For money, this is all a bunch of BS

[Acting Like Godot]

I have so many examples, some quite bizarre. Here's another one I've told before (apologies to readers who are hearing this for the 2nd time).

In late 2009, I heard from a friend in HR about the bank's policy on salary increments for the coming year. It was bad news for me. Basically the bank had decided to impose a global (worldwide) pay freeze, for all employees at my corporate level.

In other words, all employees with my corporate title were to receive 0% salary increase.

This was a great chance to practise my LOA skills, so I manifested aggressively for more money (despite what my friend had told me).

Then came the fateful day in Feb 2010. This is the time of year, when employees are asked, one by one, to go and see their manager, to be told about their salary/bonus. So when my turn came, I went to see my manager.

My boss said: "Basically you have done very well. However, as you might already have heard, there's this global policy [blah blah blah]. It's worldwide, no exception. So unfortunately there is no salary increment for you this year. Sorry, but there is nothing I can do about that."

He handed me my envelope.

I said, "Aw shucks, too bad, never mind" etc etc, and left the room. I was thinking to myself, "Oh well, the LOA didn't work this time."

Later I opened the envelope. Gasp! To my surprise, I saw that I had a $1,000 salary increment.

Up to today, my boss still doesn't know that I got a $1,000 pay increase. After all, he had spoken to me, as if I, like all my peers, had received no increase at all.

I've tried to ask discreetly around, to find out if anyone else with my corporate title had got an increase. As far as I can tell, no one has. I've checked with colleagues across four different countries.

When I ask, the answer is invariably something like this - "No, of course not. It was a global policy, remember? It's a pay freeze for all vice-presidents."

Yet I got the increase. I'm still receiving an extra $1,000 every month - God knows why or how that happened. I haven't got a clue.

Wait ... that's not right. I -do- know how that happened.

The answer is ..... LAW OF ATTRACTION.

[Acting Like Godot]

Want to hear another bizarre story, about my career?

Back in 2006, I was not a LOA believer. I was, however, very interested in conventional self-improvement (and that was around the time I first discovered Steve Pavlina's blog). I was keen on goal-setting techniques.

Anyway in 2006, I was very hardworking, very driven. That year, I had set two goals for myself:

(1) For my personal financial portfolio to grow to $200,000, by 31st Dec 2006.

(2) To be promoted in early 2007.

To get the promotion, I had to compete with two other colleagues, who were both very bright, capable people. So it was a rather stressful year for me.

Also as the year progressed, it became quite clear that my portfolio of shares and bonds was not quite going to reach $200,000. The portfolio was growing, but it seemed impossible that it could reach $200,000 by 31 Dec 2006.

Around that time, I started reading more about the LOA, on Steve's blog.

"What absolutely stupid garbage," I thought to myself. "This Steve person seems to be such an intelligent person, in his other posts. Why does he believe such nonsense as the LOA?"

Anyway, for some bizarre reason, I just decided to give the LOA a spin. Of course, I didn't understand the LOA well at all, at that time. I just read something about the "act as if" technique and I decided to give it a try.

The "act as if" method basically means that you act (to yourself, if no one else) as if your goals have already come true, or are certainly going to come true.

So I decided to act, to myself, as if I was DEFINITELY going to be promoted, and as if my portfolio was DEFINITELY going to hit $200,000 by year-end.

I told myself not to feel stressed, not to feel anxious. I told myself to smile, relax, be cheerful and happy ... BECAUSE I was definitely going to get promoted, and definitely going to reach the $200,000 mark for my portfolio. Just believe it, without having any rational reason for believing it.

TO BE CONTINUED

[Acting Like Godot]

As I mentioned, I was competing with two persons, L and S, for a promotion.

Then suddenly, within a few days of my applying the "act as if" technique, L resigned. No one expected it. She had always appeared very keen on the job. She confided in me that she could not get over her mother's death two years ago, and she just wanted to take a long break from work.

So, one major competitor had dropped out of the promotion game.

Next, a rumour began to circulate in the department. To this date, I swear I have no idea how this rumour came about, or who started it. The rumour was that a competitor firm was intending to poach me, and that I was already in discussions with them, and they were going to pay me a heck of a lot of money to join them.

My boss grew agitated and nervous. Having lost L, he could not afford to lose me too. He called me into his room and demanded to know if the rumour was true. I told him that it was not true, and that I didn't know how the rumour had started. But he would not believe me.

Guess what happened next in the next one or two weeks?

Firstly my boss spoke to his boss and his boss's boss, and discussed the idea with HR, and got it all approved. They would promote me in Feb 2007. And he showed me all the email correspondence, to prove that he had discussed it with all those folks, and that they had all agreed.

That pretty much secured the promotion, for me.

Secondly, they gave me an immediate pay raise. 82% pay increase. This was to stop the alleged competitor firm, from poaching me. Again, a massive amount of work had to be done, by the organisation, to get all the approvals to give me a pay increase, and such a big pay increase, at a time of year when NO ONE in the bank anywhere in the WORLD was even supposed to have a salary review at all.

Anyway, my salary increase took effect from Oct 2006. With the sudden extra savings I had, for October, November and December 2006, I managed to scrape past the $200,000 mark for my financial portfolio. By 31 December 2006, I had something like $201,754 in my portfolio.

All this, I attributed to the "act as if" technique.

[Lucidism]

Originally Posted by Acting Like Godot

(imagine this - you are about to retire; 85% of your financial assets are in stocks and bonds; it's January 2008, and you have decided that no matter what you're not going to sell anything, because after all, you are "diversified").

Trick is to recognise that these financial crises can and do come, and you gotta stay nimble and be prepared to sell or short or otherwise hedge, and run for cover when you need to run for cover .....

Good advice, though I'd like to point out that conventional financial wisdom (well, at least according to books I've read) says to not have 85% of your assets in stocks and bonds if you are close to retirement. The general idea is to liquidize as you near retirement, move your assets into "safer" forms like cash or money market accounts. But regardless, the point of your example is very true.

[Acting Like Godot]

Shall I continue with my LOA/career stories?

From October 2006 onwards, I saw that I was quite possibly on the verge of the most important discovery in my life. I still could not accept that the LOA was completely true, and yet, enough had happened to make it difficult for me to dismiss the possibility that it might be true.

