What is it you want?
You probably know the answer to that pretty easily. More money, a good relationship, a better-paying job, good health, etc. Very likely, your desire falls under one of those categories.
But why aren’t you getting the things you want?
I’ve said before that wanting and having are mutually exclusive. The feeling of wanting is incompatible with that of having the thing you desire.
But many people are confused by this point: they don’t know how to get to that place of having, instead of wanting, especially when it feels so much as though you do need that goal.
So here is the secret: you haven’t made your goal into a vision.
When it’s a goal, not a vision, you feel lack. You feel resistant. You push against the lack of the goal, and hold that lack in existence.
But what exactly does all this mean? I’ll show you in today’s post.
Your Goal in the Problem Orientation
So the normal way most people see their goals is in what I call problem orientation.
You might say something like, “I want more money”, but what your vibration is actually saying is, “I need to stop being poor.”
In other words, you are pushing against the lack of money, not moving towards the having of money.
That’s an important distinction, which you’ll see more throughout this post.
The law of attraction doesn’t care what words you’re using: it cares only about the pictures in your mind.
When you talk about how much you want more money (or substitute your own goal here), nine times out of ten you’re picturing the lack of that goal, pushing against that picture, and therefore feeling negatively about it.
After all, if you had a picture in mind of having your goal, then wouldn’t you feel good?
Your emotions in regard to the goal will tell you which picture you are holding in mind.
Whatever picture you hold in mind, that is what the Universe will create.
And because you resist the picture of the lack of your goal, you are really holding that picture in place, and just getting even more of it.
So check for yourself: what is your predominant emotion in regards to your goal? Is it positive or negative?
If negative, which it likely is if you don’t have it yet, then pay attention to what you’re actually picturing in mind when thinking about this goal. Are you focusing on the presence of that goal, or the absence of it in your life?
Those negative emotions indicate that you’re picturing the absence of the goal.
And if you are picturing the absence of the goal, then you will manifest… drumroll… the absence of the goal!
I know, this is complicated stuff. 🙂
Problems Lead to More Problems
So here’s the thing about problem orientation: well, it’s all about solving problems.
You’re not really trying to manifest more money for the joy of it: you’re trying to solve the problem of the lack of money.
You’re not really trying to create that beautiful relationship: you’re trying to solve the problem of being single.
Do you see the difference?
By your very attempt to manifest what you want, in the way you’re going about it, you are actually trying to solve a problem.
Unfortunately for you, the Universe doesn’t believe in problems. It just responds to whatever you focus your mind upon.
But how can you solve a problem, without holding in consciousness the existence of a problem, and therefore creating it?
How can you solve the problem of poverty, without picturing poverty, and therefore creating it?
How can you solve the problem of being single, without holding in mind your single state, and therefore creating it?
How can you solve the problem of that job you hate, without envisioning everything you hate about that job, and therefore creating it over again?
Problems engender more problems. It sets up an infinite cycle, which reinforces itself by you believing in the problem you are trying to avoid.
So what’s the solution?
Creating Your Vision in the Creative Orientation
There’s another way, outside of the problem orientation.
What if you didn’t see the problem?
What would be your purpose for creating more money, if you couldn’t refer to a problem?
Here are some ideas:
- The feeling of security as you effortlessly pay the bills
- The feeling of fun as you buy nice things, go on vacation, etc
- The feeling of freedom as you constantly have more than enough in the bank
Do you see how these items are not trying to solve a problem? They are envisioning a state of being you’d like to experience.
Now see if you can feel the difference, again substituting your goal as necessary:
Can you feel how it is to focus on money to create more security, fun, and freedom in your life, rather than trying to fix the apparent problem of lack?
Now yes, your ego could go down the road of focusing on how you don’t have those things now, but that’s just more problem-solving.
But see if you can get to that place of envisioning the experience of more money.
Instead of trying to solve a problem, you are creating a vision you hold in mind.
Your vision, in this case, is of abundance, security, fun, freedom, etc. It’s of doing the things you want to do with more money.
Now remember that your emotions will tell you what you’re focusing on. So what emotions do you feel when focusing on this vision?
Very likely, you feel light, positive emotions. Perhaps excitement, exhilaration, and so on.
