The following article is purely personal opinions of this writer. Your views, which could be different from mine are most welcome, for the purpose of greater learning.

“Law of Attraction” is made popular by Rhonda Byrne’s ‘The Secret’ – attracting a lot of enthusiasts trying to apply the Law of Attraction to improve their life situations. This also creates a booming industry in training, seminar, lecture on the said subject, which certainly makes the dream come true for the trainers and seminar organizers in term of making good money – however people who pay money to learn to apply Law of Attraction has different stories to tell. They realize that they are not getting there. Something is missing, seriously missing.

The simplicity of the Law of Attraction attracts many to pay for it and try to follow the process. This very simplicity is also a problem in itself for many not getting the results.

This article will discuss the missing parts, attempting to make a more complete picture on how to apply Law of Attraction.

1st Simplistic Message: - “I create my new reality purely by my thought “

My thought and my thought alone can make the huge different in attending to what I desire in life. Many diligently, regularly send out this positive thought - and many of them will tell you that nothing much happen!

Even things happen, they may be short-lived or not sustaining.

The following could be some common pitfalls.

 •    How can thing happen when the thought is not aligned with the universe?

      Try to put forward a thought with strong belief that you want to live 500 years with your physical body intact and healthy. Surely you complain that one should not defy the law of nature, no matter how strong is the law of attraction. Isn’t this true that one should be clear about the situation and context and not blindly apply LOA. We will discuss further.

•    How can thing happen when the thought itself is mixed with much negative emotions (anger, fear, resentment …) and psychological issues?

     Try to put forward a thought that you want to get well from the terminal disease, when you are filled with fear, anxiety, anger towards someone in your life, feeling miserable every second. Do you think it will work?

•    How can thing happen when your daily action and behavior are either contrary to the outcome of the intended thought, or without any passion?

     Try to put forward a thought that you want to be financially rich and free, and every day, you work and with overtime work as an employee, totally stressed and repeat day after day. You do not create time to find out various approaches to be rich, nor do you observe and look for a model to follow. You excuse is – you have no time.

•    How can things happen when there is nothing or little in you to manifest the outcome of the intended thought?

     Try to get an aborigine in a virgin jungle, show to him the success story of Rhonda Byrne’s ‘The Secret’, instill the thought to him that he can have such a thought to be as good as Rhonda Byrne, knowing well that he does not have the language, illiterate, no marketing ability, nor network etc. etc. Surely he cannot manifest all these necessary ingredients, as he simply does not have them.

     Again I hear your protect that that is a ridiculous example. Then I bring you closer to home, if you do not have the necessary attributes (knowledge, skills) to manifest the necessary ingredients or success factors, what is the chance of your thought get realized?

•    How can thing happen when the very outcome of the thought needs the co-creation of many other people and things and events and you ignore such factors?

     President Obama never ignored such factors, he just did not put forward a thought that he wanted to be the President but seeks all avenues to connect with the people, they co-created the outcome with him. Just thought alone does not help.

•    How can things happen when the thought becomes the master to be served by you – you are possessed by the thought?

     Communist China set forth a thought for an equal and just society through cultural revolution – to the extend of killing millions of their own people to achieve such goal. They even got family members to report each other and get killed. A thought can be a dangerous thing. Don’t you think so? What guidelines are given in the Law of Attraction not to have such dangerous thought?

• How to explain many world renowned innovation and creativity is a result of intuition, relaxed mind with no thought?

• ‘The Secret’ is a fantastic business idea, hence the thought of Rhonda Byrne, helping her to be wealthy and successful. And there are countless examples of successful entrepreneurs with business ideas and thought. There are, however, many with brilliant thoughts that cannot bear fruits, like some innovative scientists, whose ideas or thoughts are copied by others with good marketing plan and take off to the road of success. – thought alone is no guarantee of success then.

2nd Simplistic Message: - “everything that occurs to you has been attracted by you and your thought alone“

This statement implies that your thoughts alone attract things or events to your life. Hence good life, good relationship, good fortune etc. are a result of good, positive thoughts. Likewise bad things happen to you: broken relationship, accidents, disasters, loss of job … are a result of bad, negative thoughts.

This over- generalization can really be a hindrance towards abundance in life.

No doubt, people with persistent negative thoughts encounter many negative events in their life. Negative thought drain off one’s energy and depleted energy has difficulty to cope with life and results in problems. Or negative thoughts expressed in negative behavior, e.g. abusive, defensive, surely, attract equally if not more negative reactions from others.

