I wrote an article a few months ago saying that the Law of Attraction doesn’t always work.
Some people who read Abraham-Hicks and believe in the Law of Attraction thought this was an idiotic thing to say and I got a couple of emails from people telling me so. It was like I was saying the law of gravity doesn’t work (for those people who believe that the Law of Attraction underlies everything).
However…
I’m still convinced that the Law of Attraction (the art of ‘attracting’ and allowing) is a much more complex phenomenon than it’s been presented as, in The Secret, even by Abraham-Hicks. I believe it is a real law. BUT I think it has “yes buts” and caveats. It’s not black and white.
- Some goals require stubborn, persistent action, while other things happen effortlessly.
- Attraction and action are required in varying doses depending on what you want to create (and depending on who you are and where you’re at).
To illustrate this, I want to tell you about something I’ve noticed on my website.
Successful Attracting
It is to do with the timing of when people book sessions for a reading or for mentoring.
When I have plenty of energy, and I feel like doing sessions, I get lots of people ordering. When my energy is waning and it’s time to take a break from sessions for a week, they begin to dry up even before I’ve noticed I’m tired.
I get people booking sessions when I’m looking forward to doing them.
I don’t get them when I’d rather not do them.
It’s as if I have an invisible sign on my readings page that says ‘open for business’ or ‘closed for business’, even though I may write nothing on there.
I don’t do any strategic marketing these days to encourage people to book sessions. I have a constant flow of people coming to my website through search engines. Those actions (which might be considered an act of marketing myself) do not occur and are not timed for when I would like to work with more people. In fact, I often do them when I’m not doing readings.
It’s also not my waiting list. I get as many people booking when I have a wait time of two weeks, as I do when my wait time is a few days.
So why do I get people ordering sessions only when I want them to?
In the beginning, about two years ago, I’d maybe work with three clients a week when I wanted six. So I began to ask my Guides/the Universe/my Higher self to help me to work with a specific number of clients. And I’d get told what to do (marketing, etc) in order to work with all those people and attract those clients to my website.
After a while, I kept requesting, but the flow of clients became steady and I didn’t need to do anything to encourage people to book sessions.
And it’s been like that ever since – I ask, and I get. I ask to work with six clients and I get six. I ask them to put the brakes on and no-one books a session for a few days. This has been happening for two years. It seems I can directly control how many people I work with, as long as it matches my energy levels, simply by requesting it.
If I didn’t believe in the Law of Attraction, I’d call it uncanny.
One of the Abraham Hicks books is called Ask and It Is Given. That pretty much sums up the situation. I don’t have to do anything for it to happen. I just remain in the flow and it comes to me.
So I believe in the Law of Attraction in this context.
(And bear in mind that when I say the ‘Law of Attraction’ I’m referring to the act of ‘getting in the vortex’ and ‘attracting’ something; waiting for things to happen).
Law of Attraction Distraction
However…Here’s where I think the Law of Attraction teachings are an unhelpful distraction some of the time, and even cause procrastination:
- Setting up your own business and turning it into a successful venture, or even just getting it off the ground.
- Creating a successful career in any area.
- Becoming financially abundant.
I have seen this scenario a number of times. Someone says to me:
“I can’t seem to get moving in my new business. Nothing is happening for me. I visualize every day, I feel great, I feel aligned with my being. I know it’ll happen soon. Success is coming – my big break is coming – I can feel it. I just need to get out of the way.”
Four months later you speak to the person again. They are working towards the same goals (but only in their head) and they’re in exactly the same place. They feel GREAT but nothing has happened.
The reason? It’s so obvious, isn’t it? They didn’t DO anything. They took zero action. Instead, they thought about it – lots. They analyzed all the reasons why conditions weren’t ideal for taking action yet. They trawled the web for astrology/numerology/anything which backed up their conviction that it wasn’t the optimum time for them to get started. And then they went back to feeling really good about what was in their vortex and procrastinating on some more Law of Attraction material.
