After spending quite a bit of time researching, writing and thinking about the power of intention, particularly my own, the “Boomerang Effect’ came to me as a better description of the concept of the ‘law of attraction’ currently promoted by a number of modern self help gurus.
It’s a metaphor…throwing a boomerang represents thinking with focused intention.
Have you ever thrown a real boomerang?
If so, you’d probably agree it’s much more difficult than you might first expect. Throwing it is one thing, but getting it to come back is the real challenge! If you don’t know what you are doing, it is not something that comes naturally.
Now this also seems to be the case when we talk about the ‘law of attraction’. How often do you put your thoughts or intentions out to the universe? And how often have you been successful in having an effect on your experience of life, such that you knew you attracted a specific outcome to yourself?
Lots of people throw their thoughts and desires out to the universe, but few ever return or show up in their lives as real things or experiences…why?
Winds of Change
I gave my nephew a real throwing boomerang as a gift. Of course as soon as he unwrapped it, he smiled a wicked smile, and asked if we could go outside and throw it?
So off we went to the front yard, where I attempted to show him the basics of throwing a boomerang. For him it was all about getting it to come back, so I tried to be wise and explain to him the correct technique…
My very first throw sent it spinning on a beautiful arc, but the wind gusted and blew it straight into a tree. It got stuck there, so we had to use an extension ladder to get it down.
This is the first lesson hidden in the metaphor…if you want a boomerang to return, you HAVE to align with the wind!
This is also the first lesson to take onboard with regards to affecting your experience of life. You have to align with the situation around you, before using intention for a specific outcome. So how does this work in your life?
First, stop and focus on what you truly want as an outcome. This means aligning with the winds of your life. Do you believe you deserve what you have? Where you are in life? What are you goals?
This will require an intense, personal analysis and planning session to be conducted.
Who do you want to be and where do you want to go?
If you’ve lost your job due to the economic crisis, you probably don’t feel in alignment with anything. Listen to the winds of life. Think in a series of steps. What are the steps required to achieve what you want? Identify those steps then only focus on one step at a time.
Like learning how to throw a boomerang, throwing your thoughts takes practice. Too many people are too caught up in instant gratification, and be assured that after throwing a real boomerang once or twice, you’ll learn that patience and practice is required to develop this skill. The ultimate result is experienced after a series of throws.
So, if you want the boomerang to return, you MUST first align yourself with the prevailing winds! If you don’t pay attention to the winds around you, there’s a good chance your thoughts will end up in a tree somewhere…
Focused Intention
“Where is my stuff?”
This, unfortunately, is where most people invest the bulk of their time and energy. I say ‘unfortunately’ because if you haven’t practiced the first set of skills (personal clarity, alignment and practicing how to project your thoughts properly) you will have a VERY difficult time catching anything!
How to catch the boomerang…
You now understand how the winds of life and practicing the technique throwing your thoughts are two skills to perfect, but no matter how experienced you are with aligning and throwing, there is a 99% chance the thought won’t return to exactly where you are standing. You will have to take action.
Bringing this metaphor back to how to use your thoughts to affect your experience of life, you need to consider two options:
1. Take Action
2. Do Not Take Action
Once you start throwing your well crafted thoughts around, you’ll start to notice a change in how things come into your experience. Some of these will align with your primary intention, but others will not. When trying to catch a boomerang coming back to you, there are many factors to consider.
Each mental throw, or the sending of mental energy in the form of intention, will bring about opportunities to take action or not. It is the wise person who can properly determine when to take action and when to avoid action.
To Act or Not to Act, That is the Question
The lesson is to understand that focused thoughts and intention also HAVE to be followed up with action to achieve your preferred outcome! In fact, it may take many throws to bring about the specific outcome you want to achieve.
You will rarely use your thoughts and intention to manifest something in your life, without taking some sort of action. When an opportunity comes into your experience, you have to identify it, then immediately decide if you should take action or not.
This is where so many people fail. It’s fairly easy to find alignment in your life after conducting a serious internal analysis. It’s also pretty easy to have a thought and throw it out there. But it is extraordinarily difficult to use thought energy to affect your physical experience of life, so most people try it for awhile then give up.
If you’re going to learn how to throw a boomerang, or design a website, or write a novel, or swing a golf club, or speak Spanish…it takes effort, tenacity and perseverance. Most people don’t want to hear that these days. Everyone has instant access to everything today, so why not instant access to mind power?
Well, just like golf, Spanish or throwing a boomerang, learning how to affect your experience of life with your thoughts is a skill that takes time, practice and belief.
So to recap:
1. Remember to first align with who you are
2. Craft your thoughts and practice throwing them again and again.
3. Be aware of your surroundings.
4. Look for opportunities to take action and situations to avoid.
When it is time to take action, do so with your full intention to succeed. When it is time to avoid a situation, do not give any mental energy to it; remove it from your mind.
Align. Focus. Throw. Act.