I decided to run a one-year experiment. Firstly I resolved to read up a lot on the LOA and learn all about it. Secondly I resolved to do a one-year experiment, during which I would systematically experiment with all sorts of intentions, using all sorts of LOA techniques, and diligently record my intentions + actual results in writing.

Anyway, since the theme of this thread is money and work, I'll just carry on with telling you the stories relating to my career intentions.

Now that my one-year experiment was launched, one of the first career intentions I played around with was the manifestation of new job opportunities (yes, despite the fact that I had just got a 82% pay increase, and that a promotion had been guaranteed to me).

Essentially, I discovered I could make this happen - I would just meditate on thoughts of getting a new jobs. And suddenly, over the next week or two, I would get flooded by calls from headhunters. They would just call me out of the blue, and ask me if I was interested in exploring this opportunity or that opportunity. I would have no idea how the headhunter knew of me, or got my handphone number. The calls would just come.

During December 2006, I started messing around with these techniques. And one of the immediate successes was that a headhunter called up, and invited me to interview with Merrill Lynch. I said ok, so the first interview was fixed up - the headhunter told me that I was to be interviewed by someone by the name of ... (I can't remember the name now, let's just call him "Peter").

Prior to the interview, I decided to visualise for a successful interview. Here came one of my early LOA puzzles. I had read that it was important to visualise clearly, with vivid images etc, yet how was I supposed to visualise "Peter"?

I had no idea what Peter looked like, nor did I know what the Merrill Lynch office would look like. How do you visualise, when you don't know what the person or place is supposed to look like?

Anyway, I just tried to meditate on the intention of having a good interview with "Peter". The result was one of my early psychic experiences. I kept getting an image of a fat, white, balding, bespectacled man. But his name was not "Peter". In my mind, I kept hearing his name as "Justin". This was annoying, I tried to push away the "sound" and focus on the name "Peter" instead. But the name "Justin" kept reappearing in my mind.

Anyway, later I went for the interview. "Peter" duly showed up to interview, and he was neither fat, nor white, nor balding.

However, Peter brought someone else along, to interview me. Guess what? That person's name was Justin. And he was fat, white, balding and bespectacled. I recognised him instantly, when I saw him. He was the person I "saw" in my mind.

This, strictly speaking, was not a LOA manifestation. But it was a very educational experience, because it opened me to the possibility of mind + reality being far weirder than I had realised, up till that point.

[metamorph]

Originally Posted by Acting Like Godot

S Guess what? That person's name was Justin. And he was fat, white, balding and bespectacled. I recognised him instantly, when I saw him. He was the person I "saw" in my mind.

This, strictly speaking, was not a LOA manifestation. But it was a very educational experience, because it opened me to the possibility of mind + reality being far weirder than I had realised, up till that point.

Thanks for sharing your stories

Maybe the "fat, white, balding and bespectacled" is just a cliche kind of person that happens to be quite prevalent in the sort of job you work in (?). So, based on this cliche this person came to your mind (Donald Trump fits 3 of those attributes in my memory...)

Also, you could argue that your career may have played out just the same as it did if you had never learned about LoA and just focussed on goal-setting a la Tony Robbins. After all your career was already pretty much a done deal as of 2006 (at least so it sounds; details aside).

Before I came here in 2008 I had never heard of LoA, and I had already been successful (equivalent of Dean's list etc etc
In fact up to maybe 7 years ago my main driving force was worry of failure (kind of anti-LoA), which lead me to excel. Weird, but it worked

Today, of course, I blame more and more on LoA and it is good fun

[jota]

I do believe in ALG stories, but only because i manifest parking space , if not i will have difficult to believe, this guy is some type badass master of mind, because i never see or hear someone like that!

And one good lawyer, because he convince me pretty well with that stories!

Cool stories!

[John Freestone]

ALG, your experiences are very impressive, and I can understand how, having them, you will accept the explanation as "LoA works". I think that the laws of probability can also satisfy the proposition that your experiences aren't anything mystical.

Let's start with the proposition and see if there's anything that comes up that is unacceptable. Let's start by assuming that when people try the LoA, nothing mystical happens, statistically speaking. Of course, sometimes there will be "hits" and sometimes there will be "misses". Let's add to that the plethora of subjective judgements that arise from psychological functions like the clustering illusion, confabulation, subjective validation and retrospective falsification, post hoc reasoning, the regressive fallacy, etc., and a single person's data is open to a lot of possible noise.

A very simple explanation goes like this: LoA doesn't do anything, but there are hits and misses due to the simple laws of probability. We can expect that those people who on average get more hits will tend to believe in the technique they're using more, and repeat it more. That is also affected by how significant those hits are to them - if they involve large pay rises, for instance. So those who tend to believe more practise more, and this increase in practice, combined with their increase in belief, increases their susceptibility to the cognitive distortions we all fall foul of.

There will also be a number of people who get numbers of hits and misses closer to the average, in fact, the data will tend to fit into the normal distribution curve or bell curve, and increasingly few will be exceptional as we move towards either end.

Now, we can then expect quite rationally that the "winners" of this random lottery, the ones towards the high-hitting end of the distribution, will not only practise more, but will be very happy and excited about it, and they will begin to talk to others and share their secret. They will write books, or teach on forums, and thus there will be a strong positive-outcome bias in the reporting of the actual results to the world at large. Put simply, middling news, or news of a failed experiment with LoA, is no news at all, and doesn't get talked about much. There are very few forums for people who don't believe in a certain idea compared to positive ones about that idea.

And on that forum - this forum - there will be a tendency for high-earning, high-hitting lucky people like you to post repeatedly about their success, and a tendency for others, who feel less successful, not to keep reminding everyone that they're not very good at it. That's particularly true if they believe it. There will also be occasional dissent from people who have decided it's not true, but then a certain amount of communal reinforcement and classical conditioning can be expected to bring them back into the fold, as they are encouraged by the vocal believers and made to feel that they've been "doing it wrong".

From that - perfectly scientific - point of view, I find nothing so remarkable in your evidence that I have to resort to mystical effects.

Now, in the other thread where we were discussing the Validity of LoA, I challenged you to be honest about the number of experiments into psychic phenomena that showed no significant results. You failed to respond. I could also challenge you to be honest with yourself about how many times your attempt to use the LoA failed. It's not a serious challenge that I expect you to rise to, since most of the forgetting of the negative results would also have been forgotten.