They liked their good emotional state so much, that they didn’t want to take some scary action and a step into unknown terrain, in order to make progress. They were too scared and justified not taking action by telling themselves ‘it doesn’t feel right’ or ‘it wasn’t aligned’.
These people are successful in maintaining an ‘alignment’ and feeling good, but it seems that it’s at the cost of anything actually happening. A desire to feel good all the time causes procrastination.
Why some action is better than none
Anything big – successful, noteworthy, abundant – requires big actions. If you refuse to take action chronically after having studied the Law of Attraction because it doesn’t feel good, you’re using the ‘Law of Attraction’ as a big, fat procrastination tool.
Most of the time I do something new – I feel bad about it and I get nervous. I am a pessimist. I am a perfectionist. I often have bleak expectations, it’s just the way I am made. I was afraid every time I clicked ‘publish’ on my first 30 blog posts. I was afraid when I brought out my course. I used to be afraid when I did readings for the first several months. Doing things is scary. Sometimes they feel like the wrong actions.
In business (and in many areas of life), I believe it is better to take some action (even if it’s from a place of feeling bad) rather than take no action at all. If you’ve been at a standstill for a while, and you’re not happy about it, throw something against the wall, see if it sticks. It’ll get you moving again, and you soon realize whether it’s a direction you like – or not. That sparks some other action and soon enough you’re on your way again.
Following through with action to create change (even when you don’t necessarily feel great about it) works in business, and it works in other areas.
Disclaimer
Don’t get me wrong – there is a time for taking inspired action that feels great. There’s a time for reading Abraham-Hicks and stuff like that (if you want to). There is a time for getting clear on what you want. There is a time for asking yourself ‘Am I taking action that is aligned with my values?’.
The Law of Attraction might send me a client a few hours after I request one. It might make a compatible partner show up for you at exactly the right time.
But the Law of Attraction alone will not create you a successful business, or a successful career, or a consistent, healthy income from your career (unless you win the lottery or you accidentally stumble into a reality TV show audition, get on the show, and become famous and adored for doing nothing).
And so it’s a good idea to honestly ask yourself – am I any closer IN REAL TERMS to my goals than I was three months ago in spite of all my knowledge, reading and studying of the Law of Attraction? If not, then you’re using the Law of Attraction as procrastination.
What I’m saying is that it’s good to distinguish between WHAT you can create through attraction alone, and what gets created through ACTION. Perfect clients come to me at the right time through attraction (although it took a lot of work for me to build up a client base and become in demand as a psychic). The other aspects of my life usually require a lot of action. Supporting myself financially requires a lot of action.
Let’s Get Real
I don’t think I have ever heard anyone’s Spirit Guides or Higher self say “Just sit back, relax, let that success, money and fame you want come to you. It’s all on its way and it’s going to be great!”
Instead, they tend to say things like:
Dora has plenty of visions but hasn’t exercised her ‘taking action muscle’ in a while, so thinks it’s harder than it is to create these visions.
Jim can’t decide and won’t do anything until he decides EXACTLY what he wants, so he is stuck.
Neill is chronically terrified and needs to know that nothing is as scary as he expects it to be.
Joe won’t take any action because he thinks it’s got to be all perfect before he does.
Spirit doesn’t tend to suggest you go and watch The Secret to make it all better and convince yourself it’s all on its way anyway. Usually a solution or a practical suggestion is proposed, such as:
‘Just try that course of action and see what happens’
‘Accept that nothing is ever perfect in everyone’s eyes and even give yourself permission to screw up’
‘Try it and then you’ll get clearer on what you want’.
What’s the real reason why it isn’t happening for you?
Did you agree with what I wrote here? Disagree? Give me your thoughts by leaving a reply below.
Hi,
I find it interesting. I had an accident and the insurance company kept saying if they couldnt find the guy I would have to pay $250 excess. I put out there that I want the car fixed without having to pay this, but was told ‘No we can’t find him, the details he gave are false we have done all we can. Everytime I thought about ringing and sorting it to get the car fixed I ‘felt’ it was the wrong time. At a dinner last week, my brother in lawm who is very business orintated said we would ring on my behalf. He is really good with words. He rang them 2min into the conversation, they waivered the excess. WOO HOO.
