The Law of Attractionhas been receiving an enormous amount of attention in recent years, and part of this is due to movies like ‘The Secret’ and ‘What the Bleep do we know?’, but the Law of Attraction itself has been with us since the dawn of humanity. The Law of Attraction can be described in many ways, but when all is said and done it boils down to a very simple idea: Your Thoughts Are Creative.

Now different people have different understandings about what that actually means. Some people believe that, because thoughts are creative, they can sit back and visualize something good happening and expect it to manifest in their lives without them having to lift a finger as far as physical action is concerned. Others, myself included, believe that physical action is also necessary, especially if your want your desires to manifest as quickly and effectively as possible.

To illustrate this, consider the idea of becoming a world-class pianist. You could sit and think creative thoughts about becoming a world-class pianist for as long as you like, but unless you actually add the physical action of learning to play the piano, your creative thoughts won’t be very effective. Similarly, if you want to win a lottery jackpot, you need to take the physical action of buying a ticket!

I wanted to make this point clear, because at my Create Good Things blog I focus on the mental and spiritual side of things, but I don’t want you to think that physical action is not just as important. My personal belief is that your thoughts can help you to create an enormous amount of wealth, happiness and success in your life, but you need to follow through with whatever physical actions are appropriate to make the manifestation of your desires possible.

Think of your thoughts as a kind of fuel that drive your physical actions in life. The quality of your actions will be determined by the quality of the fuel you are using. Think negative thoughts and you are effectively filling up your tank with negative fuel, and that leads to ineffective actions because you don’t believe that it is possible for you to create good things in your life. However, if you think positive thoughts and expect to experience success in every aspect of your life, you are filling up your tank with positive fuel. As a result, you will take more effective actions, interact with people in a much more positive way and – as a natural consequence – you will achieve your desires.

I focus on the creative power of thought in this Create Good Things blog because the fuel must always precede the physical actions. The popular saying ‘Thoughts Are Things’ doesn’t mean that you can think of a $100 bill and have one manifest in your hand automatically. It simply means that if you want a $100 bill in your hand you first need to believe that such a thing is possible. Only when you have the necessary belief will you even begin to take whatever actions are appropriate to making that particular thought manifest in your life.

That said, I do also know from experience that creative thought alone can lead directly to manifestation of desires. For example, a man might decide to get a new job and start visualizing his ideal career. Then, just as he is about to start drawing up a new CV, he might get a phone call from an old employer who wants him to join a new business venture.

Why such a direct manifestation takes place in some cases and not in others is one of those questions that nobody can answer with any real conviction. What I can say is that the willingness to take physical action always precedes manifestation, even if such physical action turns out to be unnecessary. Had the person in the example just given not been willing to draw up a new CV and start looking for a new position, the job offer probably wouldn’t have come. But, because the willingness to take physical action was there, the person somehow opened the way for his desire to be manifested automatically.

For this reason, the Law of Attraction cannot be described simply as ‘believe and receive’. In my experience, if you want to obtain manifestation of your desires as quickly as possible, a better description of the Law of Attraction – and the one you should employ in your daily life – is ‘believe, act and receive’. Omit the central willingness to take appropriate physical action and you effectively short-circuit the whole law, and that is why some people find that the Law of Attraction doesn’t seem to ‘work’ for them.

With this proper understanding of the Law of Attraction in mind, maybe it would be a good idea to review your approach to manifesting your desires. Acknowledge that your thoughts are creative,. Decide to create good things and then start taking positive action to speed up the manifestation of those good things. If you do this I am sure you will be astonished at how quickly results will follow!