I’m not sure of the exact day but I do remember it was in elementary school when I first experienced magic. My friend Harold had somehow made a paper clip move around his desk without using his hands. As me and my classmates looked on in astonishment Harold just smiled at us like he was David Blaine levitating in front of an amazed crowd. After about thirty seconds of this Harold (unlike Mr. Blaine) revealed the mystery. He produced a magnet from underneath his desk. I couldn’t tell you what happened the rest of class because I was trying to see how many paper clips this mysterious new toy could attract at the same time. I’m pretty sure this was during math class. (Thank you Harold for helping me hate math)

It was my first experience with how magnets worked. I was fascinated by their ability to draw things towards them. A couple of months later my science teacher brought in a bunch of different magnets for us to play with. Some were small like the one Harold was using, and others were about the size of a ruler. I was so fascinated with how powerful the bigger ones were I kind of blocked out how they actually worked. I would hear the words “atoms” and “magnetic fields” in the background while I wondered what size magnet I would need to attract a car to it. (This was before kids got diagnosed with A.D.D. for not paying attention)

Flash forward about twenty or so years later and I learned about the “law of attraction” which basically means that “like attracts like”. This lesson wasn’t taught in a classroom setting. A friend of mine told me about a book called “The Secret”, and in this book the law of attraction was discussed throughout. What I didn’t realize at the time was this law was something that I’ve been experiencing my whole life, I just didn’t realize it.

Actual magnets have a scientific explanation for the reason they attract things. The law of attraction is a belief. It’s a feeling. There is no scientific data that can explain how or as I would later find out why it works. I was on my way to Las Vegas for a basketball clinic. I had just left my coaching job at Sussex County College without another job in place. At the end of the season I just felt like I needed to move on. I had a job interview at Blair Academy set up for when I got back, but I had no idea how it would go.

 

On the plane ride I started reading about how in the law of attraction whatever you feel is basically what you attract. So if you’re a positive person usually positive things happen to you and vice versa. I had a gut feeling about leaving my current job, I could have still taught classes there, but I didn’t want to. I wanted to leave completely; I was basically jumping off a tight rope with no idea if there was a net below to catch me. The more I read the book the more sense it made. I was halfway through it when the plane landed. The book started giving different examples of the law. Like how when you’re thinking about someone and next thing you know they text you, or when you’re wishing you had more money and you find a five dollar bill in the dryer. All these things have happened to me more times than I could remember.

The book had my full attention; it was all I could think about. The law of attraction was amazing and a little scary which drew me in even more. I went down to the pool with a friend of mine later that day and as we walked around this guy was reading the same book with the cover blatantly facing us. When I got on the plane to go home the person next to me saw the book cover from my bag and we got into a two hour discussion about it.

I started to realize that I could attract great things just by staying positive. The next day I had the interview and it went great. I got the job at Blair, and then on the way home got an email that secured a second job at a basketball facility. In a total of an hour I was going to make twice as much as I did the previous year. I was a believer before but after that I was “all in”.

I feel we are all magnets. You meet some people that always seem to have that rain cloud over their heads. They go through setback after setback until eventually they feel there’s no hope for things to change. On the other hand there are others who seem like the “luckiest” people in the world. Good fortune happens to them on a daily basis, and it keeps happening. If you believe in energy you believe in the law of attraction. There are two types positive and negative. Sometimes you get every green light on the way to work and sometime you hit every red. Think about that.

You can think positive all the time and still have some bad things happen. The key is what you do when they do. I tell people all the time that I don’t have “bad days” I only have “bad thoughts” from time to time. If I let that thought linger, eventually it will end up being a bad day. It’s a lot easier for me to deal with one thought than a whole day of things going wrong. Once you feel the thought come up, extract it from your thoughts and start to think more positive. You have a double shift you have to work on the weekend? O.k. that might stink, but at least you’re getting paid for it. The job you wanted didn’t hire you? Maybe that wasn’t the perfect fit for you, and just maybe a better job is right around the corner.

Positive thinking produces positive results. Make sure your magnet is focused on the good, not the bad.