They don’t have to be very intense, but there should be positive emotions present.
So, this tells you that the pictures you are holding in mind are of the having of your goal, not the lack.
Do you see the difference?
Your Vision Pulls You Forward
Whereas a problem-oriented goal will just keep creating the problem, a creative-oriented vision will pull you forward until that vision is manifested in your reality.
It’s like an artist. An artist doesn’t paint to solve some problem. The artist paints because he has a vision in mind that he needs to manifest in the world. He can’t rest until that vision is completed.
This is what I’ve previously called creative tension.
Creative tension is simply the tension created by your vision pulling you forward until it is created in outer reality.
You can’t sit still while the vision still exists. Things will move, actions will present themselves, and you will find yourself moving ever closer towards the completion of that vision.
Again, imagine that vision of more money and all the things it will bring you. It feels great, but is it enough just to sit here and feel those feelings?
No, you feel the drive to move forward and make it happen, not out of an egoic need to solve a problem or fill some void, but out of the urge to see the completion of your vision.
Have you ever had something in your life that caught your attention so much—excited you so much—that you couldn’t stop until you had achieved it?
That’s exactly what this is like. It is not passive at all: it is an incredibly powerful force that pulls you forward towards your vision.
But it only works if you actually hold a vision. It cannot work with problems, for one simple reason:
A vision is about moving toward something, while a problem is about moving away from.
Are you trying to move away from poverty, or move toward abundance?
Are you trying to move away from loneliness, or move towards the perfect relationship?
Creative Tension: The Force Behind the LOA
This incredibly powerful creative tension will only kick in when you are in the creative orientation, moving towards the vision of what you want to create.
As long as you are in the problem orientation, you will only perpetuate that problem. Creative tension will not take hold.
But as soon as you let go of seeing this as a problem, and start holding the vision of what you want to create, then that creative tension will pull you forward towards the desired goal until it is manifested.
This creative tension, also known as structural tension, is not something negative. It’s not the pain of unfulfilled desire. It’s not the feeling of lack or neediness.
This tension is just the result of being aware of the difference between where you are and where you want to be.
When an artist is creating a new painting, he constantly looks at the current state of his painting, as it compares against the vision he holds in his head. Then he makes appropriate alterations, checking again and again to see whether the physical painting is getting closer to or further away from that inner vision.
And so it is with a vision. Let’s say you hold the vision I mentioned above, of abundance, security, fun, and freedom in regards to money. The vision is of having lots of it, never having to worry about it, being able to go on nice vacations, buy nice things for yourself, etc.
If you look at where you are now and notice these things aren’t present, then that creative tension is set up. This isn’t anxiety, or fearfulness that your desire won’t come about. You’re not looking at what is and saying, “Why isn’t my goal here yet?” You’re looking at what you want, then seeing what is, and knowing the discrepancy between the two, which has to be resolved.
That creative tension will exist so long as the discrepancy between where you are and where you want to be exists.
But instead of reminding you of the lack of what you want, as the problem orientation would do, it reminds you of what you do want, and how close you are to getting that.
Then it drives you, brings you opportunities, allows things to fall perfectly into place, to get closer and closer to that vision.
This creative tension is the true force behind the workings of the law of attraction. It’s an active force that pulls you towards the creation of whatever vision you hold in mind.
It doesn’t allow you to sit passively and watch life flow by. It requires you to go and create whatever it is you are wanting to create.
A New Law: The Law of Creation
I would almost call it a separate law altogether, because “attraction” implies passivity, as though you are just sitting and attracting everything to you.
Certainly that happens, too, but this is different. This, which we could call the law of creation, is not a passive force that simply brings you whatever you are focusing on. It’s a very active force that requires you to move—to act—to get that thing you want.
The law of creation is a bit of a shortcut built into the system, that allows you to create joyfully whatever you want, before perhaps your subconscious was 100% ready for it.
The law of attraction gets you wonderful current level goals, if applied properly; but the law of creation brings you to the next level, to get those next level goals that were previously beyond your reach.
The law of attraction is like the artist looking at the paintings he’s already created. They’re enjoyable to look at, but there’s no challenge in them. There’s no sense of reaching.