It is possible to find results of scientific studies, including the negative ones, whereas our subjective day-to-day experiences are susceptible to self-deception. This is why we do scientific studies, to avoid the persuasive, yet unhelpful, nature of personal anecdote.

[cassiopeia]

I really enjoyed reading those stories, ALG.

I thought I'd contribute with a story of the one time that I have used the LOA successfully. I feel a little bit bashful about this, as it's nowhere near as impressive as ALG's stories of 82% pay increases and such (I've always had abundance issues), but sometimes I think it's important to hear about the modest successes too.

About a year ago, I was having a lot of problems with money. I was broke all the time, and I constantly kept catching myself thinking self-pitying thoughts about how little I had and how unfair it was - even though I've known all about the LOA for ages, I found it really difficult to stop thinking this way. I was waitressing, and my average weekly wage was £220 after tax, plus maybe 10-15 in cash tips. It varied, because tips were better some weeks, but I couldn't remember the last time I had gotten more than 250 for a week. My pay was abnormally low, but it matched my state of mind.

One day I was home with a cold, and I decided the situation was critical and that I had to do something about it. I had just re-read Busting Loose, and had recently learned about the Sedona method. So I set a goal to make 300 a week after tax, which seemed like an impossibly high figure at the time because I was so entrenched in poverty-mode, and hadn't earned that kind of money for ages. I didn't really believe it would work, but I visualised that amount, and then removed all negative feelings surrounding the goal using Sedona, The Process, and EFT. I remember being very much in 'the zone', probably because I was slightly feverish, I always seem more attuned to energy in that state.

I did this exercise for 1-2 hours, and visualised before I went to bed for maybe the next 2-3 days, then forgot it for the time being. The next week, the wages going into my bank account were roughly the same as always, but I had made a lot of cash tips, so that the end amount was more or less exactly £300. This happened the next week, and the week after etc... Although my hourly wage was the same, the tips made up the difference, or there would be an incentive at work which would I would earn money from. Every week, £300. But what impressed me was not that my pay increased, but that it was the exact amount that I had intended for. If not, I probably would have attributed it to luck, but it really made me think. Although I wish I had aimed higher.

It lasted for 3-4 months, but I think as with all things, you have to go to the really deep-rooted beliefs and confront them in order to make it last. Eventually poverty mentality came creeping back in again, and I haven't really taken the time to do a deep releasing session like the last one. I will soon, though, but I'm definitely aiming higher this time.

[Angela]

I had a nice one recently. About 3 weeks ago on a Friday night, I was in that dreamy state between wake and sleep, thinking, "wouldn't it be nice if my July rent just came to me out of nowhere, easily and effortlessly?" Very early the next morning, a friend asked me if I could help him by selling some tv's out of my garage, for which he'd give me 20% of the proceeds. He came over and did all the lifting and setting up, I placed an ad and sold the tvs within minutes. My share of the proceeds came to exactly the rent amount I had in mind.

[cylon]

Originally Posted by cassiopeia

I did this exercise for 1-2 hours, and visualised before I went to bed for maybe the next 2-3 days, then forgot it for the time being. The next week, the wages going into my bank account were roughly the same as always, but I had made a lot of cash tips, so that the end amount was more or less exactly £300. This happened the next week, and the week after etc..

That's a good one. Previously I thought setting specific amounts was somehow "lackful" but I think what is really important is that you probably felt very good imagining that amount of money. So in this case, specific amounts are fine. Just make sure you are of course open to even more beyond that!

No rules when there are no limits.

So I'm going to experiment with this, set my own income to expect.

[Acting Like Godot]

I continue my story.

By Nov 2006, I had launched my one-year experiment. As I mentioned earlier, the idea was that I would read up a lot on LOA; form a long list of intentions; regularly use LOA techniques; and track events and developments in my life, over time.

That was an extremely interesting year for me. Just to be clear - my intentions were by no means confined to my career alone. I used the LOA across all areas of my life - home, family, health, hobbies, spiritual life etc etc - and got very impressive, mind-boggling results.

But since this thread is mostly about career and money, I'll stick to that.

In Feb 2007, I was duly promoted. I quit anyway. I went to another bank, on even higher pay, and an even higher corporate title. Basically I had just been promoted, and then I "promoted" myself again, by moving on. I got to that other bank by around May 2007.

This was a new kind of job - my past skills and knowledge were not 100% relevant - but I stayed positive and focused on learning, and I did well.

I had been told that in my particular kind of role at that institution, it was possible to get 12 months bonuses, in a good year. (Which was amazing to me, because my base salary was already quite high). However, since I only joined in May, my bonus ought to be pro-rated. So logically, I could aim to get six, seven months bonus, in a good year. Which was still excellent, to me anyway.

However, as I now knew about the LOA, I decided to be "irrational".

Instead of mentally aiming for 6 or 7 months bonus, I would aim for 12 months. Damn the pro-rating.

So from to time throughout the year, I would focus and think thoughts about getting 12 months worth of bonuses. In August, I even went away with my wife to a tranquil island resort, where I spent half a day meditating mainly on that intention, while soaking in the sea; lying on a beach chair etc.

Back to work. Here came the shocker. Around Nov or Dec 2007, I had my official annual appraisal. I was told that I had done reasonably well. However I was also told to expect zero bonuses.

The reason? My bonuses were tied to the performance of my team. Some traders in my team had done some big trades, and the trades had gone wrong, due to a very severe fluctuation in a certain currency (against USD) that they hadn't anticipated.

The trades effectively wiped out all the team's profits. So there would be no bonuses. I was extremely pissed about that. I had had absolutely nothing to do with those trades. Up to that moment, I didn't even know that such trades had been done. It didn't seem fair to me that I should lose my bonus for such a reason.

Anyway, this brought me into another milestone, in my LOA experiment.

Truthfully right at that point, I felt that it would be zero bonuses to me. After all, the news was being relayed to me, at my official annual performance appraisal. This wasn't idle chit chat, or office gossip. This was my boss telling me formally what to expect for my bonus.

However, I realised that if I were to give up now, I might lose the chance to learn something about the LOA. After all, in my one-year experiment, up to then I had diligently been recording all my manifestation efforts, including the intention to get 12 months bonuses.

