“Every time you look inside your mail expecting to see a bill, guess what- it’ll be there…(Debt) showed up because the law of attraction is always being obedient to your thoughts. Do yourself a favor- expect a check!”
Lisa Nichols, The Secret, page 72
“Most people have a goal of getting out of debt. That will keep you in debt forever.”
Bob Proctor, page 102
“If you do not have enough (money) it is because you are stopping the flow of money coming to you, and you are doing it with your thoughts.”
Page 99
“I thought 'What if I just visualized checks coming in the mail? Within just one month, things started to change. It is amazing; today I just get checks in the mail. I get a few bills, but I get more checks than bills.'”
David Schirmer, page 104
Before I read The Secret I thought bills were the result of purchases I'd made, and that if I simply quit buying things, the bills would slow down. But now I know the bills are all in my head and if I will simply think “check in the mail, check in the mail” the bills will be replaced with checks!
I wonder how many people are going to sink themselves financially by following this lunacy? Not once does The Secret suggest the best way to eliminate bills: Spend less!
Friday, March 28, 2008
The Secret of Chicken Soup
I must admit, once I discovered the superficiality of The Secret, I was a little disappointed by the endorsements from otherwise credible people like Dennis Waitley and Jack Canfield.
Canfield of course is one of the co-creators of the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” series. On page 40 of The Secret he says “Since I learned The Secret and started applying it to my life, my life has truly become magical.” He then goes on to describe the good life he is enjoying. He concludes: “All of this happened, and continues to happen, because of knowing how to apply The Secret.
What he says interfaces with the teaching of The Secret that it isn’t hard work that makes you succeed, it is right thinking.
Fortunately, before I saw those words, I’d read a book that talked about authors and writing. One of the authors featured was Canfield’s coauthor Mark Victor Hansen. Mark describes how he and Jack went about getting the mega sales they’ve achieved:
Rejected by 35 publishers, 228 attempts to find a 1-800 number that spelled a word that worked with their books, interviewed the 101 best selling authors, made a list of 1094 things to do and did them, developed a 25 year business plan.
“You have to write a great book first, then spend 90% of your time marketing and hustling…We use focus groups to select the best stories…We try to be in front of a mass of people every day. There has never been a day that we haven’t done media (radio or TV interviews, articles) at least one a day, 20 some days… It took five years for us to become big. ”
(In another source I heard them say they did at least 5 interviews per day, anytime of the day or night for a solid year.)
So, did Chicken Soup become an industry due to sending out positive thought vibes to the universe, or did Jack Canfield and MVH have a great idea, and then work their little white buttocks off to tell people about the idea?
Canfield of course is one of the co-creators of the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” series. On page 40 of The Secret he says “Since I learned The Secret and started applying it to my life, my life has truly become magical.” He then goes on to describe the good life he is enjoying. He concludes: “All of this happened, and continues to happen, because of knowing how to apply The Secret.
What he says interfaces with the teaching of The Secret that it isn’t hard work that makes you succeed, it is right thinking.
Fortunately, before I saw those words, I’d read a book that talked about authors and writing. One of the authors featured was Canfield’s coauthor Mark Victor Hansen. Mark describes how he and Jack went about getting the mega sales they’ve achieved:
Rejected by 35 publishers, 228 attempts to find a 1-800 number that spelled a word that worked with their books, interviewed the 101 best selling authors, made a list of 1094 things to do and did them, developed a 25 year business plan.
“You have to write a great book first, then spend 90% of your time marketing and hustling…We use focus groups to select the best stories…We try to be in front of a mass of people every day. There has never been a day that we haven’t done media (radio or TV interviews, articles) at least one a day, 20 some days… It took five years for us to become big. ”
(In another source I heard them say they did at least 5 interviews per day, anytime of the day or night for a solid year.)
So, did Chicken Soup become an industry due to sending out positive thought vibes to the universe, or did Jack Canfield and MVH have a great idea, and then work their little white buttocks off to tell people about the idea?
Friday, March 14, 2008
Oprah and The Secret
"The big secret in life is that there is no big secret. Whatever your goal, you can get there if you're willing to work."
Oprah Winfrey
Wait a minute...isn't Oprah the great endorser of The Secret and the Law of Attraction, which teaches that stuff happens because you think about it, not because you work at it?
Yes, The Secret teaches that you don't need to do much except transmit those positive success vibes out into the universe in order to be successful. But Oprah doesn't really believe that. She is arguably one of the most successul women of our day, some would say in history, but she recognizes that you need to do something besides just thinking about what you want if you are going to get it.
A well recognized trait of successful people is that they have a bias for action. They don't just think about what they want, they take action and do their part to make it happen. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but The Secret seems to say otherwise.
Oprah Winfrey
Wait a minute...isn't Oprah the great endorser of The Secret and the Law of Attraction, which teaches that stuff happens because you think about it, not because you work at it?
Yes, The Secret teaches that you don't need to do much except transmit those positive success vibes out into the universe in order to be successful. But Oprah doesn't really believe that. She is arguably one of the most successul women of our day, some would say in history, but she recognizes that you need to do something besides just thinking about what you want if you are going to get it.
A well recognized trait of successful people is that they have a bias for action. They don't just think about what they want, they take action and do their part to make it happen. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but The Secret seems to say otherwise.
Friday, March 7, 2008
The Secret and Aging
“I banished every bit of stiffness and lack of agility right out of my body. I focused on seeing my body as flexible and as perfect as a child’s, and every stiff and aching joint vanished. I literally did this overnight.”
“Aging is limited thinking…”
“…in reality there is no such thing.”
“You can think your way to the perfect state health, the perfect body, the perfect weight, and eternal youth.”
(All quotes from page 131.)
If that’s true, then the author and believers in The Secret should be looking pretty good as the years go by. And their death rate should be zero. I guess we’ll have to wait and see…
Yeah, what about the issue of death? The Secret doesn’t seem to address it. But in my mind, since death is an absolute certainty, any philosophical stance that ignores it is incomplete and possibly irrelevant. Or maybe it’s just bs…
“Aging is limited thinking…”
“…in reality there is no such thing.”
“You can think your way to the perfect state health, the perfect body, the perfect weight, and eternal youth.”
(All quotes from page 131.)
If that’s true, then the author and believers in The Secret should be looking pretty good as the years go by. And their death rate should be zero. I guess we’ll have to wait and see…
Yeah, what about the issue of death? The Secret doesn’t seem to address it. But in my mind, since death is an absolute certainty, any philosophical stance that ignores it is incomplete and possibly irrelevant. Or maybe it’s just bs…
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