Something that Carol mentioned in the interview last week was about the Law of Attraction. This is something that I never used to put a lot of stock in – the idea that “what you think about, you bring about”. It was a bit too “woo-woo” for me originally. Of course, I’ve seen the movie The Secret, and read a lot about the idea. And depending on who you follow, there are between 3 and 7 sub-laws to the law of attraction.

The general idea behind the law of attraction is that it helps you manifest your desires and use those desires to your advantage. Basically, it means that our thoughts, feelings and beliefs play a big part in what happens in our lives. And by being aware of this, we can influence our thoughts and attract what we want.

Broken down simply, the Law of Attraction says that “Like Attracts Like”... meaning that what you’re concentrating on is what you tend to see and experience. It doesn’t matter if what you’re concentrating on is good or bad, it just tends to show up more forcefully in your life. For example, when you’re having a bad day at work, you might slam a drawer shut...and catch your finger in it. Then you get angry because that hurt and you jerk your hand free and accidentally knock over your coffee mug and cover yourself in coffee. You don’t have time to clean up before your meeting, resulting in your being uncomfortable doing a presentation and not doing as good a job as you would generally. You know you’ve messed it up and you go home feeling frustrated, recounting to yourself all the things that have “gone wrong” for you today. As you pull into the driveway, your child’s tricycle is in the way so you can’t park properly. You grab the trike and toss it aside, bending the handlebars. Now your child is crying and your spouse is upset with you for getting angry at what seems like a minor situation. Your conclusion? “Nothing ever goes right in my life!”

        You’re probably wondering what this has to do with life beyond retirement... bear with me. I think I can pull it all together in a little bit.

        Another idea stemming from the Law of Attraction is that “Nature Abhors a Vacuum”. This is most easily demonstrated by the phenomenon I’ll call “the clean flat surface” – I’m sure you’re familiar with it, although it’s a very elusive state. It doesn’t matter where it is in your house, as soon as you clean off some flat surface, “stuff” finds its way to it and the surface is once again cluttered with debris. It could be today’s mail – for those of you who still get snail mail, or maybe car keys and a wallet, but most often it tends to be just junk – things that don’t really have a home elsewhere (and probably belong in the garbage, but you can’t bring yourself to throw them out yet). I know personally I’ve given up on trying to keep the flat surfaces in our home empty. It’s just not worth the effort!

        The final piece of the pie that is the Law of Attraction is the concept that the Present is Always Perfect. This one is harder to grasp, for some people. The basic premise is that if you focus on how to make your “present” better, it will improve. And to draw all three of these concepts together, this is the one to start with. As you focus on improving one thing in your current situation, you start to see similar improvements in other aspects of your day (Like Attracts Like) and as the improvements start to clear out the negative parts, there is room for more good (Nature Abhors a Vacuum) and finally these improvements meld together to make your situation better (Present is Always Perfect).

        So, let’s look at this from the retirement and beyond point of view. You’re done with the 9-5 world and you’re wondering what’s going to come