So I decided to hold on to my bonus intention. It was difficult, but again, in retrospect, this was a valuable learning experience - it was practice, in the ability to hold faith against impossible odds. I continued to periodically visualise receiving 12 months bonus.

By this time of year, everyone in my team knew about the losing trades, and knew that they were not going to get bonuses. I saw that there was a lot of doom and gloom, and a lot of bitching about those three traders who had made those big-time losing trades.

As part of my LOA strategy, I refused to join the gloom and doom and bitching. I didn't do anything overt. It's just that whenever the topic came up, I would skillfully change the subject, or just walk away and make some excuse like, "I have to go for a meeting now."

TO BE CONTINUED

[jacare]

I'm going to try a couple of things.

1) Stop working on the software/website, I'm at a point where I think it's good, and need to lay off. I completed the final piece of my "euro deal" today, and the ball is in their court.

2) I'm going to do a 30 day where I'm just mediating and observing, and "listening". Let the business run itself more or less. See if I get any clues or signs.

This won't be easy, as I have worked crazily for 5 years without stopping. It will be interesting to see what happens.

Looking back, I cannot say that hard work = success. In fact, I would have to say the opposite is true. This leads to frustration, as it would imply that success is "finesse" not brute force. And that is not necessarily easy to control, and I like to control my own fate. And that's what this is all about. Control. How do we press a button, and get the food pellet we want? We want a million dollars? What are steps 1, 2, and 3 to get there every time?

My current consulting client was obtained in an interesting way. When my first consulting client sacked me, I received a call from my new client in the car on the way out. The deal went through without a hitch, and without any "work" at all.

1. How did they know?
2. Why was the timing what it was? I certainly did not solicit them or even know of them.
3. No other suitable clients have called me since, I may have been in some doo doo if this one had not magically arrived when they did.
4. Was this due to my extreme talents in the industry, my marketing of myself, my experience, my contacts, all in tandem? Maybe a little of each, maybe just dumb luck?
5. I never freaked out when my old client let me go, I did not really panic, I just kind of "knew" it would somehow work out.

But what about 1 Million or more dollars? How can we possibly just dream up 1 million, and know it will arrive. How will it arrive? According to "The Science of getting Rich" it will be through normal business means. Does this mean anyone can do it? What is the precise formula?

[Acting Like Godot]

Feb 2008 came by. Salary review again.

Went in for the meeting. My boss was there, so was his boss.

Boss's boss did all the talking. It was as if my boss wasn't there, or had no say in the matter.

Boss's Boss said to me, "The team hasn't been profitable this year. You know about those [trades]. But you've done well this year and we recognise that."

I listened politely, thinking he was going to give me the spiel, all the nice words and no money.

Boss's Boss went on, "It's your first year here, so we want it to be a good year for you. So you still get a bonus. We hope that this will show you that we value your contributions a lot."

He handed me the envelope. I opened it.

12 months' bonus - just as I had irrationally visualised the sum.

"Please do not talk to the other team members about your bonus. As you know, bonus matters are to be kept confidential. And your bonus situation is a little ..... unusual."

I said thank you, smiled a lot, said a few nice things, and left.

----

Recap: the "logical" thing to do was to expect zero bonuses (because of those big losses). Even if the big losses had never happened, six or seven months bonuses was to be expected, since I only worked slightly more than half a year at that company. 12 months was just .... illogical.

But then the LOA regularly defies our limited human logic.

[Acting Like Godot]

Now I will take a brief break from telling you about my career. And I will tell you about my wife's career instead - and what I manifested for her.

(My wife is also a very good manifestator, but she is a little lazy. Sometimes she finds it difficult to just sit down, close her eyes and just think. So she often asks me to manifest her intentions).

I think this was around late 2007, early 2008 (I have it written down somewhere). Anyway my wife was not feeling very happy with her career. But how exactly did she want it to change? She wasn't too sure.

Firstly, she felt that she wanted to change jobs and work elsewhere and learn new things. I began to manifest for that.

Then she told me that wasn't the problem. The problem was that she actually to earn more money. So I began to manifest for that.

Then she told me that wasn't the problem either. The problem was that she would like to get a part-time job, so that she could spend more time with our kids. So I began to manifest for that.

Then she went on and on, flip-flopping about what she really wanted. And I found this really annoying, and I told her that I can't be manifesting for her, if she doesn't know what she wants.

Unfortunately, she still didn't know what she wanted.

So I manifested this intention - "My wife will get whatever she wants, for her career situation."

And I told her, there, it's done, stop bugging me, you'll get whatever you want for your career."

And she said, "But what is it that I want for my career?"

I said, "How should I know? But you'll get it anyway."

Guess what happened next? She decided to resign. She typed out her resignation letter, and gave it to her boss.

Then the boss told her, "Why do you want to leave? I would like you to stay. Is there anything I can do, to get you to stay?"

My wife told him that she herself didn't know what she wanted, but it was probably good for her to take a break for some time.

Not to be dissuaded, the boss proposed a bunch of ideas. Change of work scope? Work-from-home arrangements? Three-day week? Higher pay? Hire a secretary for her? Etc.

My wife was attracted by some of these ideas, but couldn't decide right then.

Then the Boss said, "Look .... I am busy today, I have meetings etc. Why don't you do this - redraft your own employment contract, put in whatever terms and conditions you want. Show me your proposed terms, and I'll see if I can agree to it."

--------------------------

Earlier I mentioned that my wife earns more than the average full-time lawyer her age, even though she only works part-time.

This was how her situation transpired. She was asked to rewrite her own employment contract, and put in whatever she wanted.

At that point, my wife gave herself a pay increase, for working three days a week. She also gave herself the flexibility to work from home. (And the boss agreed to all of this).

Another very successful manifestation.

--------------------------

My wife's situation at this company didn't last forever. It ended in late 2009. However, that too leads us to another interesting episode in the story of Mr and Mrs ALG's life.

[John Freestone]

Jacare, thanks. It was good to hear that you see my point. I'm glad you're going to take some time off, and it isn't good to overwork like that. I also would expect that a break after all that stress might well be a creative time (once you manage to stop thinking about business enough to relax). I think that many of the ideas expressed within the philosophy of LoA are good and true and useful, just that they tend to be fairly commonsense ones dressed up as mystical insights of the universe.

