Personal Development Ideas

The Law of Attraction requires realistic expectations and a systematic approach March 21, 2007

Beware of overly simple explanations and methods for using the law of attraction: it takes patience, study and work to achieve positive results consistently.

One of the difficulties with the Law of Attraction (LOA) the way it is currently being presented by some enthusiasts may cause disillusionment among people newly trying to enact its principles.

The reason is that with all the popularizing on mainstream television, print, and Internet media, some proponents are presenting the Law of Attraction as if it is the long-sought Grand Unifying Theory of the Universe, something that explains virtually everything that is happening in the Universe.

Finding a grand unifying principle that explains and underlies all the activities of the Universe has been the Holy Grail of scientists since science became a genuine discipline.

In other words, some of the champions of LOA, are creating the impression that the LOA is an inviolable cause and effect principle. People are not stupid however, and they cannot intellectually come to grips with a law that, as some would present it, implies that a child, for example, “attracted” an early and tragic death or health condition to itself through a genetically inherited disease.

The Law of Attraction is also being presented by some in such an over simplified manner that some people may think that all one has to do is to ask or state their intention, visualize it coming into one’s life and it will magically appear. Well, it won’t. Not without work.

As Steve Pavlina has pointed out, you do not become a Black Belt in Karate without putting a lot of effort and time into it. The Law of Attraction can help you get there sooner, more effectively, or both, but you still have to “pay your dues.”

The Law of Attraction can have very real benefits and value to those who correctly put its principles into action and make it a regular part of their approach to life. But, to paraphrase the Bible, faith without works is dead. The simplistic approach to LOA is unfortunate because using its principles correctly could help many people.

Having unrealistic expectations of the power of LOA can only lead to disappointment and then abandonment of a way of approaching life that could have genuinely positive results in people’s lives.

Hopefully the current buzz about the LOA will move beyond being the ‘movement of the moment” or the latest personal development “fad”, and will become an ongoing operative principle for those seeking its help through it correct use.

Oversimplification is one of the factors that give self-help, or personal development a “bad reputation.”

Fortunately there are advocates of the Law of Attraction who present it realistically and will help to ensure that the LOA can become a permanent and successfully applied component of the personal development toolkit.