Much ado was recently made regarding to LOA (Law of Attraction). For those unfamiliar with what it is, the following definition sums it up well:

Law of Attraction takes the principal “Like Attracts Like” and applies it to conscious desire. That is, a person’s thoughts (conscious and unconscious), emotions, and beliefs cause a change in the physical world that attracts positive or negative experiences that correspond to the aforementioned thoughts, with or without the person taking action to attain such experiences.

While I don’t believe in any sorcery powers involved, one of the reasons why LOA works is something I call collateral skills.

If you take time to reflect back on your accomplishments, successes and accidental triumphs the actual breakthrough – the moment you crossed a threshold – seems to come out of nowhere. Of course there are often many preliminary steps involved, but that last ultimate moment seems like an accident.

  • You’ve gotten a job because the hiring manager liked your hairstyle.
  • You’ve made a new friend because you were out at a fair looking for a pendant.
  • You found a great mom-an-pop eatery because you got lost and were thirsty.

To more esoteric realizations:

  • Asking a stranger for directions puts you in social mood.
  • Telling a joke at a party improves your public speaking at a department meeting.
  • Dancing class teaches balance for when you need to cross a stream out hiking.
  • Going to the beach with a buddy to play volleyball and meet your next girlfriend.

Many will agree that the more you do something the better you get at it. And there is a side effect too:

Everything new carries within it an array of hidden talents.

Volunteering at a soup kitchen will teach you enough cooking to impress a date when you prepare grilled pork chops. This might also get you the above mentioned date.

Chatting on IM will not only keep you from boredom but also double your typing speed in a week or so – more fun than a typing class.

If you are convinced this is something you will want to try, here are some ways to do it without getting over your head.

Don’t refuse an invitation to EVER unless you already have prior plans with others. This is important – go skiing even if you don’t like cold. Join a hiking club if you can’t read a map and don’t like bugs. Go to a heavy rock concert if you’re the first chair. Can’t put a ball in the basket – play volleyball instead.

By now you should notice a pattern: Doing more things you don’t care about makes you better at things you do.

The exact things don’t matter as much as that you’re doing them.

To motivate yourself, sign up for a class if at all possible. Volunteer one day a week at your local EMT squad or Fire House. Lead a hike for an environmental organization. Join a recreational softball / basketball / volleyball / soccer team or Toast Masters. Get an ice cream and ask the counter person to pick a flavor they think matches you.

Everything that you do makes you better at something else you want to be better at. If you are convinced to pick one weekend day a month and try something new to you, you are well on your way to creating an awesome, interesting life. So long as it’s something you’re not yet good at, you will improve in ALL other areas of your life instantly – effortlessly.

But because nothing is completely isolated, many other things get better too!

This is so because non-technical and non-academic skills are very limited in scope. As a result the same skill overlaps a large area of your life – and applicable everywhere it is used. For example, think of speaking – or being able to balance, or knowing how to count, or following a melody… on and on – virtually everything you have done requires something else to enable it.

What is often missed is this:

You are consistent in every area of your life.

When you can improve just one tiny itsy bitsy part of yourself, your views or your environment, by accident or indirectly through something not seemingly related many new previously invisible doors open up.