Early awareness of the concept
 

What aspects of LoA/I-M were you already aware of before ever reading or hearing about it?

In my case, going back many years, I've always believed and observed the following to be true:

• What you focus on is what you get more of.
• By making the best use of the tools you have (this is one way of showing appreciation for them), you "earn" better quality tools.
• Avoiding something does not work, but pursuing something else does.
• The subconscious (or the universe) can't work with something expressed as a negation, because no person, place, thing, or idea has an unambiguous opposite. For example, "don't worry" breaks down into the words "don't" and "worry", neither of which will help you.
• You will get along with people better if you assume they like you.

Something I'm more aware of now is that you need to be ready for the good things to happen. For example, if I assume I'm not going to meet someone special, my living space may be in disarray, my car may be dirty, I may be wearing ratty old clothes, and so on -- and then if I do meet someone I'll sabotage opportunities to avoid embarrassment. This is common sense whether you believe the metaphysical stuff or not. So I think we need to drop the old standby "hope for the best but prepare for the worst" -- we need to prepare for the best!

Extremely well put!

When I was young (<10) I used a form of reverse IM that I didn't quite understand until my recent study of the concept.

When faced with an unknown, I would often think of all the negative outcomes, because I knew that the world was filled with enough variety that any possibility I imagined was likely not to happen. I remember doing this a lot, so presumably it worked enough for me to believe in it.

I would focus on the negative to--in a round about way--intend the positive. For example, if I was afraid of falling out of a tree, I'd imagine that as an outcome before climbing it, and feel safe in knowing that because I managed to consider that an outcome, the world would produce something different. The only problem I had with it was that just considering a negative didn't necessarily mean the outcome would be positive--only that it wouldn't be the negative that I imagined.

I'm not sure if this is just some sort of backwards logic, reverse IM, or what. I was young, cut me some slack. :)

I like that--you "knew what you were getting into" and so didn't have to worry about it.

I grew up in an extremely religious family. Recently, (last couple of years) I came to know the concepts of LOA, self-help, personal development....
I started reevaluating what I was taught and how I should purge some, and how I should reinterpret some of them to match with my new picture of the Universe, Source, God....
For some of the teachings in LOA, I found an exact counterpart in my religious teachings, but completely different language. Of course, the old language does not serve me anymore, but the translation to the LOA language are as follow:

• Ask and it is given.
• Focus on what you want and be persistent, patient.
• The Universe responds when you totally let go of how by your conscious mind.