I seem to differ from you and many people here in this - I don't think I want to be that rich, ever, and I don't work at trying to get rich. I guess I might be happy with the idea of a million dollars (well, quid) if I knew I was still going to be compassionate enough to really make it work for the poor people at home and especially in foreign lands, the people surviving on a dollar a day or less, or starving, due to their severe lack of opportunity. While I'm moderately rich, I give fairly reservedly, and I think that if I was really rich I'd be more generous, but money is a drug, and the more we have the more we want. So my hope (and what I put some moderate effort into) is that my family unit earns enough to support ourselves in moderate comfort, or even less than we have now, survive and be happy, but not get sucked into the money addiction.

I've watched the conversation on playing the market without the beginning of an idea how that works and very little wish to know. I kind of feel that the economic system we have and the stock market have been based more and more on falsehoods of infinite growth, a great pyramid selling scheme, and the crash was the beginning of the bottom falling out of it. I realise that being no expert, these are just hunches, although I discuss the situation with some much wiser people, and the picture I get is that we've all been borrowing from the future - which means our future and that of our children - and that it was unsustainable. So I tend to think that if I can live with less, be more green, that's a good thing, but that ultimately we need to get over our insane belief in limitless growth and begin to work towards a sustainable future. But this attitude isn't some philosophical position I work out and then try to hold to - I feel it in my guts that I'm far richer than most people on the planet already and the more I got the more I would feel the injustice of that. I guess this is what the LoA teaches is my lack mentality or something, and I should overcome it and then enjoy abundance. I don't think that's right. The LoAers sometimes talk about how their philosophy is reflected in ancient wisdoms and religions of the world. ALG mentioned in one post that Buddha was a great LoA user. Many of these religions teach voluntary poverty, rather than getting rich and going for your own wealth and abundance. And so much of our desire to be rich is from fear. We want to hedge against future problems, as well as enjoy lots of expensive pleasures and give generously. That's why it's addictive, because the more we've got, the more we fear its loss (and the more our expenditure goes up too).

If I thought for one minute that all these mind techniques worked, I'd start intending wealth to come to the poorest people on Earth en masse, and a sustainable future for me and my family with good health and peace. At least, that's what I hope I'd intend.

[Melchior]

Originally Posted by John Freestone

If I thought for one minute that all these mind techniques worked, I'd start intending wealth to come to the poorest people on Earth en masse, and a sustainable future for me and my family with good health and peace. At least, that's what I hope I'd intend.

I think you can intend that anyway, and even if the LoA as mystical as you make it out to be is complete hogwash, there is still quite a bit of value to positive thinking.

(within reason of course, but I'd be surprised to find you with a case of unhealthy optimism )

[Acting Like Godot]

So my wife now had a perfect job.

As I said, it didn't last forever. Nothing really does. In her case, what happened was that eventually, the CEO, who used to value her contributions a lot, transferred to another role in another country.

Effectively, my wife lost her most powerful "supporter". And around late 2009, my wife was suddenly retrenched. Basically the new guy in charge couldn't understand why this one employee was allowed to work only three days a week, and to work from home, and to still draw such a high salary.

On the day that my wife was suddenly retrenched, I was away from home. (The reason I was away from home is another interesting LOA story - but it's not related to career/money, but a free holiday - so I won't tell it). My wife called me to tell me about it, and I said, "Okay, never mind, don't worry, everything is going to be ok, it's not as if we really needed the money anyway."

But after we hung up, I did feel a little worried about the loss of income.

So, that night, I did a very big manifestation for money. I had no idea where the money would come from. I just meditated really deep, and asked for the biggest sum of money possible to come as quick as it could.

(My apologies to those who have already read this story, elsewhere on this forum).

This was on a Friday night. I was still away from home (I would be away for a whole week) but my wife and I would call each other every day to talk. So she kept me informed about what was happening.

Back home, on Saturday afternoon, a stranger knocked on our front door. My wife opened it. A man stood outside and asked her if she would like to sell our home. She said no.

The man said, "Please, won't you think about it. I know some people who would be very interested to buy your apartment."

He was a property agent. He was very persuasive, so my wife let him in to view the apartment, and he went around to check it out. And he asked if he could bring some people in to view it.

On Sunday afternoon, he brought three families to view it. On Wednesday, two families came back to view it again.

One family made their offer. My wife called me (I was still away) and said, "This is a good offer, let's sell our house." I told her, please don't do anything stupid like sell away the house, when I'm not even there.

My wife told the family, "My husband told me not to sell away his house, when he's not even here."

The family asked, "When will your husband be back?".

My wife told them.

On the very day I returned home, the family showed up again to see me. I told them that I had no plans to sell the house.

They went away, and a day or two passed, and they made another offer, increasing the price. I said no.

They went away, and another two or three days passed, and they made another offer, increasing the price even more. I said no again.

Then another few days passed, and they made yet another offer, and this time, it was already so high that I said .... "yes".

Later, I checked the records at the land authority (this is available online in my country) and basically this was the highest price ever paid in the history of my little nation, for an apartment of my size category, in this districty.

So, in less than two weeks of my manifestation for big, big money to come out of the blue, we closed the deal.

Collected more than half a million dollars.

--------------------

But where would we live, after selling the house? This would be another exciting LOA story in the lives of Mr and Mrs ALG.

[LawTalkingGuy]

Originally Posted by John Freestone

Jacare, thanks. It was good to hear that you see my point. I'm glad you're going to take some time off, and it isn't good to overwork like that. I also would expect that a break after all that stress might well be a creative time (once you manage to stop thinking about business enough to relax). I think that many of the ideas expressed within the philosophy of LoA are good and true and useful, just that they tend to be fairly commonsense ones dressed up as mystical insights of the universe.

I seem to differ from you and many people here in this - I don't think I want to be that rich, ever, and I don't work at trying to get rich. I guess I might be happy with the idea of a million dollars (well, quid) if I knew I was still going to be compassionate enough to really make it work for the poor people at home and especially in foreign lands, the people surviving on a dollar a day or less, or starving, due to their severe lack of opportunity. While I'm moderately rich, I give fairly reservedly, and I think that if I was really rich I'd be more generous, but money is a drug, and the more we have the more we want. So my hope (and what I put some moderate effort into) is that my family unit earns enough to support ourselves in moderate comfort, or even less than we have now, survive and be happy, but not get sucked into the money addiction.

