Published on the 1st and 3rd Monday of each month

The Law of Attraction and Job Hunting

Jul 16 2007, Mike Estep

There is much talk these days about the Law of Attraction. The general premise has to do with people getting what they desire by focusing thoughts, words, emotions, and actions on the objects of desire. I generally believe that such principles work. I have seen many cases of people creating self-fulfilling prophecies where successes and failures occur in relationships and achievement.

One thing that troubles me somewhat is the idea that a person should concentrate their efforts on using the Law of Attraction to become independently wealthy so they won’t have to work at a job for someone else. Don’t misunderstand, there is absolutely nothing wrong with being independently wealthy. However, there is also nothing wrong with having a job.

I’ve taught private music lessons for a number of years (still do). About 10 years ago, I decided to go back to school to get computing degrees to enter the IT industry. Instead I ended up becoming a college professor in computing. Sometimes, I believe that our calling in life keeps tugging at us, even if we try to escape it from time to time. I don’t teach because I can’t do (I occasionally will still do consultation outside of teaching). Instead, I teach because I’m good at it and get fulfillment out of inspiring my students to better themselves.

In the summer of 2005, my late wife Rhonda died in an automobile accident. I was working at a university at the time and finished out my job for the following year, but decided to take a break in the summer of 2006 in order to resolve grieving issues. So, I have not held an academic position for about one year now. I didn’t feel that it would be difficult to find another position because I had recently written a large National Science Foundation grant that got funded. What has happened during the year I took off has surprised me somewhat.

I sent out over 100 targeted resumes (vitas) during the last year with few results, which at times was frustrating. My credentials are excellent. However, academic institutions usually will do a national search for candidates. Therefore, it would not be uncommon for any particular job to have dozens of qualified people apply. So what does this have to do with the Law of Attraction?

My desire is to be an academic. I focus my thoughts, words, emotions, and actions toward this desire. I’ve recently had job interviews that are very promising. In academia, when you are brought to the campus for an interview, the probabilities of getting a job are pretty high. I’m confident that I will receive employment from one of these interviews (I may discuss this in a future post). However, this process has taken about one year.

When pursuing the desires of the heart, it is important to realize that we will not always have instant gratification. Instant gratification can sometimes have a tendency to spoil people and make them not have any appreciation for what they receive. Therefore when utilizing the Law of Attraction, one must know that delayed gratification may be part of the process.

It is also important during such delay to keep focused on the goal and not lose hope. Continuously focusing on negative circumstances will only make a person feel worse, and possibly create more negative circumstances (self-fulfilling prophecy). Occasional negative attitudes and frustration may occur, which is a normal human response. Once realized, one should mentally "pick themselves up" and resume toward the goal with a positive outlook. A goal may have to be adjusted from time to time, but having a positive outlook is a better aid to moving forward.

Therefore, people can use the Law of Attraction in the pursuit of anything they desire, even in trivial areas of life such as finding employment!