What are you Attracting?

   You have probably read something somewhere or heard something by now about the "Law of Attraction". And how, in a nutshell, your circumstances, people around you, and life has been attracted literally by you. Whether you believe that this universal law actually exists or not, it is hard to argue or ignore patterns of behavior. We all know someone who attracts the same type of relationship or significant other time and time again, or alcoholics running in families as they watch this learned behavior as they grow up. (That is what is so amazing about the person who consciously decides to break the cycle, they are not only impacting themselves but further generations.) Or on the flip side the millionaire who loses it all, goes broke, and before you know it is a millionaire once again. Luck? I don't think so. There is definitely a pattern going on. And the pattern is mindset. 
   I thought about this as I was laying on the beach this last week, some of you know my family and I were on vacation over the holiday. What I was thinking about is how much my patterns have changed in recent years, specifically when traveling. I love to travel, but I don't necessarily love the process of getting to where I'm going. And I use to dread going to the airport, dread it. I would always be picked for additional screening, I would always go through the pat down because I opt out of getting blasted with radiation before my flight, I would get the TSA agent who thinks he's a radiologist when I do opt out,  I would get the ticket counter employee who hates their job and whoever is standing on the other side of their counter, I would get the "I'm sorry we overbooked this flight, you are on standby", I would get in an argument with the TSA agent who doesn't believe me when I tell him the stroller won't fit in to the xray machine, you get my point.... It was always a HORRIBLE experience. This pattern also happened with me and customer service in general, at restaurants, etc. But a few years ago I had a good friend of mine point out this pattern to me, and very bluntly tell me that I was the one attracting it.
   And thank God he did, because he was right. My mindset every time I went in to these situations was negative before they even started. And who knows how many times the situations weren't even that bad, but because I had such a negative attitude going in that I was literally looking for things. The smallest thing would set me off and ruin the experience. So what did I start doing different? That is what is so amazing about this whole thing, all I had to do was make a decision, it only took a moment. Now there are times I have to remind myself of that decision, and use affirmations that everything is going to go smoothly. But in a single moment I consciously made the decision to change my mindset. And guess what? Things changed. Shortly after my wife and I got upgraded to first class on a flight, it happened again about a year after, I had never been upgraded in my entire life. I say that like I'm shocked, of course I was never upgraded, remember my mindset at the time. 
   So why was I thinking about this while I laid on the beach last week? Well let me tell you how smooth my trip went. On the way their, long line at airport security, TSA agent moves us to the pre screen line because we have kids. That's a small thing right? Right but I was pretty dang thankful for it. Get to our rental car company after the flight, "Sorry sir but we are actually out of the small suv you reserved." Where do you think your mindset wants to start going? Remind myself, smile and say "ok"..Then she follows with "So we are going to upgrade you for free to are luxury full size suv!" Wow this trip is off to an amazing start! Get to the hotel, we were upgraded to an oceanview! I'm not kidding! Excellent service just continued through the whole week, we had a great time. But this is what I now expect, it is what I am prepared for. But here's the last great thing, we get to the airport to head back and our flight is delayed, delayed enough that we wont be able to make our connecting flight back to Dallas. And there is not another flight that night heading to Dallas Love Field Airport. Uh oh. But there is another airport that served Dallas, DFW. "Let's see if we can get another airline to get you there." Done. And this flight's nonstop. So we literally went from having a flight with a stop to having a direct flight. It was an upgrade! Make the decision to change your mindset and watch how dramatically your life around you changes.