I've watched the conversation on playing the market without the beginning of an idea how that works and very little wish to know. I kind of feel that the economic system we have and the stock market have been based more and more on falsehoods of infinite growth, a great pyramid selling scheme, and the crash was the beginning of the bottom falling out of it. I realise that being no expert, these are just hunches, although I discuss the situation with some much wiser people, and the picture I get is that we've all been borrowing from the future - which means our future and that of our children - and that it was unsustainable. So I tend to think that if I can live with less, be more green, that's a good thing, but that ultimately we need to get over our insane belief in limitless growth and begin to work towards a sustainable future. But this attitude isn't some philosophical position I work out and then try to hold to - I feel it in my guts that I'm far richer than most people on the planet already and the more I got the more I would feel the injustice of that. I guess this is what the LoA teaches is my lack mentality or something, and I should overcome it and then enjoy abundance. I don't think that's right. The LoAers sometimes talk about how their philosophy is reflected in ancient wisdoms and religions of the world. ALG mentioned in one post that Buddha was a great LoA user. Many of these religions teach voluntary poverty, rather than getting rich and going for your own wealth and abundance. And so much of our desire to be rich is from fear. We want to hedge against future problems, as well as enjoy lots of expensive pleasures and give generously. That's why it's addictive, because the more we've got, the more we fear its loss (and the more our expenditure goes up too).

If I thought for one minute that all these mind techniques worked, I'd start intending wealth to come to the poorest people on Earth en masse, and a sustainable future for me and my family with good health and peace. At least, that's what I hope I'd intend.

I think this is quite a humble post! I hope you don't me commenting on it. By and large I agree with the sentiments here, but I would take issue with a couple things you stated.

(1) Re: LOA being commonsense -- Yes and no. Unfortunately common sense isn't so common. I didn't learn about LoA until I was recommended a book just a couple years ago, "Ask and it is given." Now, I'm not sure how much I buy about the channeling of Abraham and stuff like that but the message really resonated with me, probably because it was common sense (or at least a lot of it was). But I had never been taught these things, and I'd already been on the earth for a few decades.

(2) The point you raise about LOA within the context of sustainability is an important one, and is worth talking about. Is there a "natural" limit to the abundance that humanity can create? I guess that is as much a philosophical/metaphysical question as it is a natural one. Rationally, I am a Malthusian. I can't see how the Earth will sustain the hopes and desires of 7 to 9 billion people over the next coming decades to ensure clean water, food, health care, and a decent standard of living. I know that societies collapse in history.

But there is also the point that we have an epic amount of abundance on today's planet -- more than enough to have everyone live comfortable lives all over the world. What we don't have is the political will to make such a world. Instead, nations tend to go to war with each other and all the rest of it. So I don't think the issue you present is one of resources -- it's one of mindset, and philosophy, and limiting beliefs. This is the exact type of thing LOA addresses.

For example, you raise the issue that you would feel guilty by having more than other people. You're entitled to those feelings, but I would suggest there are plenty of ways to make "win-win" situations whereby the tide lifts all boats. Is modern finance capitalism the way to do that? The consensus is starting to suggest "no" -- and aybe we exist here in this point in history to help make the transition to societies whereby people are entitled to natural abundance without so much of the waste, greed, and exploitation that has been the hallmark of the last century.

I love your intention you put at the end. I think that's a great mindset to have, and one more should adopt.

(3) On the religious point, you're right that religious teachers have advocated giving up material possessions, but I don't think the point of that was to tell people they had to suffer or be poor. I think the point of all that was to emphasize that we become enslaved to our material possessions, and then they tend to control us, and we end up missing out on life.

But that's a lesson some people need to learn. Religion is supposed to teach that, but often it doesn't (or even the greatest offenders may have a religious bent to them). I work with very greedy people, and all I think about all day is how I never want to be that greedy, ever. But again, having a lot isn't a sin. Being blessed with material goods is exactly that -- a blessing.

Does it make more sense for someone who is born with an abundance of wealth to give the wealth away and be poor, or to use that abundance wisely, invest it, help others with it, generate more abundance with it, etc.?

Money is simply a tool we have to represent an allocation of resources. We shouldn't be afraid to accumulate such tools. It is the LOVE of money which leads to a lot of evil, and one should always be careful about that. But to feel guilty about making money, or because one is able to generate money in a way that causes no harm to others -- I just can't see the issue there.

Peace!

LTG

[jacare]

Originally Posted by John Freestone

. I think that many of the ideas expressed within the philosophy of LoA are good and true and useful, just that they tend to be fairly commonsense ones dressed up as mystical insights of the universe.

I seem to differ from you and many people here in this - I don't think I want to be that rich, ever, and I don't work at trying to get rich.

I agree that a lot of LOA boils down to good old common sense. 100% of the time affirming to yourself you CAN do something is more effective than affirming you CAN'T.

RE: Money and Getting Rich
I want to get rich to be free. Free to do whatever I want, whenever I want. I'm not really a show off, I've owned numerous luxury status cars, and what happens is people either hate you, or don't really care at all, and you realize the car is really a symbol of your fragile ego and need to be affirmed. Not a pleasant discovery. That being said, there is a lot to like about luxury autos, if you buy them for the joy of it.

I think it's the same with money in general.

Also, I think of money like a puzzle. I'm a pretty smart guy, scored in the top 1% of entrance exams for University of Chicago MBA school. And I think to myself, why can't I solve this? I have the desire and the brainpower, why can't I just make it happen? Get it done. I only have this one lifetime, I want to maximize it. On the other token, money is just money. The real wealth is my family, my children, my experiences. But ironically, without enough money, jobs, business, and the rest pull me away from the things I want to do.

Here is something interesting, I'm starting to be of the opinion, if you want money you go after it directly. Like in the exchanges. You want money, you go where the money is. I've made quite a bit actually over the years, in all sorts of vehicles from annuities, stocks, ETF's, options, futures. I've found my easiest vehicle is options, when properly hedged and executed, they provide maximum leverage, and get right to the point of money. I've also lost quite a bit in the markets, mostly due to lack of hedging, or leaning too heavily to one side, or black swan type market events. Making money in the markets is an acquired skill, and it takes a long time to learn all the things you need to know. But I've not proven the model over time yet, I may dabble with small sums again to test some theories.

