4 Levels Of Belief: An Average Jo’s Approach To Law Of Attraction
An average approach brings average results.
Disclaimer: This isn’t a full guide to manifesting, it is simply a helper article to clarify one of the most misunderstood parts of law of attraction.
Imagine a girl named Jo.
Jo thinks she’s a manifestor. Why? Because Jo manifested a parking space just when she wanted it, a phone call from a friend just when she was thinking about them, and the occasional ‘free stuff’ here and there. She’s also read The Secret, listened to subliminals, and gotten occasional results from tarot and astrology.
Because of all these things, Jo believes in the law of attraction, and that’s great, because LOA is amazing.
But lately, the ‘big things’ Jo wants still aren’t showing up. Her crush is unrequited. Her career is stalled. Her fitness isn’t up to par.
So she decides to get more serious about Law Of Attraction, and starts consuming loads of materials from various LOA teachers.
And when she sees and hears their inspirational stories and messages, Jo feels a bit better about life.
She feels like just maybe, she can attract the things she wants in life.
And after months of struggle, it feels so good to have a glimmer of hope, that Jo becomes addicted to it. She gets a dopamine hit from the inspirational law of attraction content put out by her favorite influencers, so instead of ‘putting in the practice’ to focus her mind and change her beliefs, Jo binge-watches LOA content instead.
Eventually, with hundreds of hours of content watched over many more months, Jo starts to believe she ‘knows it all,’ because how couldn’t she after consuming so much content, right?
Besides, the majority of the teachers have such inspiring stories that Jo kind of feels like she’s getting better just by watching them. And they have so much free content that boosts Jo’s self-esteem. And confidence is so important for manifesting, right? So Jo figures it must all be helping quite a lot!
But the truth is, Jo’s conclusion is probably a lie. False. Completely off-base.
I’m not saying what she did was wrong. The ‘good feeling’ and slight confidence boost aren’t bad, and I’m glad there’s plenty of feel-good content out there that soothes people. But it’s a band-aid. It’s not hyper-effective. It’s not my preferred kind of teaching. And Jo won’t go anywhere with it for years. In reality, the ‘binge-LOA content’ approach rarely works for anyone except those who are already naturally talented at belief and manifestation anyway. It’ll only work for someone who’s already a master.
And any master at any skill will tell you that ‘watching others’ is no substitute for true practice.
And masters of any skill will also say that it’s wise to consider yourself ‘good’ at something, only once you’ve produced some consistent, impressive results. And even then, most masters would avoid thinking they ‘know it all,’ or they ‘don’t need to practice,’ or there’s ‘nothing more to learn…’ because that’s an instant way to kill your growth and plateau your results.
So Jo hasn’t produced consistent, impressive results, therefore she is not ‘good’ at deliberate manifestation. And if that’s not enough, Jo thinking she ‘knows it all’ has plateaued her results, so she is not ‘good’ at using law of attraction. And binging LOA content will only make it worse, pulling her towards dopamine rather than real growth. Jo doesn’t need yet another piece of LOA content to suck her time away.
So why does soaking up LOA teachings work so poorly?
Because the four levels of belief trip people up.
When Jo watches law of attraction content without practicing it, she only absorbs it intellectually. She watches the message that says ‘you can have whatever you dream of’,’ then nods her head and thinks ‘yes, I believe that.’
But she doesn’t really believe that.
She just ‘thought’ it fleetingly, before moving on to binge another video.
If she’s lucky, she’ll dwell on the thought ‘I can have whatever I dream of’ a bit more often throughout the week. If so, she may kind of ‘believe’ it for real, instead of just ‘thinking’ she believes it. But even with that belief, it’s going to be new, shaky, rough. Which means one bad thing happening, or one dream taking too long to arrive, can easily shatter her belief, and even if not, Jo’s ‘belief’ likely ain’t strong enough to manifest anything quickly. Watching a video is weak sauce, and even playing with the idea off-and-on won’t really shore up the belief very well. The real magic happens when Jo finds ‘conviction’, or even better ‘knowing.’
