So, you want to feel more in control of what’s showing up in your life, huh?

You want to manifest your desires on a more consistent basis, right?

First, I hear you.

And second, I’m with you.

There’s nothing better than living your life on your own terms and watching your desires come together before your eyes. This feeling of being the deliberate creator of your life is the essence of a Very Cool Life™.

However, before you can see the stuff you want begin to show up around you, you must know and respect how things work.

My inspiration for this post was reading the words of a teacher who wrote that “the Universe always gives you want you want.”

Horse hockey.

Statements like this are what keep many people leery from learning more about the Law of Attraction. Most people recognize these words to be false from their own experience and then reject the Law of Attraction as New Age mumbo jumbo. And other folks, overly-optimistic and hungry in their desire for a better life, cling to this idea for as long as possible, but never make any progress and end up jaded about their own belief in the Law of Attraction.

I do not want these outcomes for anyone and I believe they come from a crucial misunderstanding of the principles at work.

So let’s clear a few things up right now.

The Universe does not give you what you want.

In fact, the Universe does not care what you want. It’s not a person! There’s no wizard behind a curtain, no white-haired man dressed in a robe and sandals, floating about in the sky keeping tabs on a list of your desires. (Oh, Susie wants a new car? Hmmmn. Let’s see here… Does she deserve a new car?) In fact, thinking that there exists some entity outside yourself that cares for you is a way of abdicating your own free will and sense of personal responsibility for your own life.

A better way to understand how the Universe works is to picture it as a massive amplifying machine. This amplifying machine does not care what kind of “music” you feed into it. It’s a machine, after all. It has no preferences. It only does one thing: It takes what you feed into it and then makes it louder.

This is how the process of manifestation works. The thoughts and feelings that you choose emanate from you, sending a specific signal out to this massive amplifier, the Universe. The amplified signal then comes back to you, a simple, perfect feedback system. Whatever you put into the system is what comes back out, only louder.

Most people are so focused on what they want (and their distress over the fact that what they want is not showing up) that they fail to see where the process of manifestation is breaking down. Here’s the distinction to help break this cycle.

The Universe does not give you more of what you want, the Universe gives you more of that which you give your attention.

In other words, what you want does not matter. Where you focus your attention determines what you create.

So, if you like what you are getting in a particular area of your life, keep your attention where it is.

If you do not like what you are getting, or wish to create something better, it’s your job to look inward and make changes based on your discovery of where your attention is focused on thoughts and feelings that reflect what you do NOT want.

When you understand and embrace the concept of the Universe as a big amplifier, this leads you to take charge of the thoughts and feelings you choose to activate. You begin to look at the results you create and then connect the dots to where you’ve been focusing your thoughts. You practice, tweak, and make adjustments.

You get what you focus upon. Whether that’s  good stuff or bad stuff, it’s just a reflection of where you put your attention. So why not get in the habit of attending to the things that feel good to focus on?

I promise you that this is the best investment of your time and energy if you wish to begin seeing your life unfold on your own terms.