If you start a business, you need to do it from the heart, not specifically to make money, or the money will elude you. Also, I think going after money specifically through means other than the markets may be a waste of time, because money is a byproduct. I've made more money than most people, and had modest business success, and a successful consulting career, but never really broke out of a certain framework of earnings.

Lots of streams of consciousness about money....

[Acting Like Godot]

Originally Posted by cassiopeia

I feel a little bit bashful about this, as it's nowhere near as impressive as ALG's stories of 82% pay increases and such (I've always had abundance issues), but sometimes I think it's important to hear about the modest successes too.

Okay I will tell a modest little story too. It relates to the free holiday mentioned below:

Originally Posted by Acting Like Godot

On the day that my wife was suddenly retrenched, I was away from home. (The reason I was away from home is another interesting LOA story - but it's not related to career/money, but a free holiday - so I won't tell it).

Some of you know that my hobby is writing poetry and short stories. And that I have even had one book published.

But in 2009 my creative juices felt very jaded. I had no more ideas. In my book, I had published all my worthwhile material. I had nothing much left in me.

Then sometime in 2009, I wrote on this forum that I planned to manifest for new, fresh, writing inspiration. I did indeed meditate on this intention.

Within a week or so, I received an email. A well-known writers' retreat, traditionally held in the UK, would be held in my part of the world, for the first time ever. To attend this week-long, residential retreat would usually cost thousands of dollars.

However, because this was the first time the writers' retreat was coming to Asia, the government arts authority in my country decided to sponsor it. It would fully pay for the fees of all local participants (meaning citizens). Of course, all participants would have to be approved by the government (ie you had to be invited, and to be invited, you had to have some track record of writing).

Since I had just published a book, I was invited to attend the retreat - for free. As I said, the normal price is a few thousand dollars.

This retreat was somewhat special, because every course participant had published at least one book (and a few had published several books, won awards, and were quite well-established names). So it was a great chance for me to meet and mingle and learn from all these other writers.

That was how I went away from my wife and family, for a week. I went to a idyllic island, and for a week, all the writers and myself wrote a lot; held workshops; critiqued each other's material; tried out different writing techniques; did readings; exchanged ideas and experiences.

Oh, we also drank a lot of wine in the evenings, and barbequed under the stars. Great fun.

[Acting Like Godot]

Originally Posted by John Freestone

I seem to differ from you and many people here in this - I don't think I want to be that rich, ever, and I don't work at trying to get rich. I guess I might be happy with the idea of a million dollars (well, quid) if I knew I was still going to be compassionate enough to really make it work for the poor people at home and especially in foreign lands, the people surviving on a dollar a day or less, or starving, due to their severe lack of opportunity. While I'm moderately rich, I give fairly reservedly, and I think that if I was really rich I'd be more generous, but money is a drug, and the more we have the more we want. So my hope (and what I put some moderate effort into) is that my family unit earns enough to support ourselves in moderate comfort, or even less than we have now, survive and be happy, but not get sucked into the money addiction.

If you want to give, you will give.

I always give, and I never miss a payment. The reason is that I am efficient.

I automate my monthly donations to two charities by GIRO. The money is automatically deducted from my bank account and sent to the charities, without fail, every month.

[John Freestone]

LTG and jacare, I'm just blown away by those posts. I agree with almost everything you've said, but maybe we have different slants. I think my vision of the future might be a big part of that. Population explosion, global warming and the end of the carbon-based economy (which is where all your wealth comes from playing those markets - but also where most of all our wealth comes from in the industrial world) all are becoming critical in our lifetimes. I believe we're at the point where we're using more oil than we're opening up, and ten calories of fossil fuels are used in the production of one calorie of food. So I don't buy the good old capitalist mantra that if we just 'create' wealth and spread it around, we can all benefit from more abundance. Abundance is the illusion we all grew up with, based on utterly raping the planet of its juiciest black gold. And yes, empires fall, just as many species outstrip their environment. Our hope is that we have intelligence and science (sorry folks, wishful thinking isn't going to work) and we might just see sense and change our behaviour in time. I also agree that a lot of that is political will and attitude, but I don't think politics needs a strong dose of optimism as much as it needs a good hard look at the facts as best we can assess them. It does need love and tolerance of difference, a wish to share, but it's going to be tough for the rich, because I really think there is going to be a lot less to share. Production down, population up, both at alarming rates. Can't see a way round that math problem that doesn't involve a massive shock and possibly wide-spread suffering. Get rich while money has any value whatsoever, or don't. It probably won't make any difference. Friends - that's probably what will. And if you can work a patch of ground and grow stuff, that'll help. ....lawyers?...bankers?...manifest another planet complete with oil and coal reserves, and you'll be fine.

But I know, I'm not a realist, just a big old sour puss!

[jacare]

I've been in the markets long enough to know that any excessively negative view, while factually valid, has no bearing on the actual reality. Mankind is naturally optimistic, and the markets reflect that. While we have bear markets, they tend to be shorter in duration than long bull markets. So what I'm saying is that if the oil based economy disappears, something else will take it's place. I've actually lost money in bear markets by being excessively negative when I should have been buying with both hands. But lately my thought is not to care which way the market is moving but to make money in both directions.

Anyways, with regards to saving my fellow mankind, my thought is to work more on that after I've saved myself. And by virtue of having a lot of money you are spending a lot more creating jobs and wealth.

There are trillions and trillions of dollars in the world, and central banks are printing more of it every day. The question is how do we corral a few million of it to our own catch basin? That is my essential question?

Is there a set of steps, 1) 2) 3)? Or do you have to be lucky? Or can you do this in the metaphysical realm, as ALG suggests?

[Acting Like Godot]

Originally Posted by Acting Like Godot

Feb 2008 came by. Salary review again.

Now we fast-track to around April/May 2008.

At this time, I was in Bank X. A financial crisis was unfolding. I suspected that Bank X was going to suffer badly.

(With the benefit of hindsight - I was wrong; Bank X turned out to survive the financial crisis better than almost all other banks. It stayed profitable every quarter and didn't ever need to take a cent from the government or taxpayers).

