want to hear about it when it happens!  :)

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?

A major no-no for any blogger.

While I am fond of breaking rules, I also like to share the good stuff.  So I thought you all could help out here.

What are your favorite Law of Attraction blogs? Where do you regularly find insight and inspiration about deliberate creation?

I’ll list a couple, and am counting on you to expand the list!

Please name your favorite LOA blogs so we can share high quality content with others who might not already know about them.

A few off the top of my head (and a couple from google):

Ellie Walsh’s Living the Law of Attraction (since Ellie hosts the LOA blog carnival, I imagine she’ll know a couple to add to this list!)

Avi Marcus’ It’s an Emotional Journey

Shauna Arthurs’ Breathing Prosperity

Coach Tia’s Take Inspired Action blog

Barbara’s Journey of a Spirited Strider

Antonio Thornton’s Thinkbanc

Linda Miller’s Law of Attraction Secrets

Hemal Radia’s Manifesting & Law of Attraction blog

John Peace’s Law of Attraction Guide

Eva Gregory’s Law of Attraction in Action (be prepared for lots of promotion, but Eva’s worth it)

Kristen’s Law of Attraction Key

Beth and Lee’s Law of Attraction and Positive Thought

Liz Gracia’s Seeds of Intentions

Zoe Routh’s Inner Compass writings

Jeannette Maw’s Good Vibe Blog (for when this list gets replicated elsewhere)

Suzie Cheel’s Abundance Highway

Jeanna Gabellini’s MasterPeace Coaching blog

Debra Gehrke’s Earth Harmony Home is always good for a vibe lift (technically not a strictly LOA blog, but you should know her just the same)

Communion of Light writings

Karen Williams’ Abraham Fun

Ande’s The Secret is Wags?

Evelyn Lim’s Abundance Tapestry blog

Wendy Fletcher’s Deliberate Receiving blog

oh, and hey – these guys threatened to keep up a blog, too!  Abraham-Hicks blog Not much there yet, but it’s worth staying tuned into.

Note: many very cool blogs didn’t get listed here because they either had an annoying popup, were too old (hadn’t posted in months) or too new.  If I didn’t care about being too new, though, I’d want you to know about Janette’s LOA for Me and Pernille’s LOA Magic blog.

What have I missed?  Please feel free to share your own if it’s not already here!

This piece comes from the Major League Baseball site and is written by Doug Miller.  I think you’ll appreciate hearing about the open minds studying law of attraction in the real world:

The 2004 Boston Red Sox were down, three games to none, to the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series — a deficit no Major League Baseball team had ever overcome in a seven-game set.

In the ninth inning of Game 4 at Fenway Park, with the Sox down a run, Dave Roberts stole a base, Bill Mueller knocked him in to tie it, and David Ortiz’s 12th-inning home run sent Fenway Park into a frenzy and gave the Sox and their Nation of fans new life that eventually culminated with the club’s first World Series championship in 86 years.

I’m laughing out loud at us, Missy B!!  And loving that yes, we can (say that).

This is right in alignment with what I logged in for today …

I’m supposed to be sending out client recaps, and instead found myself listening to the Matrix soundtrack on blip.fm, the (slightly x-rated) Nine Inch Nails/Beatles Mashup on YouTube, thrilled to find @DarthVader on Twitter, reflecting how much I enjoyed Inigo Montoya’s revenge scene in Princess Bride (that I stayed up till midnight to watch), and looking forward to the delicious Ghirardelli treats I discovered at Costco yesterday.

Really?

Is this high vibing stuff??  Nine Inch Nails, Darth Vader, revenge, staying up late, and chocolate from Costco??

Shouldn’t the Good Vibe Coach, or anyone who was properly tending their vibe, wouldn’t it look more like eating organic salads, listening to Mark Romero as she finishes her meditation & yoga routine after a great night’s sleep before heading out to the local farmer’s market on her bike?

Hmm.  It’s making me wonder if I’m handicapping my vibration …

And I have to admit, this judgment around what an evolved and spiritually awake person looks like has the serious potential to reduce my enjoyment level!

This topic is somewhat aligned with last week’s ezine on 12 Non-Spiritual Vibe Shifters, which hit a big chord with readers.  (Thanks for all the great feedback!)  While one person wrote to say “you call that good vibes?”, every other email expressed mixtures of relief, agreement and  amusement. 

(How about that – just got an email while typing this very paragraph from that one non-appreciative reader who giggled in response to the email I sent back.  I had written, “okay, maybe it’s more like ‘better vibes.’”)  If you didn’t get a copy of the ezine, sign up for it now and I’ll shoot it over.

My point being that I think my goal in this space/time adventure is more along the lines of having a good time than it is looking good. 

So I’m going to continue releasing thoughts about what it’s “supposed to” look like and just get better at letting the pure enjoyment lead my way.  Because when we let our thoughts about what it should be like hamper the inherent feel good that’s available in it, we missed the point, didn’t we?

At least I did.  (Guess we gotta know our “point” of it all in order to answer that question.)

Maybe there will come a time when I look back on my music & movie & food tastes and laugh at what used to delight me (I can already tell the mood has passed in the hours I’ve been editing this post), but in the meantime, I’m committed to being open to whatever feels good and remaining true to my promise to make enjoying this go-round my number one priority.

Having said all that, I wonder if there is a case to be made for doing the “higher-vibing” stuff to allow for quicker ascension – or is the “higher-vibing” stuff completely subjective?  And is ascension something we should be shooting for? 

