But does that mean the same thing will happen to me?  What if I stand here for too long, worried if I have enough towels to clean up my flooded home, and I manifested the same occurrence?  Is my mind strong enough, focused enough, to actually break a water pipe in the process of manifestation?

The short answer is yes, it is.  The long answer, thankfully, is that I would have to really associate some strong feelings with my worried thoughts, and for a while, in order to recreate my neighbor’s situation in the physical world.  Thankfully, the Law of Attraction gives us the opportunity to change our thoughts, and our corresponding feelings, before things manifest.  Although there are no time constraints with the Law of Attraction, there is the perceived delay that we, as humans, create in order to make sense of daily life.  This is one of the times we use time to our advantage.

So next  time you find yourself facing the choice to visualize a potential situation, remember this:

Visualize what should happen, rather than what could happen.

Gurus like Larry Winget and Gary Vaynerchuk inspire us to break free of the corporate mold, and start making changes in order to live the lives that we want.  After reading nearly a hundred of these self-help books, I am left with the nagging feeling that these people believe that there are no employers that can provide you with a satisfying job.  In their eyes, you must work for yourself in order to find happiness in what you do.

Although I believe entrepreneurship provides benefits that many traditional jobs do not, such as freedom to make all of the decisions and self-appointed vacations, it can also increase stress levels, tear apart families and create health problems that affect our level of happiness.  I am an entrepreneur myself, and along with the day job, I see both sides of this issue.

Please excuse my oversimplification of the benefits of entrepreneurship vs employee life.  The arguments for both sides are valid yet lengthy, and I am sure that there are plenty of sources that will assist you in choosing what’s best for you.  My subject here is accepting, no matter which path you choose, where you are right now.

Many of us, including myself in the recent past,  spend a lot of time bitching about where we are.  We hate getting up early and leaving our family at 6am. We miss our childrens’ functions due to late meetings, we are too tired to cook dinner after a long day’s work.  After my pity party was over, I decided to make the best of where I was at any particular time and view my world from the perspective of my being exactly where I was supposed to be.

This means doing what you can do, when.  And not feeling guilty about what you didn’t do, unless what you chose to do instead of what you should have done was stupid.

What’s stupid?  Five straight hours of South Park.  Drinking an entire bottle of wine by yourself, leaving a stream of clothes on the floor and dragging yourself to bed.  Hanging out on Facebook and refreshing until you see a comment made on one of your posts.  Those things are stupid, and those places are not where you should be.

This is time wasted, and as we get older, time is exactly the thing we value the most.  So why waste this time?  Even needing to unwind can be productive, if you just want to doodle on a pad and let your mind wander.  That, to me, while perhaps not overtly productive, gives your mind time to stew, to make sense of your crazy life, and, hopefully, turn it into something that will satisfy your temporary need to be–elsewhere.

Sometimes those doodles on the pad are just stick people, and sometimes they turn into ideas that can be useful whether you work inside the home or out–for yourself or for someone else.  And you can see that where you are is exactly where you are supposed to be.

Why not for me?  Can’t I be happy too?

And plopped right in the center of the article is a photo montage of the greediest people that are to blame for all of this mess.  The article continues to keep us beaten down and cringing:  “Having survived a near-death economic experience, Americans now need to focus on surviving what’s likely to be a pokey, painful recovery.”

Talk about a dose of guilt for those who actually don’t live every day just to survive!  Now I’m not knocking those that are down on their luck, but I am emphasizing here that we can decide which rain goggles we choose to look through.  Do yours show sun in the near distance, or just more rain?

Although it’s on the decline thanks to modern medicine, leprosy is alive and kicking in many third world countries.  I was in Morocco, and the man sitting (armless, by the way) on the dirty street corner smiled at me with barely 3 teeth remaining in his mouth.  I was in a hurry to meet a wool rug merchant who was offering me a private showing of his best handmade rugs, and I didn’t want to be late.  I quickly smiled back to the leper and was on my way.

But it isn’t merely the disease-stricken that drew my attention on that and other trips.  It was the kids running after me on the remote island of Lombok when I rode in on the back of a truck.  There were six other people on the truck with me, but the kids knew to thrust their hands out to me rather than the other visitors.  Perhaps it was my snow-white skin, or the fact that I even gave them the attention at all;  but there it was, that compelling feeling that I had to give to anyone extending a hand out for help.

And so here we begin a thread on how we can enjoy guilt-free travel no matter where we end up.  For no matter which country you visit–which includes our own, if you care to look for it–there will be financial disparity between the citizens.  And unless you are whisked off to the Ritz Carlton immediately upon landing your Gulfstream, then you are likely to have exposur to those less fortunate than you.

I will be leaving for Panama on June 21, 2009, and will be reporting from there about our travels and how we handled the poverty surrounding us.

We THINK about the car. Maybe it’s a Lexus, a sage green IS250 with caramel colored leather interior. We can formulate the thought of the car, based on those we’ve seen sitting next to us at a red light, or at the dealership when we visited last Saturday. This part is easy.Do you really deserve that?

The second half of manifestation is the FEELING part. We can see ourselves behind the wheel, adjusting the seat, popping in a CD and turning up the tunes. Our hearts beat faster, the excitement builds, and we say to ourselves that we REALLY want this car.

But do we really deserve to have it?

It’s nice to have beautiful things, and for some, driving a coveted and dependable vehicle would be a great improvement to what they have now. But what if your car is just fine? What if the payments fit your budget, repairs are at a minimum, and it shows no signs of deterioration? OK, it may not be shiny, it may have key scratches on it and a few door dings. Have you appreciated your present car for what it’s given you all these years? Or do you find yourself complaining that it’s old, ugly and out of style?

Learning to appreciate what we have is paramount to getting more of it.

So next time you start the manifestation process, ask yourself “Do I really deserve that?” If so, then donate your old car, with blessings, to those who will appreciate it for what it is. The thanks you give will open the door to acceptance for the newer, shinier model.

Now in early 2009, we are acutely aware of this particularly painful period in history because we are living in it; yet external elements of society–whether it be sickness, unrest or a bad economy–need not influence our inner well being if we choose to disallow such it.  This does not require you to plunge your head in the sand and ignore the pleas of those in need.  There’s plenty of room for assistance in times like this.  Rather, your attention toward others and away from your own needs allows at least two parties to benefit from your generosity: the recipient of your goodwill (whether that be time or money), and you, who according to the Law of Attraction will receive similar kindnesses in turn.  This is where true happiness lies, from the giving of yourself in both plentiful–and scarce–economies.