Also, although Bank X had given me a huge bonus, they had frozen my salary for 2008. I even wondered whether Bank X might start retrenching people soon. If they did, and if they applied the LIFO principle ("Last in, first out"), I would be at risk, because I was a relatively new joiner.

I began to wonder if I should not have joined Bank X, and should have stayed at my previous Bank Y again. I wondered how things were, back in my previous office.

Then I thought to myself - why should I wonder? Why not just manifest again, for the answer. If Bank Y was a better place, I would want to go back.

Back to the couch, for meditation.

-------------------------

Took about three days. Then this remarkable little coincidence unfolded.

I was out jogging. I was maybe about one mile away from my home. Then suddenly a car started honking at me. I wondered who the hell would be honking at me. I was on the sidewalk - I wasn't obstructing anyone.

I looked around. The driver was J. J was my ex-colleague in Bank Y. He wasn't a lawyer. Instead he was the HR guy, who handled HR matters for the legal department.

I discovered that the house that was about four houses away from where I stood .... was J's house.

All these years, J had been living in a house about one mile away from my own house. And we had never known - we had never bumped into each other at all.

Then within 3 days of my manifestation, I happened to be jogging outside J's house, while he was returning home in his car.

--------------

He parked his car, we chatted.

He told me everything that was happening back in Bank Y. And also told me that my ex-boss M now had a vacancy, and had been unsuccessfully trying to find someone to fill it.

Then J's eyes opened and he said, "Hey ... Would YOU like to come back?"

I said, I didn't know whether M would want me back. The last time we met, he gave me a 82% salary increase and a promotion, and I ran off anyway.

J said, "Never mind about that. Let me ask you - would you be interested in exploring this opportunity or not?"

I said, "Errrr, why not."

We kinda ended the conversation there. J went into his house. I went on jogging.

-------------------

Evidently, J moved quickly. He quickly told M about his encounter with me.

A few days later, M called me and asked me to rejoin the department.

I asked for another ... rather significant ... pay increase (about 20%).

M went back to check internally. Took several weeks later, in the end it was all sorted out.

In the middle of a financial crisis, when banks were cutting staff, I had got myself a new job, with higher pay.

This was truly a small miracle.

-------------------

I remember that around that time, somewhere here in Steve Pavlina's forums, there was an active thread where people were discussing whether it is really possible to earn more money, when the world was undergoing an economic crisis.

I said yes, and cited numerous examples of how this could happen. I also mentioned my recent experience. But the persons I was debating with - now, I can't remember who they were - were not convinced.

Their view was that their money-making capabilities were essentially a function of the economy - if the economy is bad, you would be screwed no matter what.

Oh well.

TO BE CONTINUED

[Acting Like Godot]

This wasn't the end of the LOA story.

By the time I got back to Bank Y, it was end June 2008. So my bonus, due to be paid in early 2009, would logically have to be pro-rated, approximately by half.

But wait. This was a similar situation to what I faced before.

My previous bonus (at Bank X) was also supposed to be pro-rated, then it was supposed to be zero. But in the end, with the LOA, I got a huge bonus instead.

Now that I was at Bank Y, I saw that with the LOA, it wasn't necessarily the case that my bonus in early 2009 would be pro-rated by half. With the LOA, alternative outcomes could be possible.

So I began to manifest again. This was something I did periodically, over time - that my bonus would not be pro-rated.

Of course, I had no idea how this could possibly transpire. But with the LOA, you don't need to know the "how".

It wasn't intense meditation - it was just light meditation where I would hold the thought, for a few minutes, a few times a month, every month, for several months.

------------------

In 2009, I received my bonus. It was not a huge bonus (a bad year for banks worldwide) but it was not pro-rated.

In other words, I received a full-year's bonus entitlement, for having worked six months.

Much later, I learned from J (my HR friend) that this matter had been intensely discussed between HR and a senior person in my department.

The reason why my bonus was not pro-rated?

The justification (recorded on my HR file) was that since I was a rejoiner, when I came back, I already knew the ropes. Unlike a brand new employee, I already knew the people, the systems, the work, the policies, the products, the everything.

In other words, I hit the ground running, from Day One. Because of that, they decided that I deserved a full year's bonus entitlement, instead of getting my bonus pro-rated by half.

Though I only worked six months.

You can argue that the above reasoning was somewhat dodgy. But oh well. I'm not going to argue with it.

I counted that as another LOA success.

[Acting Like Godot]

Has everyone got enough of my LOA/career stories now?

Is it time for stories on how I manifest money without work, outside the office?

[cylon]

Originally Posted by Acting Like Godot

Is it time for stories on how I manifest money without work, outside the office?

Go for it.

[Acting Like Godot]

How about a house-hunting story? Money is involved there too.

In the 2nd half of 2008, my wife and I went house-hunting. The motivation was very simple.

We aren't interested in status symbols. Having a big house for the sake of having a big house is not the kind of thing we do. But we ARE very concerned about our children's education. And we saw that our daughter would soon to reach the age when she needed to register for school.

I wanted to send my daughter to a certain well-known school. But in my country, the education system is very competitive. Admission into a good school depends on a priority system. Among other things, priority is given to children who live near the school.

So that is why we went house-hunting.

(Once again, my apologies to those readers who have read this story before .... I have told it more than a few times on this forum).

The problem was that the school in question was in a rather exclusive neighbourhood. Most of the homes in that area were quite expensive.

We also didn't quite find the home that we liked. Sometimes I would like one, but my wife wouldn't. Sometimes she would like one, but I wouldn't. We had different criteria.

For example, my wife was very concerned about the kitchen and bathrooms. I was concerned about things like garden; outdoor space for the kids to run around and play; and a quiet room for meditation.

TO BE CONTINUED

[Jesann]

Originally Posted by Acting Like Godot

So, that night, I did a very big manifestation for money. I had no idea where the money would come from. I just meditated really deep, and asked for the biggest sum of money possible to come as quick as it could.

See, I wanna know how you phrase things like that. Not "you" in general, but you, ALG, always successful. How did you phrase that? Did you really ask (Universe, please send me the biggest sum of money possible as quickly as possible) or do you use phrases like "in a relaxed easy way for the good of all"?

Seriously, what was the exact phrasing you used for this (or as near as you can remember)? I'm probably not the only one here who wants to know....