At the same time there are many mis-fortunate, hardship, negative happening in life – just go to orphanage home, home of the ages, political prisoners imprisoned without trails for standing up to justice, etc. – should these people feel guilty that they harbor negative thoughts and hence deserve such negative life situations?

Many apparent good things in life (attributed by positive thought that attract such good life) may only last a short while, as nothing is permanent, even though these people still maintain such positive thoughts.

Furthermore, what is bad happening today may turn up to be good tomorrow - the person concerned has just one thought - accept things as they are, without judgment and emotional disturbance.

Now how true or useful is the statement that “everything that occurs to you has been attracted by you and your thought alone“?

3rd Simplistic Message: - “I have to believe that I already have the thing I wish to attract “

Again it is another simplistic message which does not really help, worse still, treated like one of the laws of attraction. Simplistic in the sense that it becomes a true statement by itself (hence one has to follow strictly in order to succeed), which is not the case.

This statement implies that if one does not believe in the thought generated, one has failed as far as the law of attraction is concerned.

Hence, in order to succeed, one has to “believe” or “force oneself to believe, one way or the other”. By doing so, one may create internal pressure and stress to oneself, which is certainly counterproductive.

Many great accomplishments are made with the founder or creator simply enjoys the notion, idea and thought of something, without firm beliefs whether it can work or not, simply with great passion and do whatever they can one step at a time at the moment, and he or she can easily relinquish or let go without a fixed mind to chase after the dream.

Surely, with respect to the desired outcome or the thought, if one has low self-esteem, not believing in oneself, then it  is a sure recipe towards not getting what you want.

Then, if one reinforces the thought with belief, with congruency, without generating any negative energy field to oneself or surrounding, that is great!

Thus I don’t have to believe that I already have the thing I wish to attract, at the same time, I don’t need to sabotage myself with self doubt and dis-belief in my endeavor also!

4th Simplistic Message: - “Giving attention to charity perpetuates the issue that the charity aims to eradicate. “

What this means is that charity aims to eradicate poverty, suffering, doom or destruction, as the prime focus. Thus if you participate in charity, your focus and mind will be filled with such negative images, thereby make you powerless and you would not gain abundance, nor the people you try to help.

The origin of this particular Law of Attraction myth can be traced as far back (at least) to ‘The Science of Getting Rich’ by Wallace Wattles (published in 1910), which is also the very book that inspired Rhonda Byrne’s ‘The Secret’.

The above has the same logic that if your thought is to be financial free, make good money, but you are driven by fear of being poor, which is the negative image in your un-conscious mind, then you will not attract richness and abundance also.

But the Law of Attraction in the Secret did not say – “giving attention to financial freedom perpetuates the issue that the financial freedom aims to eradicate – poverty”. But LOA only emphasizes “thus shall not involve in charity!”

Is it not alright to be involved in charity, like Mother Teresa and now one of the world richest men, full time in charity work, Bill Gates, having the mindset and mental picture of people needing charity as decent human being, who need help from another human being, just like you may need help from a friend, and your friend or the charity-person see things as they are and give whatever help he could?

5th Simplistic Message: - “The Secret: Ask, Believe, Receive “

Sound simple – ABR, like ABC.

We have discussed on Ask and Believe (the many aspects of thoughts and beliefs that can backfire) in the above. In these discussed cases, i.e. distortion or generalization or deletion of things or perspectives, even if the opportunities present themselves at the door step, one will not recognize them, let alone Receive them.

Have you not had experienced regrets on missed opportunity even though you had the very thought of outcome from such opportunity?

 On reflection and hindsight, you may realize the several mentioned negative attributes in the above discussion apply. Hence you have the thought, you may not be ready, or your negative emotions not cleared, you do not have the necessary capabilities or skills, etc.

The above over simplistic messages, in the Law of Attraction, does not represent any Wisdom of Simplicity, but can mislead many into non productive effort and action that can backfire.

Simplistic messages can easily spread – thus making fast and big bucks. But as a consumer of such commercial product, how does it really benefit you?

To dissolve negative emotions associated with the thought, you may try Energy Psychology, to better structure your thought, you are welcome to Mindset Emotion Coaching service (for individual or organization) and to help others better apply the Law of Attraction, a new Coaching Training Program is in the making.