Is there a Fatal Flaw in the Law of Attraction?





Nothing is Perfect

Do you get suspicious when someone offers you the perfect investment, opportunity, solution, etc.?

Everything has a limitation or flaw of some kind.

Things don’t have to be perfect, but we need to understand where the flaws are.

When someone offers you the latest personal development method, don’t expect perfection.

And don’t be cynical, and assume that the method is worthless.

Seek to understand where the technique works, and what the limitations are.

There has been a lot of attention given to The Secret (which is all about the Law of Attraction).

Its discussed and promoted as though it’s the perfect answer to everything.

Is it perfect?

The Law of Attraction tells us that we will bring into our lives what we focus on.

Our personal growth is in our own hands.

That means that you and I have to search our hearts, find out what’s important to us, and find the right way to focus on our great desires.

And bring our dreams to life.

Sorry, though, this is not a wishing well, a lottery ticket, or a slot machine.



You have to be prepared to see opportunities that appear, and do the work necessary to leverage those opportunities into the results you want.

Help will come in totally unexpected ways, but it’s only help.

You’re still in the picture.

Some people might think that this is a flaw.

They want the Law of Attraction to be a magic wand.

So they can get what they want with no effort.

I don’t think that manifesting your dreams has to be painful, and burdensome.

But you have to invest both your desire, and your action into your dreams.

When you invest your heart and your action into something, you make it yours.

And this is your life that you’re trying to manifest!



Cause, Effect and Control

Ok, here’s a real weakness in the way some people represent the Law of Attraction.

Do you attract everything that comes into your life?

Some people believe that we attract everything, pleasant or unpleasant.

I’m not denying that we sometimes attract the unpleasant through unconscious desires.

We have incredible influence over the direction of our lives.

We have so much more power to shape our lives than we ever imagine.

BUT.

The world is influenced by many people’s desires, which often conflict with one another.

And, I believe, the world is influenced by a higher power beyond any single person’s desires.

With this sea of influences, we will not always be able to manifest our desires.

It’s critical that we don’t underestimate our personal power to affect our lives.

But, do we have to pretend that we can control, or even understand, every event in our lives?

We have this love/hate relationship with the idea of cause and effect.

Sometimes, we believe that we have power over everything that touches us, and that anything that goes wrong is our fault.

Sometimes, we believe that we are completely powerless.

There are many times when the complexity of the world is beyond us.

But we have this drive to explain everything.

When some great, unpredictable event happens we start analyzing it, and talking about the factors that contributed to it.

Understanding some of the factors does not mean that we could have predicted that it would happen, or even, that we can predict a similar future event.

But it’s scary to live in a world where events can come and disrupt our lives.

We want to pretend that everything is predictable and under control.

We want to believe that it’s possible to prevent all the difficulties and danger in our lives.

There’s a fascinating book called The Black Swan, which talks about the ways in which we exaggerate our understanding of cause and effect, and pretend that unpredictable events are predictable.

The author speaks of such events as random.

I don’t believe that the world is random.

But I do believe that the world is unpredictable, and will surprise us again and again, sometimes with difficulties, but often with wonder.



One Wish

Sometimes we get lost in wishing only for things, or pleasures, or honors.

And we all wish that the world would change according to our desires.

But the greatest wish of all is the wish to be a different sort of person, with different attitudes and thoughts.

When you wish to be a different person, and achieve that wish, your perception of the world changes.

Even if nothing changes in the world around you, you’ll still be living in a different world.

But the world around you will also change.

When you act differently, you will influence people and the world to change.

Join me in a question and a wish.

Does each of us have the courage and honesty to live and enjoy life as a great journey through unknown territory?

What would the world be like if each of us wished and took action to become that sort of person?