Saturday, December 7, 2013

The Law of Attraction

         Luke 11:9-10, “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” The verse is very simple, yet I have had so many magical experiences since I hold onto this verse about 5 years ago. I did not find the verse is very special up until I read a book titled “The Secret”. Basically, the book uses the verse in one of the chapters to explain the law of attraction, “Everything happened in your life is attracted by your thought. Good thoughts and good feeling will attract good things to happen and vice versa.”
            Many people do not agree with this value, because they think that it is impossible just to attract stuffs with thought. They said that people who believe in this value are over optimistic and not realistic. These people who disagree with this value mostly think that thought will literally attract something happen. They will say that if this value is real, there will be no poor people and everyone will be rich and successful. The problem with these non-believers is that they oversimplified the law of attraction. It is true that good thought will attract good things; however just thinking will not make everything happen.
             Since I read the book, I started to control my thought and my emotion to be positive most of times. It was not easy on the beginning, and it does not get easier because there are at least 600,000 thoughts pass through our minds every single day. One part of the book mentions that a person should believe that they can achieve what they want to achieve. I always want to travel overseas, however there were not many opportunities to travel for free. Up until a day when a foundation came to my school and mentioned that they would select one boy and one girl from my school to have a month study abroad in New Zealand.
            I realized that the opportunities might be the only opportunity for me to go overseas. I applied, and I had done my best in the selection process. I came to the final interview and everything seemed went very well for me. Yet, I was not selected. I was confused at that time; I feel like I had done my best and attracted the trip strong enough by imagining myself in New Zealand every day. Then I thought maybe I had to do better than just imagining it. I felt down for a couple of days, yet I know that if I kept attracting the overseas travel, there would be another chance. As a part of my redemption, I made a visa even though there was no opportunity for me, and I kept telling my close friends that I would go overseas before I turned 17. The New Zealand process was on April, about seven months before my 17th birthday. It might sounds crazy, but the next thing happened I was on my flight to UK on September the same year I was selected by British Council to represent my country for UK school games, British Council only selected one boy and one girl from all around Indonesia. Even up until this point, I could not believe that my first trip was actually happened. I was not selected when I competed with my school friends, yet when I competed with all people in Indonesia, I made it. 

In the U.K with some other volunteers
            My first overseas trip to UK before my 17th birthday made me believe that the law of attraction does actually work, and it made me keep myself positive. On August the year after, I was selected to be the only representative from Indonesia to an International Camp in Japan. And the year after Japan trip, I found myself in Lubbock, studying Finance at Texas Tech University. Then I started to recall that I have been attracting about studying overseas for my undergraduate degree since I was seven years old. My dad reminded me during our Skype call sometimes ago that I have been telling everyone that I want to go overseas for my university since I was seven. And my dad always kept telling me that as long as I keep working hard and pray hard, someday my dreams would become realities. 

My winning group in Japan - Group R!
             The things that happened to me did not always the same with the thought that I have. I realize that I cannot actually attract specific things happened in my life. When I wanted the New Zealand trip, it did not happen to me. During my application to college, I wanted to go to Cornell, but it also did not happen to me. Even after I graduated from middle school, I did not want to go to my high school. These three are very small examples compared to what have happened in my life, I could not specifically request things to happen. However, I always end up to stuffs that I needed instead of what I wanted. If I did not go to my high school, I might not end up studying in the U.S. If I was selected to go to New Zealand, I might not go to U.K. There is no rocket science about why and how these things happened. And every time, all things always work together for my good.
            I realized that my experiences made me have a counter argument for the non-believer. The idea of law of attraction is not just attracts thoughts and it will happen to our life. The idea of the law of attraction is that positive thoughts will keep us stand even though the circumstances let us down. Many people say that it is not genius person will be successful, but those who never give up no matter how hard is the condition. The other reason why law of attraction works is because positive thoughts lead to positive attitude that makes people around me have faith in me that lead to myself believing that I can be the person I want to be in the future. Started from my best friends in high school who supported me when I told them about me going overseas before my 17th birthday, up until my friends and professors today that support me when I told them about my dream to be the Indonesian Finance Minister in the future.
            Positive thought does not directly attract good things happen to our life, but it indirectly leads us to reach our dreams by giving us optimism to face tough condition. It also gives us belief by having positive attitudes that lead us to people that support our dream. As a bonus, our positive thoughts will give us energy and inspiration to people around us. I might not live long enough to face hard condition in life; but in my young age I know that this value will keep me going on through life whatever happened in the future. 

“if you tell yourself you feel fine, you will.” -Jodi Picoult

4 comments:

  1. Hi Tim!
    I've been dreaming about studying abroad since I was a kid too, but unlike you I end up doing my undergraduate degree here in Indonesia. I was disappointed and jealous since a lot of my juniors going abroad for university (including you!). But now I am very grateful to be here, and I keep believing I'll study abroad one day. Thank you for reminding me that every cloud has a silver lining. :)

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    1. Hi Kak Sheila,

      That is so true! There is always a silver lining in every cloud! Keep your dream alive and I am sure you will be able to reach your dream to travel overseas! God Bless!

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  2. Timmy, How are you there? It should be amazing like Mas Gusde said.

    Timmy, I will tell you many things here. First, I regret all the time when I was Senior high school. I realize right know. I almost did bad things on my school's achievements and my sociality. I called as "labil" age period. I am so 'labil' when I was senior high school student, maybe you knew that. If I have a chance to go back for my life on senior high school student, I would make my life so powerful and meaningful. I know, you know , It will not happen anymore. It just an imaginary dream on my mind. So, I ask your apologize for my faults to you that I did at the past.

    Second, I was so jealous with you. Why you know about the law-attraction since past years ago. I know that kind of law when we graduated from senior high school. And right know I totally agree with what you write. I have already prove that law. Many things happen out of my logical.

    Third, I will "curcol" with you. This is my experience about last years ago, 2012. My life changes since I graduated. A week after we had national exam, I almost got broken home family. Everything my family had, has already gone one by one, the last we had, was a house. My house would sell to at that time. My father say that I have to work if Sampoerna didnt support for my collage. I should keep my brothers studying.

    Fortunately, KSB still support us and finally I say thanks to God, my family was being together again. Here, in Jakarta, I learn a lot of meaningful things. My friends think, I get my mature here. I am being better here. Yes, it should happen, right? So, thats why I am regretting all my precious senior high school time. But I doesnt matter, If I was not "labil" in senior high school, I will not be a better person.

    The last is, I have a lot of dreams right now Tim. One of my dreams that related to your post is going aboard. Since last year I dreamed to go aboard. No matter if it's just for holiday, but better If it for a student exchange or a conference.

    I hope in 2014, I will go to aboard. Amin. By the way,I will keep reading your posts here. I will improve my english skills. If you dont mind, please teach me and read my post on my new blog, " abdippn.blogspot.com ". I will make it serious blog. :)

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    1. Hi Brother!

      I am so glad to hear from you! And thank you so much for sharing your life story! I am amazed with your strength to keep going and even improving your self! Trust me, every person has made a mistake in life and it's never too late to realize. I am glad that my writing inspires you and if you need any help, don't hesitate to email me!

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