Many people reading so-called personal development or self improvement articles or self help books will know all about the concept known as the Law of Attraction – that you attract into your life the things that you want out of life.  Many such articles or books tell great feel-good stories about how the whole process has worked, seemingly effortlessly, for some people – shining examples of people who live the dream.

And yet I’d be very wealthy if I had a dollar for every person who asked me “Why doesn’t it work for me?”  More often than not, the answer is blindingly obvious – either they don’t know exactly what they want or they keep changing their minds.  The normal adult is like a kid in a sweetshop – all those goodies, so much to choose from “I want some of these – no, can I have some of that instead!”

Getting what you want out of life requires a precise definition of success – unique, obviously, to you – and, thereafter, being ruthlessly single-minded.  I don’t mean being ruthless towards others in terms of walking over them as you climb the hill towards your dream.  I mean being ruthless with yourself in terms of mental discipline.  And discipline is what is required because the normal mind is notoriously undisciplined.  For starters, just consider how many times your mind has wandered today.  Just consider how often what you think you want out of life changes – it’s as variable as the Irish weather (well, maybe not that bad!)

Come up with your definition of success and stick to it – single-mindedly.   I don’t meant tie yourself down to “I must have this” or “I must have that” – that’s stupid, in doing that you’re cutting off all your other options.  And therein lies the problem – normal people think that you define success in terms of what you have.  No – success is how you feel.  Success comes from within, not from having lots of nice things.  Again, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying nice things are bad – nice things are, well, nice!  But success is something else altogether – it’s about peace of mind, what it feels like to “have it all” whatever having it all means for you in terms of feeling just perfect about yourself and your life.

You need to picture what living the dream would look like, feel like, sound like, smell like and taste like – the five sensory language that turns your subconscious mind on.  You need to know what your picture of success is like – as if you have it already – without any preconditions on the actual components as regards work, career, business or money and without any preconceived notions about how you have got there – you just have to give yourself the five sensory experience of what it’s like to have arrived.  Because, when you do actually arrive, that’s true success.