Be Careful of "The Law of Attraction"

There's a new fad sweeping the self-help field, including coaching. I guess its formal name is, "The law of attraction," but it could equally well be called,

* "Your Get What You Wish For"
* "Your Thoughts Create the Universe"
* "Like Attracts Like"
* "You Are Responsible For Your Own Destiny"

And finally, it is "The Secret," subject of the cult movie of the same name. Perhaps I'm oversimplifying, but it seems to go like this:

"The structure of the universe is much more fluid than we
have ever imagined - so much so that our very thoughts can
affect its flow. And since 'like attracts like,' negative
thoughts attract (cause) negative events, and positive
thoughts attract (cause) positive events. By thinking about
something with sufficient intensity, you change the universe
and cause it to happen - whether it is a good or bad
outcome. This 'law of attraction' is a fundamental law, on
the same level as Newton's universal law of gravitation, or
Maxwell's laws of electromagnetism, so it works always and
infallibly."

If I've misstated the essence of the law, I invite some reader to correct me. Now, in this post I don't want to go into the metaphysics of the law, or even whether it is true. You can read a long and bitter discussion of all these points in Skeptico's blog. But I do want to talk about how some coaches are using it, because I'm becoming a little concerned.

Many coaches, including some friends for whom I have a great deal of respect, are fascinated by the law of attraction and are starting to use it in their coaching repertoire. Now I can see a positive and a negative way of using the law in coaching. The positive way would go something like this:

"If you really want your business to be successful, you have
to take it seriously and think about it and work at it all
the time. If you have a positive attitude and you hang
around with other successful business owners, you greatly
increase the chances that your business will be a success,
too."

I've got no problem with this statement - it's good coaching and it comes straight out of Norman Vincent Peale's work. But everything in the statement can be explained by hard work, or by psychology, or by learning. If you pay constant attention to your business you are more likely to notice opportunities for success, and if you hang around with successful business owners, you will learn from them and will probably get some good contacts. But compare that formulation with this one:

"If you really want your business to be successful, all you
have to do is envision it as a success, and hold that vision
in front of you day and night. As you do that, you will
attract successful events and the universe will automatically
and infallibly alter its structure to make your business
success."

I'm not making fun of anyone who believes this - truly I'm not; but I do believe deep in my heart that it's bad coaching and that any coach who uses this approach is doing his client a disservice. The goal of coaching is taking action, and this advice tells the client just the opposite - that he can make his business successful without working hard, just by the power of his mind alone. No matter how much you, the coach believe this, it's just bad coaching to lead your client in this direction.

So I'm not in the ultra-skeptical camp that condemns the law of attraction out of hand, but I do think that, if a coach is going to use it, then both the coach and the client need to be very careful to apply it in the right way, so that it leads the client to take effective actions to achieve his goals. If you'd like to follow up on this, there's a thread in my blog where you can post notes - pro or con.