Some of you may have noticed that I changed my signature on my email. It is now a quote from George Bernard Shaw and it says, "Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will. "

I have been doing lots of thinking about creating and imagining and how that manifests in our lives. When I came upon this quote by Shaw, I realized that it spoke of the Law of Attraction and I just had to have it on my email. It fits perfectly with my thoughts right now.

The Law of Attraction is a scientifically proven law that can be stated this way: (from Michael Losier's book, "Law of Attraction") "Whatever you give your time and energy and focus to, it is that which you will have in your life."

Interesting that I have been thinking about the law and I find a quote about it, eh? (The Law of Attraction right at work!) The other very intriguing part of it is that I found a quote on this from a world renowned playwright. How exciting to find that an artist who thought some of the same things I have been thinking!

When I realized that someone with a love for theatre and the arts just like myself was speaking about this law, I wanted to dig a little farther into his life. I've read some of the plays that Shaw wrote such as "Arms and the Man" and "Pygmalion" and I have seen them on the stage. But I did not realize how much of a positive social impact this man had on society.

Perhaps Shaw's greatest accomplishment was the "finding of the Fabian Society, a socialist political organization dedicated to transforming Britain into a socialist state, not by revolution but by systematic progressive legislation, bolstered by persuasion and mass education. The Fabian society would later be instrumental in founding the London School of Economics and the Labour Party. Shaw lectured for the Fabian Society, and wrote pamphlets on the progressive arts, including The Perfect Wagnerite, an interpretation of Richard Wagner's Ring cycle, and The Quintessence of Ibsenism, based on a series of lectures about the progressive Norwegian playwright, Henrik Ibsen." - taken from the University of Pennsylvania English Department.

According to Wikepedia, "His main thrust in the Society was that social class worked to serve its own ends, and that those in the upper echelons had won the struggle. He believed the working class had failed to promote its interests effectively, which made him highly critical of the democratic system of his time. Shaw's writing, as evinced in plays like Major Barbara and Pygmalion, has class struggle as an underlying theme. Notwithstanding that, Shaw was not a Marxist in the traditional sense, and abhorred the aggressiveness of Trade Unionism."

Although I think Shaw was extreme and a little harsh at times in his evaluations and beliefs, I really have fallen in love with this man of the late 1800's. He truly believed and promoted this idea of creating what you focus on. The working class had created their own situation, he said. They had made their own lives what they were. He believed in man taking responsibility for their actions and situations and not blaming others through such actions as strikes and lawsuits. He believed in honest and open relationship and peaceful persuasive discussions. For it is by peace that peace is created in lives.

That brings us back to the Law of Attraction, I would say that when you concentrate on something, it grows. And that is what excites me about living and doing the work of encouraging and creating partnerships that are highly effective and powerful! If you focus on the positive, highly effective and powerful stuff of partnering, your partnerships will grow.

On the other side of the coin, if you focus on words and phrases of ingratitude, for example, the results over time can be devestating.

Wouldn't you rather accumulate the stuff of power?

Keep partnering!

Wanda

About the Author

Wanda is a forward-thinking pioneer in the Arts and in Business who has a heart for community and for growing effective self-sustaining partnerships in life, business and the arts.

With her BA's in Theatre and Music and with her gifts of administration and encouragement, Wanda founded Reinholdt Productions, a theatrical production company specializing in the systemic design of projects through directing, teaching, writing, and creative problem solving.