There are four key steps to consciously using the Law of Attraction in your life and business: desire, belief and expectation, action, and receiving.

Desire

At first glance desire is easy. We know what we want – don’t we?

Not always.

Sometimes we think we should want certain things – things society or our mother have told us are appropriate. Other times we want things by default – everyone wants a million dollars, right?

Goals need to align with our values

When we think about what we want – in business we call this goal setting – we need to get really clear about what is truly important to us. In February I wrote a post about identifying our values. Sometimes we set goals that go against our values. When we do that, we have trouble achieving them – attracting them if you will.

While researching my book I interviewed a woman who has a small but a successful consulting practice. She gets to live in her small town, work with clients she likes and spend time with her family. She’s happy with her business and her life. But she wasn’t always this content.

A few years earlier she’d been working with a coach and had set a goal for growing her business. She had big plans. She was going after large corporate clients. It would mean prestige, money and travel. She’d have to take on staff. She’d be going somewhere.

Then one day she paused. She had started her business because she’d been in the corporate world and hated it. She hated the culture, the politics, the workload, the big city.

These big plans for growing her business taking her in a direction she didn’t want to go. She didn’t want to work with big corporate clients – she liked the smaller clients she had. She didn’t want to travel – she liked being home with her family. She didn’t want to hire staff – she liked flying solo. She didn’t need the big bucks her plan would lead to – she earned enough to be satisfied.

So she scrapped her big plans and continued running her small consulting firm and enjoying her life.

The point is she had made a goal that went against what she valued. Luckily, she recognized this before going to far along the wrong path.

Life’s a struggle when our goals aren’t in sync with our values

A lot of people who aren’t as in touch with what they value don’t pause; they don’t have a moment where they realize they have the wrong goals. They keep heading in the wrong direction, but their goals are not in sync with their values. When this happens, things are a struggle.

Let’s use me as an example. When I first started out in business, I was a copywriter – I wrote marketing and sales materials for businesses (I still do). My role models where successful direct mail copywriters. You know, that stuff that comes in an envelope with ten pages of emotional writing telling you how you’re life will be transformed if you will just buy this product. I was working to be just like them.

The problem was, I hate doing that kind of writing. It’s not that I think there’s anything wrong with it. The people who do it are just fine people. It’s just not my thing.

So here I was working hard to attract more clients to give me copywriting work that I didn’t really want to do. Is it any wonder that I wasn’t getting anywhere? My business was a struggle. I found it hard to get motivated to write my own marketing materials – and I’m a writer!

And all this time I had written a purpose (or mission) statement for my business that read: “To use my writing and speaking skills to tell stories that excite, inspire and teach people.” I had it, but my goals didn’t match it or my values.

But when I began listening to my purpose statement and started making changes in my business plans, things became a lot easier.

Now I’m attracting clients I like and work that excites me. Speaking and teaching opportunities are falling in my lap. Before, I was having trouble getting motivated. Now I’m leaping out of bed at 4 or 5 am to start work.

All because my goals are aligned with my values and purpose.

So if you want to use the Law of Attraction to improve your business and achieve your goals, you’d better make sure your goals are aligned with your values.

But I’m not finished with goals.

Goals must be clear, detailed and specific

In order to use the Law of Attraction effectively, you need to make your goals clear, detailed and specific.

Remember in my previous post how I mentioned the Cheryl Richardson exercise I used to find my first post-baby full time job? I didn’t just say, “I want a job”. I wrote out very specific details about the type of job I wanted. I could almost picture the place I would be working. And it was very close to what I got.

That’s what you need to do.

Whatever your goal, make it specific. Don’t just say I want to increase revenue. Say, “I want to increase revenue this quarter by 25%.” Then get specific. What products are you going to sell more of? Put dollar values beside each one.

Whatever your goal, you need to be able to see it, taste it, feel it.

Why is this important?

I think that a lot of the time, we have opportunities in front of us. They’re there all the time. They’re coming out of the woodwork.

We just don’t see them.

We don’t recognize opportunities for what they are. It’s just like when you’re walking down the street, late for a meeting. You can walk right past your best friend because you’re thinking about something else.

By having clear – and written – goals, we recognize opportunities for what they are. When someone comes along and says, “the symphony is looking for a full time manager,” we don’t walk away because we’re not a musician and had never considered that even musicians need administrative and marketing help. We say, “gee, that job is exactly what I wanted. I’ll apply right way!”

Tomorrow I’ll write about the next step: belief and expectation. And I promise, it’s not airy fairy, woo woo stuff. I’ll have some very practical ways to put this step of the Law of Attraction to work.

Andrea J. Stenberg