Attention works absolutely, but it is a double edged sword. It becomes tedious on the long run because it is trying to counter existing forces of manifestation.

This answer is actually the second part or continuation of my response to the question "They say that old habits die hard... Can we make it easy instead?"

While there may not be an obvious connection between your question and this one, my answer was too long to fit there and the second part deals with application or “attention” on the situation we want to manifest. So it’s a perfect fit for your question.

Now your question deals exactly with the problem that one runs into when they try the “law of attraction for some time” So I’m guessing that you have already tried the application of the law of attraction and had real success with it.

Of course, if you haven’t yet tried the “law of attraction”, may I suggest Stingray’s response to the question How do you remove all doubt, so that manifestation can occur? The ideas presented are excellent & can be put to use with predictable results.

The first time when you seriously apply the law of attraction & it actually begins to produce results in your life, the experience is unbelievable. You feel in complete control of your destiny for the first time in your life. You go “Oh my God, I can’t believe this. I can change every thing in my life; I can create all the abundance I need”. And you actually begin the process to take back control of your life. I mean real control.

Then some time goes by and you start to notice something. You find that every time you want to “manifest” something you have to go to work on it & keep working on it (in your consciousness) until you get the result you want. In other words you get to the realization that you have to keep your ATTENTION on the intended outcome until it happens. Obviously you have reached this point & starting to notice this problem.

So what is the problem?

The problem is that it takes continuous effort to create change in your life. It is like you are training to run a marathon when in your normal existence the most activity you ever do is to walk around the block.

Most people will say, "well what’s the problem? Are you that lazy? If you want something you have to work for it."

While this is true, over a lifetime you can’t sustain the continuous pressure to keep working on your manifestation. Why? Because, while you may think that in the absence of this effort you are not manifesting, you are, in fact, already manifesting and have been manifesting continuously since childhood.

Your new discovery of manifestation is actually not a new discovery for your soul or your inner consciousness. You are already doing what you just recently discovered.

When you apply this new discovery to bring change you are ignoring the momentum of manifestation that is already running at full speed with all cylinders firing.

Your new application of the “law of attraction” works, often, against the existing “Hidden” momentum of the attraction already in place. This is why you need to keep constant attention on your new manifestation & the moment the attention is taken away it tapers off to settle back to where you were before you started. This seems to be true even if the thing you are attracting is not material stuff, but a life change or personality change.

So how do you fix the problem?

Understanding the problem is the first step. Let’s use the analogy of a sailing ship.

Right now your life’s direction is much like a sailing ship on the ocean with a strong wind blowing the sails in full bloom. The direction is set & you are moving on auto pilot. This is your abundance. Where ever your life is at, that is your abundance. Now, you may say “Well my life is not that way, it is rather uneventful & very quiet", well guess what, that is exactly the definition of your current abundance. You have an abundance of a rather un-eventful life running on auto pilot. There is nothing wrong with that, my own life is rather un-eventful & I like to keep it that way right now.

Now when you add your new effort of manifestation in the form of the “law of attraction” you are actually adding a new piece of sail cloth to a combination of sails that are already setting the direction of your ship. You are trying to change the course of your destination by adding a sail to give you a different direction. But what you don’t realize is that you have to fight the effects of the existing sails that are already in place.

Initially you will have some success, but on the long run you have to apply continuous effort to maintain the new counter force from your new sail, because the existing setting of your original main sail is unconscious or invisible to you. The moment you get tired of maintaining this new “attention” or sail on your ship, it slowly settles back to the original course that you were already sailing on.

So you have to put effort on discovering where you existing sails have been set. You have to get to the bottom of the nature of your abundance right now. Who you are right now is your abundance. This includes everything about you that is good and bad. If you want a new abundance, or course correction, you have to start with the abundance right now & get to the bottom of the unconscious auto pilot setting of your current abundance.

So to return to your question, Attention is a powerful force that works absolutely. You can apply it with intent & get results. In the absence of the application of “attention” you are however, still applying attention with the same power, & same ability; only, this time your attention is on what is normal to you. So if you want your new attraction to stick, the new attraction or preference has to become the “new normal” in your consciousness.

(Added later) I get the idea some might think I'm implying that the law of attraction is irrelevant. Well, I'm not. The law of attraction is the greatest technique of manifestation we have. I believe it is a two pronged approach. On the short term we use the law of attraction for our immediate needs, and on the long term we work on ourselves to become the person who attracts the same short term goals as a normal state of being.

My apologies if some of this answer is not an exact fit to the question. But if you start with the first portion of this answer from the “other question” mentioned above, it should make more sense. I hope that when you asked about “attention in manifestation” this is the context in which you were asking the question.

The phrase, "Where thought goes energy flows", is actually way closer to (as in Star Wars) "The Force". That is a term used in Reiki, other energy healing systems, and the martial arts. With the understanding of this, I can make you strong or weak in a second just by my thought. I have demonstrated this on my students so that they could learn of the body's energy flow and direction.

Now in manifesting we could apply that phrase as building the attraction, however as well it could be that (what I think of, I put my effort into). This one phrase has many meanings on many levels and others I am not going to go into. I'll just say the universal truth is understood on many planes of experience, fittingly well.

I like, "what I pay attention to, pays attention to me", (my own phrase). That phrase applies mostly to The Law of Attraction, but as well, it must not only be paid attention to, but noticed and enforced. Here is an example: we all are handed money all the time, but how much of that time do we notice? How much of that time are we thankful and say to our selves, "Wow someone is handing me money again!"? It does not matter if it is change for something you bought; some one is handing you money! Recognize this and attach meaning and importance to it, like this is something very special happening yet again to you! YEAH more money for me? Wow!

Do not look at the loss you had paid for the product or service, but the gain you received back. Keep your mind in the receiving, noticing, and be thankful every time you receive. This act trains the brain to expect income from everywhere, also that this income is easy to come by. It is from this expectation that we start the snowball rolling down the mountain. From here, it picks up momentum and increases in size.

Another thing this does is it builds confidence to use your money, to bring in more money. This is very similar to Jesus story about the coins. The one son invested the money and came back with ten times more -and repaid his father- plus had much left over for him self. The other son buried his money afraid to lose it. When this son brought the coins back to his father he still had nothing! Hence the father rewarded the one that had invested the money. In other words, the one that buried the money was a wasted lesson; because had he never given him any coins, there would be no difference.

The phrase "where the attention goes energy flows" is just another way of saying you attract into your life whatever you focus on.

The corollary to this phrase is "What we resist, persists." Meaning that, if you focus on what you don't want, you will get more of what you don't want.

It follows that, if we want to obtain the things we desire, we must focus on what we want, not on what we don't want. We must also do so in a way that activates our state of abundance and of becoming, and not our state of lack and wanting.

As for paying attention to people, circumstances, and things, it will not always be obvious which of those things will get you closer to your desires. You will know which things will be beneficial, because they will feel right to you. Once you activate the seeds of creation within you, your mind will automatically become aware of the opportunities around you.

Finally, your vibration must be consistent with that of receiving. You do this, paradoxically, not by focusing your energy, but by raising your vibration, and allowing the energy of your Source to come into your being, by meditating.