The Law of Attraction, popularized by the film "The Secret" and published in a book of the same name, is widely disseminated by MLM companies and used by training firms that hope to inspire their neo-affiliates and / or clients, respectively, the hope that they can be rich, prosperous and happy if and only if they attract good things through constant positive thinking, since such an ideological proposal is based on the fact that "like attracts like".
The content of the exposed material, in almost all cases, seems to obviate a physical law - widely verified -, proposed by Sir Isaac Newton and which states that "every action has its reaction", or an opposing force, and, in this case The widespread law of attraction has one, and it is the Law of Repulsion, if it can be called that.
The Law of Repulsion has a simple but unquestionable grip, to maintain equilibrium in a system there must be forces that - although opposite - complement each other, in fact it is completely easy to verify: there is matter and antimatter, electrons (negative charge) and protons (positive charge), visible matter and dark matter… Therefore, if there is one, the law of attraction must exist against the law of repulsion.
When - making use of the Law of Attraction - people are asked to maintain a positive thought, it is tacitly understood that it is not correct to think about the opposite and this due to what I have already pointed out, well, how similar attracts what is. Similarly, if you think about the negative, you will attract the negative and this is logically counterproductive.
But history has taught us that when something is labeled as wrong or not to be done it generates a lot of interest and an even greater propensity to do it.
Note the following for example:
- The Church took a radical position in relation to the visualization of the shape of the Earth, instead of achieving the general acceptance that it sought, it aroused curiosity about the texts that indicated an opposite position. The same happened with Galileo Galilei and astronomy. What happened during prohibition in Chicago in the second decade of the 20th century?
The prohibition of the drink originated a clandestine trade that inspired gangs with the highest power to damage and influence society, but at the same time generated such interest in the consumption of alcohol that, once the law was abolished, that market showed an extraordinary growth and made that industry more profitable.
Perhaps the most generalized example is found in the biblical text of Genesis where it can be observed that it was precisely the prohibition of the consumption of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that made it more attractive to try it.
The examples are many and varied, both in content and scenarios, and, although they are very well documented and widely exposed in the book whose homonymous title to this article I have prepared, in this brief summary only one of the points related to what I have called the Law of Repulsion.
It seems to be a true and verifiable fact that “when something is prohibited or is tried to be rejected, avoided or omitted, the more interest it generates and therefore the more effort is devoted to obtaining it, whether consciously or not”, one of the statements that support the proposal of this "law".
Therefore, it is contradictory to ask people to think in only one direction, since by doing so, they are being invited to ignore "the other side of the coin." It is simple, if there are correct and incorrect, positive and negative things, the bipolarity of the same is being accepted and therefore, there is a probability of occurrence of one or the other, regardless of the percentage that is granted, so it is 0, 01% could happen!
When people are asked to only have positive thoughts instantly, through an unconscious process, the brain generates an inverse image to the one exposed that struggles with greater or lesser force to match or overcome the other, the same happens with action, posture, demeanor, and speech, to name a few.
This occurs for several reasons, only two will be named here: the need to balance the loads in a system, as already indicated, and the automatic link that occurs in neural networks with similar past experiences, their own or others, whose results are they know and resemble them.
For example, if a person deeply wants to own a Hummer, and in their thoughts they can visualize themselves buying it and even driving it, but when doing so, immediately, images or questions will appear opposite to such thinking: Do you have the investment capacity that owning and maintaining one requires? Hummer? Could you afford the insurance? Do you have space to park it? What about insecurity in the streets? This occurs unconsciously or induced, directly or indirectly.
The same happens the other way around, when it is negative thinking that leads. For example, if it is expected to be fired from a company or it is known that a contract that is considered important may be lost, thoughts or statements opposed to it will immediately appear: “The best thing is what happens”, “It did not suit you”, “ When one door closes a hundred open ”“ There are more important things in life ”“ Now you will have more time for those things that you had abandoned because of this ”.
Unlike what its name may inspire in some people, the Law of Repulsion facilitates the obtaining of desired states, but not simply because of believing in it, but because its effect, induced or unconscious, once identified, since It allows us to recognize existing weaknesses, alternative or probable scenarios and thus guide efforts to transform them into strengths.
How? Let's go back to the Hummer example. In it I commented on 4 questions that question the desire to have it. If we focus on the first question: Do you have the investment capacity required to own and maintain a Hummer? And imagine that at the moment the person does not have the means to buy it, a series of actions are opened that can further help them to be able to acquire it. than simply wanting it, these could be: Reorder your income and devise new ways of saving, Find new and better means of increasing your economic capacity, Reorient your priorities or create new ones. It can even be concluded that the conditions are not there and temporarily abandon the idea.
In the world of business and human talent management, everything that is used for the benefit of people and as tools for their growth and development is viable as long as a realistic sense is preserved and efforts are directed towards actions of proven effectiveness.
Strategic planning is based precisely on the construction of an achievement of steps that will allow reaching a goal, but even when the benefits and strengths that are possessed for it are listed, it has never seemed responsible to take for granted the achievement of the objectives based solely on the good vibes, hunch or good wishes shared by the team, on the contrary, the points susceptible to possible deviations, conditions due to exogenous and uncontrollable sources are widely studied; generating with them contingency plans, alternative plans or control.
Wishing is not enough, you have to act, to act you have to know your weaknesses and strengths and, neurologically speaking, the brain is in charge of facing the “pros” or the “cons” in every situation we experience. We must take advantage of this advantage by learning to separate fatalistic and improbable thoughts from those that seek to balance the system to guarantee the success of an action, even if it is simply a visualization, because when something is desired thinking that "the universe" will take care of materializing it and This does not happen, frustration is one of the most discouraging feelings that can be experienced and, if it happens, the acquired "object" and / or lived "experience" will have little "sense of belonging" or will enjoy little value",since they have not been as a consequence of "own effort", as far as the administrative context is concerned.
But when the Law of Repulsion is used, identifying and minimizing the factors that can prevent the achievement of goals and objectives, not only will success be experienced, but also the feeling of being the genuine responsible for it.
