The Law of Consequences is one of 4 Laws in the Pillars of Transformation. It states that our subjective reality is filtered by our Thoughts, our Emotions, our Memories, our Beliefs and Values, our Perspective as well as Time, Space, Matter and Energy. The sum total of all these combined has us accept a certain subjective reality as real and objective. Therefore when our experience of life is not as we expect, our inner self-talk looks outwards for something or someone to blame for the unexpected experience. It is a form of cognitive bias. The Law of Consequences states that if we assume total responsibility for every experience in our lives, we are more likely to look inwards for the answers and therefore not blame external conditions. This allows us to drop the victim position and to be empowered about our choices and our actions.
It is often stated as a Cause-And-Effect equation that says there is a cause for everything, and everything has an effect or outcome due to this cause:
C > E
Where C represents the Cause side of the equation, and E represents the Effect side. When something happens that we don't expect, we tend to position ourselves on the Effect side of the equation — and in doing so, we remove the possibility of finding a solution because it is not our fault. Most unresolved conflicts and open wounds from the past cannot be cleared and healed as long as we adopt a victim status. Once we begin to adopt the Cause side of the equation — knowing that it may not be literally true, but assuming that if we act as if it is true — we are more likely to find insights and understanding that might otherwise elude us.
The term Law of Consequences was first coined by Micheal Colhoun in the book Pillars of Transformation. It is based on the ideas of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in the book Flow — The Study of Optimal Experience. This model is taught on NLP training courses as part of the NLP Communication Model.
See also: Law of Equivalences, Law of Coherence, Law of Value, Pillars of Transformation, What is NLP?