I’ve had both success with asking and working towards it, and success with asking. I have problems with wanting it NOW rather than waiting…
I completely agree. The Law of Attraction might provide you an opportunity, but you need to act on this opportunity to achieve something.
If an airplane takes off, does that mean gravity isn’t working? No, it just means that there are other forces which happen to be stronger than the gravitational pull between the airplane and the earth. If I lie in bed all day thinking about getting the perfect job, then the force of my physical activity (lying in bed) is stronger than my thoughts about getting that job at that moment. Maybe by concentrating as much energy into those thoughts, I can slightly increase the odds that someone is going to come up to my window and say “hey, I have a gig for you”. However, long before that’s likely to happen, it’s MUCH more probable that those same concentrated thoughts will inspire ME to get out of bed. This isn’t a “failure” of the law, just the reality that the manifestation/fruition is probably going to involve ME in some way.
Thank you for this article. It helped.
Thanks for the great article! I agree we need to take action on not rely on the Law of Attraction alone. I’ve been learning a lot about this subject in a new book called Beneficial Law of Attraction. You should check it out!
I always love that analogy that when a plane flies then the flight path isnt in a direct line from point A to B. That it goes in one direction then the auto pilot corrects it, then it veers off again and the auto pilot corrects it. I think when you have an idea it doesnt’ matter what action you take, just take some action and the universe will steer you in the right direction. But you need to move your energy and start.
I also think people get scared by action, moving an idea down to physical reality involves alot of emotions. So take baby steps.
Great article Anna! You made some points about the Law of Attraction that I’ve always felt but couldn’t identify. 🙂
Great post. I really appreciate the information. You have done great work communicating your message. Keep up the good work.
It’s a valid point of view, Anna, thank you for your post. I’ve been studying Abraham-Hicks for the past few months and would like to clarify what they are teaching about the Law of Attraction. Abraham-Hicks is not telling people to simply feel good and wait for something to happen. What they are teaching is that when people are in a state of alignment, in the “vortex”, in the right vibration, this creates the perfect condition *to ask* they want. When one *asks* while in alignment, the answer and guidance they receive is *inspired action.* People first need to be aligned with the vibration of what they want, and from that point, to take inspired action (instead of action for action’s sake as what you’ve suggested). Inspired action from the vortex is guidance coming from higher selves. This guidance informs people of what the perfection action is to guide them closer to their goal. Fear-based action, or action for action’s sake, that does not come from an inspired place holds the very thing that person wants further away. Thus, Abraham-Hicks is not teaching anyone to watch life go by idly by just feeling good. They are teaching us to create the perfect conditions for manifestation.
If the person creating this new business is using Law of Attraction as a procrastination tool, realize that they are standing in a position of fear. Procrastination is fear-based. Anyone who is in fear will not be able to harness the Law of Attraction to their advantage. Procrastination = Fear = Law of Attraction brings them more fear and procrastination.
When the Spirit Guides inform you that this person isn’t taking action because of such and such reasons – those reasons are fear-based and fears are misaligned with Divine manifestation. That person’s fear is canceling any kind of “feel good” vibration that they may have during the day. One person may say 10 good affirmations per day, but counter that with 1,000 negative affirmations afterward. Abraham-Hicks teaches that we only need to be in the positive vibration at least 51% of the time to start the tilt to moving closer to what we want.
The Law of Attraction is law…meaning that it works not some of the time, but it works all the time. I absolutely believe that no action is required for physical manifestation, however, we humans are still largely controlled by our ego and our fears, and we may not be evolved enough yet. Our Higher Selves experience instant manifestation 100% of the time with absolutely no action required. Thus, may I politely disagree with you. I emphatically believe what we believe is our reality. If you believe that action is required, that is true for you. If another believes that no action is required, that reality is true for them.
Hi Ling! There is definitely room for more than one point of view here! Thanks for sharing your experiences.