This may appear to be a trick, but it isn't. I suspect this will ring true for most anyone ...as the participant or as the observer. Unraveling this mystery is likely understood best by way of example, so...

Let's take an average Joe. He has a job, a family, etc. Let's call him Alfred. One day Alfred gets frustrated because he looks around at his life and is disgusted by it. He just doesn't like his situation at all. Every day he walks around observing his life and feels hopeless in changing it and so he condemns it as he goes along. He hates basically everything is his life. Understand that ole Alfred has felt this way about the matter for some time and has ultimately surrendered to the idea of things being this way. Got the picture?

The reason ole Alfred is getting what he's getting is because ole Alfred invests all his energy on things he doesn't want or like. His acknowledgement of his present and his vision of the future are the same, indeed more of the same. It is the same ole bad stuff. This may sound crazy, but he's tuned-in to all the things he doesn't like (very negative) and has given no energy at all to thinking about what he does (positive).

Do you know folks who love to sit around and discuss all the negative things in their life, your life, the world, or even an imaginary one like soap operas and television shows? Look at their lives and see what it looks like. Energy attracts like energy, and what you invest is what is attracted back. It is really a simple formula, and it works perfectly no matter how you alone choose to use it.

Think of life as one big broadcast of FM radio stations. You can tune into any you like, anytime you like. The entire (endless) frequency band is available to you. Would you always tune into the stations you despise? Why not? Ahh, because you don't like them. Voila! Your life operates the same way. Let's apply this to Alfred's predicament.

He is literally tuned into the things he doesn't like and operates his daily life in this self-chosen frequency of things. Now Alfred is smart enough to know that he can neither re-live a moment that has just passed nor can he jump ahead and live in the minute yet to come so where does this leave him? Present! Now! This is the only place you are allowed to use in creating your life just like Alfred did.

So what if you use your presence to "tune in" a radio station you do like? Seems like a natural thing to do, doesn't it? But we don't. Instead, we continue listening to the existing station we don't like and then wonder why it is always the same music.

You choose to be something and feel and think about who you are and, of course, then attract like ideas and (energy) into your creation regardless of what it is that you focus on. This is you creating in the "now" and this paves the road in front of you. Ever heard the expression, "You don't own it until you pay something for it"? Indeed, Alfred took his life energy (feelings and thoughts) and spent it all on the things he doesn't like and then wonders why his life doesn't change!!

Okay, let's look at Alfred's sister. Let's call her Wilma. Wilma lived with Alfred for a long time and exhibited a more enlightened state of mind than Alfred. She saw the problem of being negative and always kept positive thoughts in her mind about what she wanted and desired. She would never sit around and discuss dramas. The only problem was; what she felt about the matter was the exact opposite of what she was thinking. She totally relied on her past experiences to dictate her feelings which were; what she "wanted" will never happen nor ever has happened and she is trapped right where she is. Emotions are the fuel to your thoughts. In this case they didn't align so they sort of canceled each other out and she wondered why her life never changed.

Starting to get the picture here?

Everyone reading this article knows that you can only live now. No past moments can be re-experienced nor can you live in a moment yet to come. Big deal, right? So we all know that we can only live now. You might be assuming that given this understanding you (or anyone) have no other choice so of course, you are here, being so what?

Let's go back and look at Alfred and Wilma. Alfred was executing perfectly. All his feelings and thoughts (his being) were very focused and creating. Wilma was definitely in the now with her thoughts, but her feelings were being generated by her past. The past was sort of siphoning off a great deal of her from her "now." She wasn't fully present. Alfred was, though, and getting exactly what he was thinking and feeling -highly synchronized.

So if you feel like your life is stuck in a dilemma between where you are and where you desire to be, then realize it is you creating this dilemma yourself. Take your energy and use it in the only place you are allowed to -now! Be deliberate about how you feel and think -now. Be fully present. Some advice from Wayne Dyer fits here: "Never again think about what you don't want." Is this really so hard to do?

Don't be confused about this because it is so very simple. Align your thoughts and feelings, your conscious awareness into one idea of what you most desire and focus on that. Giving your energy, your focus to all the things around you that you dislike is a waste of your energy ...a waist of you! I think Mother Teresa put it best when she was asked to join a large anti-war rally. Her response, "No thank you, when you organize a peace rally let me know!" Get it?