I’m wide open to and inviting alternative perspectives here (especially since engaging dialogue here is one of my favorite “feel goods”)!  So tell me, what do you think?

Whether we asked how come we couldn’t sleep over at Shawn’s house or why did we have to finish homework before Dukes of Hazzard, sometimes the reason we got was: “Because I said so.”

And so it was.  The ultimate authority had spoken!

If your family was anything like mine, that was the end of it.  There was no cajoling or whining or trying to turn the tide in one’s favor.  It was a done deal.  Those four words put a stop to all negotiation.  “Because I said so.”

Maybe we even express that power with our own charges today – whether with our children, employees or partners.

(I said it to Russ just the other night when he asked on behalf of the dogs why they couldn’t go back outside - for the third time.  Helloooo … because I said so!)

I’m thinking this past history might give some of us a nice set-up for using those four words in our favor when it comes to deliberate creation.

After all, this is how -at least in one version that’s told, anyway - how God created the world, right?  He said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

There’s no doubt that our words are powerful, especially when we say it like we mean it and believe what we say.

I just hung up with someone who said “the reality is the average working person won’t be able to afford medical care as they get older.”

Without going into the details of the law of attraction, I explained I saw things a little differently (okay, a LOT differently); that I believed we each choose the reality we’re creating, and that when we do so consciously we get to paint whatever picture we want of our lives.

(I’m not going to agree with the “powerless” perspective, even to be polite.)

He hesitated as if he had trouble understanding my accent or something, then repeated again that the reality is that retirement is expensive – nursing homes and medical care and fixed incomes and inflation and such – it’s all very expensive stuff that most people won’t be able to afford.  I reiterated my perspective which was a conversation-stopper, but …

.. it made me think of Will Smith’s interview where he said although it seems like two plus two equals four, the truth is that “two plus two’s gonna be what I want it to be.”

• Ridiculous financial abundance?  Yep.  Because I said so.
• Dream come true cake walk of a job?  A-huh.  Because I said so.
• Red hot lover in black leather pants whose greatest wish is to inspire another’s satisfaction?  Yepper skipper.  Because I said so.

(Hey, no judging.  We get to want whatever we want!)

Can you find that ultimate authority within yourself?  Can you connect with that part of you that knows you have final say about everything – that you are the ultimate creator who calls all the shots?

Yeah, I thought so.

How about you use it with Universe?!

Speak with conviction when you proclaim what you’re creating; know that you’re the authority of your life and your words are all-powerful.  Remember that you really do know how to say it like you mean it!

After all, you’re in charge here and Universe is listening.  Didn’t you say so?

Okay, who hasn’t either wondered themselves or been asked by some LOA skeptic about using law of attraction to win the lottery?

Here is Abraham’s most excellent answer in a two part video:

My favorite part in this second segment is right around minute seven, when Abe sums up the secret to life so beautifully:

What I especially appreciated, though, was Esther’s insistence to Abe that she’d cleaned up her vibration on the bus repair people. 

And YET, here she is, despite having done the vibrational work, having exactly the same unhappy experience at the repair shop.

As the story continues, Abraham brings Esther to the realization that she wasn’t vibrating what she THOUGHT she was vibrating.

Whereas Esther (at first) said she was excited to drop off the bus and expected things to go smoothly, when pressed by Abe she realizes she HOPED things would go better than before.  She hadn’t really gotten to the core of the vibe that was driving her negative experience at the bus repair place.

Which is easy to do, isn’t it?

I hear it from my clients all the time: “I’m really expecting this date will go well.”  or “I see my boss giving me the credit (and the raise) I deserve.”

As our conversation progresses I hear things like, “I mean, I didn’t want a repeat experience like LAST week’s date!” or “I KNEW he was going to have another lame excuse for not coming up with the money.”

The contrary vibrational instruction isn’t always that obvious, but that’s what makes it even more worthwhile to check in on the instructions we’re sending Universe.

Because when I say “gorgeous body, perfect health” and yet think things like “big hips, sore throat” … what do I expect Universe to do with that?

If we want to see more progress, we’ve got to be more consistent in sending our aligned vibrational instructions.

Which just means becoming more aware, getting more honest with ourselves, and learning to drop our addiction to past experiences and current realities.  (Unless of course those past experiences and current realities are what we want more of.)

So Esther’s bus repair story has me curious … what are the vibrational instructions you’re sending? 

I realize my instructions might sometimes seem a little bi-polar.  When I’m specifically and consciously talking to Universe, they get pretty good directions from me.  But when I think I’m talking to myself or the walls or the tv, … well, things can get a little spotty.  Like …

• “Could we have one day without cat throwup?”  Which Universe hears as “more feline vomit for Jeannette!” 
• Or “You better not space that call in two hours” which Universe hears as “she’s spacing the call in two hours!” 
• And of course “I hope last year’s shorts still fit” is just asking for trouble.

How about you?  Do  you see a hodgepodge of material you’re offering vibrationally?  Or is it lined up pretty consistently?  

What’s your first thought of the day?  That’s a vibrational instruction.

What do you think about while eating breakfast?  There’s another instruction.

How about when you answer the phone?  Park the car?  Shop for groceries?  All are instructions that the Universe hears and responds to.

I’d love to hear from you, as usual!  And thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts, since we all learn and grow from the exploration.