He’s perhaps even creating some new paintings, but only of things he’s already done in the past. There’s familiarity, and maybe even enjoyment, but not the exhilaration of a new creation.
Whereas the law of creation is like the artist sitting down and painting something he’s never painted before, and watching his creation come out exactly how he envisioned it, step by step. It’s a challenge. It takes him to the next level beyond where he’s ever been before.
So it’s up to you whether you’d like to keep creating the same sort of things, with a bit of variation here or there. You might get a new job, or a new relationship, or some new clients to your business. But none of it was very unbelievable in the first place, so it was really just a matter of relaxing and letting it come.
Or, you can choose to create something totally new. You can choose to increase your income by 50%, or to take your business into six figures, or to have a better relationship than you could have ever imagined.
It’s riskier, because you’ve never done this before and so there’s the chance of failure. But it’s also exhilarating because it’s totally new, outside of your comfort zone, just a bit out of reach.
Both of these are totally acceptable methods, and you’ll find yourself using one or the other throughout life.
But the issue is when you try to use the plain law of attraction to try to move to the next level, subsequently fail because it wasn’t meant to do that on its own, and then turn the whole thing into a problem to be solved.
So let me tell you this, then:
The problem orientation is what results when you want something beyond your current level of belief, but fail to apply the law of creation for some reason.
Perhaps you’re too afraid of failure. Perhaps, before today, you didn’t even know the law of creation existed.
Imagine that same artist, wanting so much to paint something new, but then not doing it because he didn’t believe he could. The vision would be trying to pull him forward, but he’d be focused too much on how he couldn’t do that, and how it is beyond his skill level.
The problem orientation is what results when you stagnate, from lack of movement, when you’d very much like to be moving.
How to Enter the Creative Orientation
So if you are finding yourself in the problem orientation right now in regards to some desire, then it means that you are seeking something above your current level of belief.
And this, in turn, means that the passive approach of the law of attraction isn’t sufficient. Perhaps you’ve even been trying that, but to little or no success.
It means that the law of creation is the best tool for the job. But to apply that, you need to drop the problem orientation, and turn this goal into a vision, which will allow you to enter the creative orientation.
So how do you do all this?
There are four essential steps:
- Realize you’ve been focusing on the lack of your desire. If this isn’t clear, look at the type of emotions you’ve been having in regards to that goal. If negative, then you’re holding pictures of lack.
- Realize you’ve been resisting those pictures of lack. If you don’t realize this, ask yourself, “Do I want to change these pictures of lack?” If yes, then you are resisting them.
- Bring the pictures of lack, and the resistance to those pictures, into present moment Awareness. Be mindful of them, without judgment and without resistance, until they dissolve. This is your ticket out of the problem orientation.
- And finally, in this place of pure Awareness, free of resistance, ask yourself, “What is it I want to create?” Focus on the positive pictures that arise, forming the vision of what you want.
Now I’m not saying this is simple. The ego will keep trying to convince you that this is a problem, and you need to figure out how to solve it.
But every time it does that, bring all that to present moment Awareness, and just let it dissolve along with everything else.
If you get caught up in the lies of the ego, you’ll just end up right back in the problem orientation.
Remain in present moment Awareness until there’s no more draw from that apparent problem. Then move to step 4, allowing your vision to take root.
Of course all this is very simplified. I can’t possibly discuss everything involved in creating your vision, in one blog post, even one as long as this has turned out to be. 🙂
However, if you sign up for my new Effortless Money Manifestation course, I will show you everything involved in this whole process, from making peace with what is and getting out of the problem orientation, to creating the vision of what you want and moving towards that vision.
It is an in-depth five week course, with 25 lessons and over a dozen guided exercises.
Even if your desire isn’t money-related, all the principles discussed in this course will still apply just the same.
Click below to learn more about the course now:
How About You?
Now it’s your turn. Have you been stuck in the problem orientation in regards to your goal? Have you found these steps helpful for turning that around and changing your goal into a vision? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
TIRED OF THE LAW OF ATTRACTION NOT WORKING FOR YOU?
Enter your info to get my free checklist, Ten Reasons You Aren't Getting Results with the Law of Attraction.