by Ada M. Palles

With another New Year upon us, I am once again contemplating what new things I want to bring into my life, and all of those things I'd rather do without. Most people's lists of resolutions usually includes things such as bad habits, debt, excess weight, or other things that they want to get rid of. But despite our good intentions, most resolutions usually fail. Why is this?

One of the apparent cosmic truths of the universe is that what we focus on expands. Rather than eliminate that which we want to get rid of, we usually get more of it. But why is this so?

"All that we are is the result of what we have thought." – Buddha

Through the ages, great masters and teachers have tried to tell us that we are what we think. Some scientific thought teaches that what we call matter does not even exist at all, that every single thing in the universe is made up of energy – atoms, molecules, and particles held together by a law of attraction as yet not understood, but known to be comprised of energy and of vibration.

Every single thing we hold in our hand, and our hand itself, is comprised of mostly empty space with particles glued together by some attractive force that forms itself into a thing, an arm, a leg, a hand, a body. Holding the universe and every single thing within it together, this attraction may be nothing more than thought.

When we want to manifest new things into our lives, the recipe is to focus upon it. Write it down, imagine it already in our lives, speak as if it is already so, feel that we already have it, and allow it to happen by cultivating a receptive attitude towards it.

However, attraction works exactly the same way for manifesting all of the negative things that we do not want in our lives. If the recipe is to focus on the thing then every time we focus on, imagine, feel or speak of negative things, we are simply manifesting more of the same.

For example, if you are in a job that you do not like, the more you think about how much you don't like it, the more of it you will get. The more you talk about what a terrible place it is to work there or about the latest bad thing that happened there today, the worse it becomes. You are actually doing the same things to manifest the things you don't want that you would do to manifest the things you do want.

Sometimes we feel trapped in a bad situation – the same things we do not want in our lives keep coming up over and over again, and we do not know how to change it. The reason we are stuck is that we keep having the same thoughts over and over again.

If today you're looking at all the bills you have to pay and you're talking about all the bills you have to pay, then you're just thinking about all the bills you have to pay. If you're feeling awful about all the bills you have to pay, you will seem to just get more bills. Tomorrow you get another bill in the mail and you look at your finances to see how you're going to pay for it. So you see all the bills you have, and you go talk to your spouse about all the bills you have. You get into an argument and feel awful about all the bills you have. And you're losing sleep worrying about all the bills you have, and you will just get more of them. Then the next day another bill arrives and you think about all the bills you have ... the same thoughts repeated over and over again.

Until you break the cycle, you will continue to manifest debt in your life. You break the repetitive thought patterns by devoting the majority of your thought, speech, and feeling patterns to how much you have, instead of how much you owe. At first, it seems hard to do, because you have to switch your focus of attention from what is bothering you to what you are taking for granted. But when you really think about it, it really is simply shifting your focus of attention so that you can break the thought patterns that created all the debt to begin with.

Realists tend to have the worst time understanding this principle because their argument is, "Well, this is the truth. How can I not pay attention to it when it is what is happening right now, right in front of my eyes? It is real, it is 'what is'." But that is like saying, "Because I put enough attention to manifest this bad thing, I should continue to pay attention to it, thereby manifesting more of it." This line of reasoning really doesn't make much sense.

What the realist must do is create a space in their mind and say, "Fine, this is real, this is 'what is' today. I acknowledge it, will deal with it as best I can, and then put it away in a box. Now I will focus my mind on what it is I do want."

The last thing you should do is fight against it. But, that is exactly what most of us tend to do. It is a knee-jerk reaction to what is troubling us. We have a war against drugs, a war against terrorism, a war against drunk driving, a war against poverty ... yet, the law of attraction tells us that the more we focus on the very things we do not want, the more of it we will get.

Mother Teresa was once quoted as saying, "I will never attend an anti-war rally; if you have a peace rally, invite me." She understood that you put your focus and energy upon what you want, not on what you do not want.

So don't focus on the problem, focus on the solution. It seems contrary to what most of us have the urge to do, but putting all of your attention on a problem doesn't make it go away. Quite the opposite, it only reinforces it and makes it even more real. Do not talk about the problem, do not think about the problem, do not band together against the problem, do not join a support group to analyze the problem. Because what you resist persists, and grows bigger and stronger. It is why people become obsessed with the past, obsessed with past hurts and grievances which only become larger and more hurtful with time, and why people spend years and years in therapy talking about and reliving the bad things that have happened to them.

Focus instead on the solution. What do you want? What is your goal? What do you want to see in your life? What would you rather be doing? By focusing on the solution, you invite its manifestation in your life. Every manifestation book on the market will tell you to focus on the end goal or on the outcome and not on how you will get there. The goal is the solution. The path – how will I get this? – is the problem. Let the universe worry about the how. Your only job is to see the solution and the goal you want.

If you want to lose weight, don't focus on the weight, or the scale or the calories. Focus on living a healthy lifestyle, see yourself eating healthy and enjoying a workout. If you are concerned about all the turmoil in the world, turn off the news and focus on all the ways people cooperate on this planet. Want to have better relationships? Focus on the good encounters you have with people, including the difficult people. Keep a list of all their good qualities that you appreciate and you will see more of those qualities in them. Want someone to love you? Focus on all the things about you that are loveable, and those things will expand until they become what everybody else sees in you, too. See yourself in a loving relationship with the person of your dreams. Focus on what you do want and it will come to you.

Don't believe it?

Think about this.

Have you ever had a fleeting thought, "Wouldn't it be great if ..." or "What I really need is ..." and the next thing you know, you see the exact thing you were looking for in a store, or someone has invented exactly what you wanted? How many inventions are literally a race to the patent office because a number of people suddenly came up with the same exact great idea for a product that fulfills some new need? Ask and ye shall receive.

Or how often have you struggled with a problem, worrying about it, studying it, analyzing it, losing sleep over it, all to no avail. Then as soon as you stopped thinking about it, the answer just suddenly appears out of no where? If you stop focusing on the problem, the solution may appear.

Or how often have you wanted something specific, but had no idea how you were going to get it? By simply keeping the goal in mind and moving forward with your life, not worrying about how your goal was going to manifest, the most amazing, coincidental or unlikely circumstances unfolded that brought that very thing to you.

On the other hand, how many times have you thought, "Oh, no, I sure hope I don't run into Bob at the supermarket," and sure enough you run head-first into Bob in the produce aisle?

These types of experiences happen to almost everyone, at one point in their lives or another. We all experience these things with some mild form of wonder, but quickly dismiss it as "just dumb luck" or a fluke. What if it is not luck or a fluke? What if this is exactly how the universe operates? Start employing this practice and keeping a list of how many "lucky flukes" you start getting, and they may start seeming beyond the realm of possibility of just dumb luck. And you may just get everything on your New Year's list as well.