Goals and Means

This little experiment's goals fall into 2 categories: practical ends and mind-hack curiosities. (Ok, that last sounds bizarre, but I can't seem to think of a better term. If you come up with one, let me know.) Here's a quick summary of each:
Outcomes
Freedom to work as I wish
A fully satisfying relationship
Following my passion/fulfilling my dreams
Financial independence
Dramatically improve lives around me

Mind Methods
Determine the value of positivity in various aspects of life
Objectively prove the Law of Attraction
Discover the most effective way for me to be who I really am
Identify and utilize my mental/spiritual gifts

It's tempting to label one of those categories “the means” and the other “the ends” - but which is which? Achieving the first list is the proof of the second list's items' validity; performing the second list's items correctly will reward me with the first list's items. Round and round it goes. I truly, deeply hope that the freedom aspects of the Outcomes list comes around, since the endless busy-ness of my life is interfering with even this, the record of the attempt to rectify it!

The Outcomes list could use some further explanation, and will, but as it stands reasonably well at it is, I'll get right to discussing the Mind Methods. After all, they really are the core of the experiment. Do we not all want that first list, or a variant thereof? To be happy, perhaps content, engaged in the activities we most enjoy? There are so many ways to attempt that, and so many things calling us to try them, promising to be the best way. Funny how many of us (myself included) dive right into ways that we have seen so often to absolutely not work, ways that deliver ever-increasing doses of misery. This journal was created to observe, as it develops, an honest attempt at a different way.

So what is this new way? Well, first of all, it's not new. It's actually pretty well-known just now, though the way it gets applied frankly doesn't make a lot of sense much of the time. The Mind Methods list (truly, I would love a better title) lays it out pretty plainly. I intend to become what I am, what I truly should be; use positive thinking (to coin the hackneyed phrase) to guide myself in better, more energetic directions; and experiment with the Law of Attraction (LOA for short). This last is one of the more exciting parts of the experiment, because it involves testing the rather mumbo-jumbo-sounding ideas discussed in The Secret and similar publications to find out, as much as possible, whether they work.

Strange to say, it may not actually be a crushing blow if they don't. No, really. Consider the most basic tenets of working with LOA: be grateful; focus on good things; don't wallow in mistakes, but learn from them; be positive; imagine good happening. Even if I get nothing from that part of the experiment but significant amounts of time thinking joyful thoughts, I will have lost little or nothing in the attempt, and may improve my well-being regardless. Definitely a no-lose proposition.

Soon, I will look at the differences between wishes, LOA, prayer and positive thinking. For now, I am (and have been for a couple of weeks now) beginning by practicing a very basic LOA exercise: I find a happy thought, something that fills me with joy - or at the very least, improves my mood to think about. Once I've held that state for a while (almost a minute), I add a focus on something I specifically want. Very often they are the same things, as things which bring me joy are pretty much what I'm after. It seems reasonable to mainly think on only 2 of my several goals, the better to advance the attempt. Both of them are things over which I have very little control, otherwise this would be a Positive Thinking experiment, and I need no convincing on that concept.