The author believes the law of attraction often fails because it lacks a foundation. After 15 years and more than two thousand self-help books, he boiled it down to the simplest starting point: gratitude. Just spend 3 minutes a day writing down what you're grateful for, and you'll gradually build a “luck-attracting constitution.”

• First, stop forcing it: straining to make a wish come true is itself a kind of tension; the first step is to loosen up.
• Not “thought manifestation” but “emotional manifestation”: thinking positive thoughts isn't enough; what really brings change is the emotion you actually feel.
• The power of writing: writing by hand with a pen connects your heart and subconscious, and looking back through it later brings new insights. It doesn't matter whether your handwriting is neat.

The author has kept a gratitude notebook for more than 15 years. The book says that after his mother practiced the gratitude habit, within 90 days she went from taking nearly 20 kinds of medicine a day to needing none; he himself achieved goals such as moving to Okinawa and passing 100,000 YouTube subscribers.

The book lays out the process of changing your life as a “ladder of attraction,” climbed one rung at a time:

1. Stage 1: Gratitude notes—build the foundation of attraction and develop a gratitude constitution.
2. Stage 2: Make friends with your subconscious—build “habit power” so good habits run on their own.
3. Stage 3: The wish-fulfillment method—use methods such as the “shooting star theory” to make your wishes come true.

There's also a Stage 0: Changing your “own essence”, dealing with self-esteem and the inner child, which is the foundation that keeps the whole ladder steady.

The author stresses that order matters: jumping straight to wishing without a foundation of gratitude is why the law of attraction doesn't work for many people.

Three steps

1. Get a notebook: he suggests a dedicated notebook that makes you happy to look at.
2. Write 10 things you're grateful for each day: in the evening, look back on your day and list the things you feel truly thankful for. Ten is the goal, but it's fine if you can only think of five.
3. Soak in the warm feeling of gratitude: after writing, really feel that gratitude before you fall asleep.

Writing tips

• End each item with “thank you,” and the feeling of gratitude will come more easily.
• Write just before bed if you can: during sleep the conscious mind rests and the subconscious takes over, so the feeling of gratitude is more easily imprinted on it.
• Write by hand, not by typing.
• Once it becomes a habit, it takes only about 3 minutes; what matters most is doing it every day.

What can you write?

It doesn't have to be anything big, for example: seeing a family member smile, a delicious meal, getting through the day safely, watching a video you love, learning something from a book, a warm bath.

Fulfillment and longing

The book explains that you can use two emotions, “fulfillment” and “longing,” to change what you attract. It also stresses persistence: keep going for a hundred days and miracles will happen.

What keeping it up brings

• Higher self-esteem and steadier emotions
• A better self-image, with life gradually improving
• A foundation for attracting money, luck, work and relationships

Get on good terms with your subconscious and you can live freely—but the subconscious has its own temperament.

• The subconscious is “another you”: it loves you, so it wants you not to change, and instinctively resists new habits.
• Like playing “red light, green light”: the author compares forming a habit to playing “red light, green light” with your subconscious—this is the trick to making new habits stick.
• The 21-day challenge: spend 21 days building habit power to lock in new habits like gratitude notes.
• The 68-second rule: the book introduces a method of “generating 8,000 hours of action in 68 seconds” to rewrite a subconscious that doesn't want to change.
• The power of words: one section is devoted to the language that helps you get along with your subconscious.

The shooting star theory

The core of the wish-fulfillment method is the “shooting star theory.” The practice is to build a habit: for example, whenever you see a plane, treat it as a shooting star and immediately picture your wish in your mind.

Find your core wish

• Decide on one core wish—“if this one comes true, the others will follow.” Only a unique, “intense wish” can change your life.
• If you can't think of an intense wish, the book also offers ways to find one.

Other tools

• Clearing wish barriers: removing the mental obstacles standing in front of your wish.
• Realistic fantasy games and visualization training: picturing in concrete detail the scene of your wish already come true.
• Vision boards: using visuals to speed up making your dreams real.

The author believes the best prescription for changing yourself is to go back to the root.

• Self-esteem is formed before age 12, and childhood experiences affect what we feel we deserve.
• Making peace with your parents psychologically is key to living as yourself.
• Let go of the belief that “I can't be happier than my parents”: such beliefs quietly block happiness.
• The book includes a guided self-meditation for healing the inner child, to comfort your inner child and turn your life around.

Columns in the book also introduce several life principles: the plus-minus rule, the law of giving, living carefully, like layering sheets of washi paper, and the 7:8:9 rule.

The Taiwanese edition comes with a “magic notebook” you can use right away for your daily gratitude notes.