Can we really ‘manifest’ business success? Toxic positivity and other red flags
Stressed? Burnt out? Unhappy with how your business is going? Not to worry – just think positively, visualise your end goal and manifest your happy future.
Is it really that easy?
You probably have seen posts like the above on social media mentioning the ‘Law of Attraction’ (LoA), which promises that you can ‘manifest’ everything you wish for. What’s behind the hype that has been promoted for decades, but really kicked off with the release of the book and film ‘The Secret’ in 2006?
I decided to find out a bit more with the help of Netflix, some online research, and mindset coach and business psychologist Christen Gilchrist.
What’s behind ‘The Secret’, ‘Manifesting’ and the ‘Law of Attraction’?
Currently, ‘The Secret’ is available on Netflix UK. The ‘Wall Street Journal’ called it “a kitschy blend of talking heads, mystical music and tacky special effects”, so you may just want to watch the intro for a taste of what’s coming. The film introduces us to an alleged ‘secret’ so precious that it was hidden for centuries – only known to the most successful people in history (e.g. Plato, Lincoln, Beethoven, Einstein, Edison and other famous historical figures, though their link to ‘The Secret’ remains tenuous.)
Put simply, it claims that “whatever is in your mind is what you’re attracting to you”.
One of ‘The Secret’s’ interviewees states that “if you think the same thought over and over again, […] having the money, building the company, […] you’ll send out a ‘magnetic signal’ that is drawing the parallel back to you”.
(I assume here that he didn’t mean a real magnetic signal. As the ‘Scientific American’ stated, “the brain’s magnetic field of 10 -15 tesla quickly dissipates from the skull and is promptly swamped by other magnetic sources, not to mention the earth’s magnetic field of 10-5 tesla, which overpowers it by 10 orders of magnitude!”)
In any case, the positive thinking theory seems fairly innocent at first. What’s the harm in having a bright outlook? Surely, that’s a good thing?
Well, I partly agree. Having a positive attitude and goals is definitely beneficial in many situations. However, these goals have to be realistic.
Let’s take a look at some LoA claims and attitudes that I find problematic.
Red flag 1. Unrealistic and/or materialistic aims
Many ‘real-life’ LoA ads and stories I’ve come across on social media focus on becoming a successful millionaire, having that 6-/7-/8-figure business, a sports car, or a mansion.
Success and happiness are equated with financial prosperity. And not just prosperity, but financial abundance to an unrealistic degree.
If you search for ‘Law of Attraction’ on Reddit, you will find a fair number of disappointed ‘manifesters’ who just weren’t able to get this end result. Often, fellow ‘visualisers’ tell them that:
- they didn’t use the right ‘method’,
- they simply didn’t believe hard enough, or that
- their desired result will ‘manifest’ eventually, but only if they are patient.
Of course, these comments are impossible to disprove, which makes them sound persuasive – but that clearly doesn’t make them right.
Red flag 2. Focus on a particular ‘method’ for success
Google ‘Law of Attraction method’ and you will find many articles that claim to have found the best way of achieving your goals.
Let’s just take one of these: the ‘369’ method. This is allegedly a “scripting method that assists the law of attraction.” We should write down what we want to manifest three times in the morning, six times at mid-day, and nine times in the evening. For this to ‘work’, one article claims that recording wishes must take at least 17 seconds. We also need to believe that we already have received what we wished for. Apparently, we can then expect results within 45 days on average.
Self-help author Mark Manson, writing in The Observer, argued that the whole concept of LoA is little more than confirmation bias: the “human mind’s tendency to notice and pay more attention to objects and experiences that match its pre-existing thoughts and beliefs”. He may well be right. To me, the scripting method sounds like a combination of the placebo effect and self-hypnosis (and we know that both can indeed work, though only to a certain extent).
Better goal setting
Yet, even if you focus on a goal 18 times a day for 45 days, but do nothing else to reach your target, you are very unlikely to achieve it. I don’t think that makes me negative – just realistic.
Let’s say someone would like to be an influential social media marketing expert. This will not happen simply because they visualise being one or because they write their goals down x times a day for a few months. If they don’t work hard on their social media marketing and customer service skills, post high-quality content regularly, network, and establish a good web presence, they simply will not be successful or well-known in their chosen subject area.
Not all ‘gurus’ out there will use or openly advocate the Law of Attraction, of course. However, often there are claims that if you follow their particular ‘secret method’, you will achieve success. What is tricky in all these cases is that there is no management of clients’ expectations, which is likely to lead to disappointment on both sides.
Red flag 3. Bad luck? It must be your fault
What I found even more problematic with the LoA approach is the insistence that anything negative happening to us also has been manifested by us.
Let’s say a person has a serious illness. ‘The Secret’ tells us that “our physiology creates disease to give us feedback, to let us know we have an imbalanced perspective, and we’re not loving, and we’re not grateful.”
People who try to visualise a better outcome are already in a somewhat vulnerable position – otherwise, they would not feel the need to use any manifesting methods. To then turn around and state that their situation is, in fact, their own fault as they were “imbalanced”, “not loving” or “grateful” enough, surely is a slap in the face.
Similarly, if someone’s business isn’t going well for reasons beyond their control (e.g. the effects of Covid lockdowns, no government support, etc.), are we really meant to believe that the global pandemic or lack of furloughing was something that they personally manifested?
Red flag 4. No regulation, no scientific evidence, and toxic positivity
I had a very interesting discussion about this topic with Christen Gilchrist (BSc Psychology, MSc Organisational Psychology), who is an accredited mindset coach and worked both in the mental health sector and as a business psychologist.
One problem Christen highlights is that coaching in this area is unregulated. While the quality of unaccredited coaching isn’t necessarily poor, clients can’t be sure that their coaches are trained to a certain standard. Coaches also might not be prepared for sensitive topics that can come up, e.g. mental health issues that actually may need medical/professional treatment.
We also should be wary of ‘scientific claims’ that have little substance. ‘The Secret’ tells us: “It has been proven scientifically that an affirmative thought is a hundred times more powerful than a negative thought.” Unfortunately, we aren’t given any evidence of where this data might have come from. (‘The Scientific American’ also calls this out, simply stating: ‘“No, it hasn’t.”)
Christen, however, agrees that “words, and the way we talk to ourselves, are extremely important”.
If we tell ourselves daily that we aren’t good enough, we may well start to believe that. Conversely, telling ourselves daily that we are good at what we’re doing or that we’ll reach a certain (realistic!) goal can have a positive impact: “The point is that saying this is trying to make you motivated to do something about [your situation].”
So, positive thinking has its place. But where is the line between positivity and toxic positivity?
Christen advises to watch out for coaches or gurus who ignore or downplay our negative experiences or feelings. Just giving a motivational speech isn’t helpful and ignores the root cause of these emotions.
A better approach
Good business coaches need to practise active listening and will offer long-term solutions. This way we can figure out achievable small steps on our way to a bigger, though still realistic, goal. Completing these steps, which may be out of our comfort zone, will give us direct evidence of our achievements. This is more effective than just talking to ourselves positively.
Visualisations can help to a certain degree, as these may help us relax and/or think back to specific experiences. We then can work out where certain problems may stem from. If self-esteem is an issue, we could also try different methods. For example, we could collect positive feedback in a folder to read through when we’re having a bad day.
In summary, positive thinking is certainly ok within reason, combined with realistic goal setting. However, if the claims of a coaching programme or an inspirational LoA quote seem to be too good to be true, they most likely are.
Ethical marketers and business owners should be aware of these issues. Not only in their own professional roles, but also in terms of who they follow, quote, and buy from online.