The funny thing is, if I explain this to Jo, she’ll just say out loud, “Don’t worry J-Ryze, I *know* I can have whatever I dream of.”
She’ll put heavy vocal emphasis on the word ‘know’, and she’ll make her eyes wide and bright.
But she’s not really aware of what she’s doing. She’s not really focused on improving, she just wants to ‘be right’ in the conversation, and get off the topic without having to make real change.
All Jo has done by saying things like this to me… is give voice to a weak, new thought, that she has little practice believing, definitely isn’t convicted of, and most certainly does NOT ‘know’ it.
Because there’s a huge difference between:
- Thinking something is true. (‘weak’ belief)
- Believing something is true. (‘decent’ belief)
- Conviction that something is true. (‘strong’ belief)
- Knowing that something is true. (‘core’ belief)
Still not clear? Let’s apply it to something everyone’s familiar with… breathing.
Can you tell the difference between these concepts?
- Jo thinks she can hold her breath for 2 minutes straight.
- Jo believes she can hold her breath for 2 minutes straight.
- Jo’s convinced that she can hold her breath for 2 minutes straight.
- Jo knows that she can hold her breath for 2 minutes straight.
Big difference.
Think about it: My cousin ‘believes’ he can hold his breath for 2 minutes, and will brag about it the first chance he gets. Michael Phelps knows he can, and barely mentions it to anyone unless there’s a point to it. What’s the difference between the two? Their level of belief. Their level of confidence. They both began with low belief in breath-holds when they were toddlers, so how did one end up so confident? Simple, one practiced properly, and after enough practice, they truly knew they could hold their breath for two minutes.
Can you tell how each of the four concepts I’ve outlined ‘feels’ differently, deep inside? Can you tell when a person merely ‘thinks’ something, vs. when a person ‘fucking knows it?’ More importantly, can you tell the difference between you ‘thinking’ something vs. you with the intense conviction of ‘knowing?’
This takes some self-awareness, introspection, and self-honesty.
And it’s important, because it’s deep knowing that manifests reality fast for you, and weak thinking that keeps you stuck, going nowhere fast on your goals. What you think about reality will never beat what you know about reality. What you simply believe about reality will never beat what you’re convinced of about reality.
So how do we go from a ‘weak belief’ that we merely ‘think’, to a ‘core belief’ that we ‘know?’
Well, technically you can make that journey with thought and emotion alone, quite quickly, in a single sitting or less… but only the naturally talented, true masters, and experts can do this.
For anyone else who’s ‘learning’ to use the law of attraction, there’s really only one path.
Practice.
What Jo needs is structured, focused, enthusiastic LOA practice.
Structured, focused, enthusiastic manifestation practice is the simplest, most reliable, most universal way of bridging the gaps between simply thinking something, to believing it, to being convicted of it, to knowing it.
Strangely, it seems that most full-grown adults have trouble understanding what the above sentence means.
I’ve told many students before that they need structured, focused, enthusiastic manifestation practice before, and they just smile, nod, and go back to their autopilot lives, and I’m like… “Hello? What? Why aren’t you practicing?”
Or they go ‘do affirmations’ for 2 minutes, then fall back to practicing an average of once a month.
That’s not proper practice, it’s a joke.
Below are two looks at proper practice, complete with honest self-assessment of belief-levels, notes about limiting beliefs and methods used, and most importantly the date you successfully manifested what you want.
First, here’s an example for money manifestation practice.
And next, here’s an example for love or relationship manifestation practice.
Now…
You don’t have to make your spreadsheet this fancy. You don’t have to copy it exactly. There’s lots of ways to track progress. Maybe you’re a coder and you make an entire app for it. Maybe you just jot it down in a journal or on notecards. Maybe you’re some kind of savant and can track it mentally. All I know is, most people are not confident in their ability to consistently manifest their dreams, and that confidence is built the same way with any skill.
