NLP works on the exact same principles as the Law of Attraction. You trained your mind to find connections that led you down a path you imagined for yourself. You rewrote your own story. You designed the universe you wanted to live in and then set about building, using the pieces you found before you. This post is so rife with irony it's amazing.
You say that positive thinking is horseshit, then you recognize that holding onto negativity prohibited success. You say you should believe in reality, yet, you dared to dream of a different one and set off to find it. Along the way, you learned the secret, enjoy the journey, each step is one step closer, be grateful for the things you encounter, stop labeling them as good or bad, accept them and move on.
You should be a self-help guru yourself. But, you missed the point. Have you ever read the secret? I'm guessing not. Is there anything mysterious behind it? No. Is there a magical current that brings to you because you think of them, no, but what you focused on, you achieved.
That's what is meant by attracting. What you actually had a problem with was the way it was being stated, or at least your perception of it. Science, cold hard science, mocks NLP just as hardily as it does LOA. Wow, you are a study in contradictions. You proved the entire point of LOA through experience and you don't even recognize that you did it.