You may have heard of the law of attraction. It refers to the belief that positive thoughts and actions are magnets for positive life experiences, whilst negative thoughts are magnets for negative life experiences.

A wise man once said to me, “the universe responds to the vibrations you give out.” Sounds like some mystical hippy bull, doesn’t it? (He actually was a hippy, funnily enough.) But what he said was true. Even if it isn’t a grand mystical force at work, (God or karma or whatever) it still works.

I will tell you why.

For example: you wake up in the morning after an amazing sleep feeling well and rested. The sun is out and you realise you’re actually early for work and have time to relax a bit. You’re in a good mood, and for the rest of the day everything went your way.

Another day on the other hand you get up after a terrible nights sleep and realise you’re late for work. It’s miserable and cold and wet outside. You’re grouchy and in a bad mood. Everyone gets on your nerves and then everything seems to go wrong that day.

Both of these days play out like this because of the way you think and feel. When you’re happy and in a good mood this can rub off on other people. If you see someone and say “hello,” in a cheery manner and act positively towards them they will respond in the same way. If you’re feeling, acting and thinking negatively then other people will respond to this and … low and behold, negative things will happen.

On the day where you felt unhappy, little things annoy you and seem to get blown way out of proportion. In reality, because you were in a negative mind state everything seemed a whole lot worse than it was: the things that happened weren’t actually bad things… you just viewed them in a negative light.

If it’s raining on the way to work, you might feel as if the universe is mocking you and your day is ruined. It’s not. One of my favourite quotes is (as cheesy as it is) “life’s not about waiting for the storm to pass… it’s about learning to dance in the rain.”

Positive thoughts will attract positive outcomes… and negative thoughts attract negative outcomes. And you should apply this way of thinking (living) to your work life.

Focus on what you want. If you are feeling frustrated, irritated and down you are focusing on what you don’t want… and the more you focus on these things the more they will occur. If you stop deliberately giving your attention to what you don’t want and focus your thoughts on what you do want, you are shifting your energy to positive. If you want to attract things such as money, more clients and great business you must stay focused on what you do want.

Whatever we are experiencing in life is a mirror image of what we are thinking. Therefore to be successful you must THINK successful.

If you are going into a project thinking, “I don’t know how I am ever going to do this. It’s too much and there’s not enough time,” then you won’t be able to do it and there won’t be enough time… because that’s what you truly believe. And if you truly believe you will succeed… YOU WILL.

To quote Henry Ford..

“Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t – you’re right.”

Tom Duffy