Practice.
And your practice has to be FUN.
A kid learning to ride a bike gets nowhere if they’re miserable. Their practice only works if it’s so fun that they can’t wait to ride. A teen mastering basketball achieves little through miserable practice. Their practice only works if it’s so fun that they can’t wait to hit the courts.
So hopefully you can see that Jo is best served by watching one LOA video, or learning one belief-changing method, and from that point, devoting the bulk of her efforts towards the (fun) practice of manifesting stuff, starting small, then getting bigger. She needs to find a method that resonates with her, and commit to it properly. She needs to invest time and energy in thinking better thoughts, seeking better moods, adjusting her beliefs, and developing a deep knowing. This is the path of practice.
Even a child can practice anything they want to get the hang of (and most do so quite well, in fact.)
And so can Jo.
But not a single one of the teachers she has been watching emphasizes the path of practice.
Not a single fucking one.
Goddard, Hay, Hill, Rohn, Proctor, Chopra, Dyer, Robbins, and all the rest, put very little emphasis on practice.
Because they’d rather come up with a cool new method, with a fancy new name, I guess. Why? Well, it could be for totally innocent reasons. It could be that they just like being creative. And they like offering fresh, novel approaches. That might be their passion.
Or it could be something more sinister, or self-interested. It’s possible they do this because that’s what sells. That’s what makes the algorithms happy. It may be because they know that the masses fork over their cash for ‘magic pills’ with fun-sounding names, and that any mention of ‘hardcore practice’ would be a turn-off and a hit to their bottom line.
Whatever the case, I’m grateful for all the teachers. I’ve learned from them all, and I don’t judge, I don’t know their motivations (only they do), and I don’t care.
All I care is that someone, somewhere, tells you the truth.
And the truth is that practice matters an insane amount and is tragically under-emphasized in the LOA field today.
It’s like a basketball coach telling his athletes “just show up for the lectures, no practice needed and you’ll win the championship.”
Hell, even one of my favorite teachers –Abraham-Hicks– rarely emphasizes practice. (But one of the wonderful things they do is get people into the ‘hot seat’ so they can do the unfamiliar work of raising their vibration ‘on the spot.’ So although they don’t emphasize practice as much as I believe a good teacher ‘should’, it’s still a great example of practice.)
Another of my favorite LOA teachers does seem to mention practice fairly often, but it depends on the veracity of documentation about him.
“But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.” – JOHN 3:21
“Behold, you are to them like a sensual song by one who has a beautiful voice and plays well on an instrument; for they hear your words but they do not practice them.” EZEKIEL 33:32
“But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.” – HEBREWS 5:14
And more.
Anyway, according to the bible, Jesus mentioned ‘practice’ anywhere from 20-40 times in his teachings, depending on translation. Perhaps in person –unrecorded– he mentioned it more, perhaps less. Perhaps he mentioned it in other phrasing or language. How much did Jesus really emphasize practice? No one really knows.
But again, it doesn’t really matter.
What matters here, now, is that I’m emphasizing it. And like any coach worth their salt, I make a point of emphasizing practice often. And like any athlete serious about their sport…
…If you want to be good at manifesting, you’d best be practicing often.
And anyone who practices anything well, experiences something amazing.
What’s that, you may ask? Simple. They become more confident, successful, and flat-out better at it.
They become a pro.
And no one can come along and tell them they’re not, because they know deep down they’re fucking good at it.
So don’t be an average Jo, binging LOA content for a temporary dopamine rush, while neglecting proper practice.
Instead, be a true baller. Get in your LOA ‘gym’ or hit your LOA ‘courts’ and practice manifesting. Do it with enthusiasm and heart, like anyone practicing something that matters. Do it until you become good at it, then watch your confidence soar, your self-belief soar, and most importantly, your results soar.
Be smarter than the average Jo.
I know you can do it.
