"The Law of Attraction is a Lie"

You might be surprised that I have entitled this article "the law of attraction is a lie." Actually, this quote did not come from me, but was posted on a message board recently by a Law of Attraction skeptic whom I will call "Doubting Thomas" (name changed to protect privacy).

It seems that "Thomas" wasn't thrilled with the Law of Attraction, and the following is an excerpt from the message board post that outlined his position:

"...[Law of Attraction] people think that their thoughts have some kind of power, but they don't really matter at all. It's just what you do that makes a difference. Not what you think. I can sit around thinking about having a better job for months, but until I get up off my ass and do something nothing is going to happen. All this talk about the law of attraction is a lie..."

Thomas' thoughts on the Law of Attraction represent a misunderstanding and complaint that I hear occasionally as a law of attraction coach -- That action is important, but thoughts are not.

But there is a logical problem with this kind of reasoning. To begin with, it assumes that our thoughts and our actions are unrelated. This is a dualistic way of seeing the world -- as if thoughts were one thing, and actions were another.

In reality, our thoughts and actions are intertwined to the point of being indistinguishable. Let's take a look at a "real world" example of how thoughts and actions are related.

Every major league sports team has a coach. The greatest coaches in the world understand the importance of motivating their players, and keeping them in a positive state of mind. Why is that?

Winning sports coaches understand that you cannot expect your actions to be successful, if your mindset is one of failure.

Another example: anyone who has been through basic training in the military knows that "boot camp" has two primary purposes: to get troops into the right physical condition, and to get troops into the right mental condition.

Ask any Drill Sergeant which of these two is more important, and I think you will find that mental conditioning is the most important aspect of military basic training.

While I can agree with "Thomas" that action is important, I believe that the thoughts behind the action are even more important. For example, Hitler was a man of action. The problem was that Hitler's actions were based on terrible thoughts, terrible ideas and a terrible state of mind. Consequently, his actions were also terrible.

We cannot separate our thoughts from our actions -- they are two sides of the very same coin. So the idea that "action is important, but thoughts aren't" is just absurd.

Wise old Benjamin Franklin once said, "The thought is the ancestor of all action." Ben obviously understood that "how we think" determines "how we act." And as we come to understand the power of our own thoughts, it's pretty hard to believe that "the law of attraction is a lie."