Secret Science

This is it, folks. Here's where I get off!

2007-10-07T03:09:00.000-07:00

Much as I appreciate my son-in-law's efforts to initiate me into his high-flying world of supercharged entrepreneurship and his dream of unbounded success, I realize - having attended Bob Proctor's launch of the SGR program in Malaysia - it's not my scene. I look around at the people who are drawn to these events and seminars - and, although I can sense the good intentions in all of them, I can't help seeing them as a flock of seagulls, constantly thinking about fish... fish... and more fish.

So I've been seriously contemplating deleting this blog. But perhaps there are a few items in here some of you may find useful, so I've decided to keep it online. However, this is my final blogpost. I won't be updating Secret Science from now on.

Let's just say I've checked out Bob Proctor's Science of Getting Rich program and it's not something I can feel passionate about. No doubt it's an impressively packaged portable seminar, and some people have put an incredible amount of effort into getting it in the market.

The study materials are extremely well designed and of high quality - and it certainly does a good job promoting the Law of Attraction as a way of life. However, for the techniques taught to really work, one has religiously apply the principles.

That's the rub. I'm not a religious person and am, in fact, averse to religions.

I've spent the greater part of my life deprogramming myself from all belief systems. Why would I now choose to install another belief system - no matter what it calls itself - even if it promises me everything a human being could possibly desire in life?

I enjoy producing things: music, books, DVDs, great meals, whatever. But when it comes time to marketing myself and my products, I find it tedious in the extreme. Some people are just natural-born hustlers. Take Marcus (my son-in-law) for instance: within three weeks of signing up for the SGR program he sold enough units - just by sending out a bunch of emails - to recoup whatever he paid plus at least an additional $10,000 in pure profits.

My son-in-law the self-made multi-millionaire is surrounded by high-flyers like himself who wouldn't hesitate to fork out $2,000 - just to bring a smile to his face! And that's because the majority of his friends are inclined to spend a lot more than $2,000 on a weekend of fun - whether flying to Costa Rica for a tan or Phuket for a massage.

I believe in live and let live. It's purely an aesthetic choice that I'm attracted to what's natural rather than what's artificial. For example, I value getting a warm greeting from a stranger because he or she likes my aura; I'd sense it immediately if they smiled at me only because they can see I'm a big spender.

I've never traveled first-class in my entire life. First of all, I've never worked for a big corporation long enough for them to send me on a business trip; and I've always believed in living frugally. Even with a billion bucks in my bank account, I'd hesitate paying $10 for a cup of coffee in a branded location when I know I can get an even better cup of coffee 200 yards down the street for $1.

My daughter just returned from a vacation at an exclusive beach resort in the Philippines where she paid $15 for a glass of orange juice. Deep down in my heart, I know that this sort of lifestyle is out of whack with the natural universe. It leaves too large an ecological footprint and perpetuates a socioeconomic hierarchy wherein rank is acquired through financial status. I've seen how extremely rich people spoil their kids who can't help growing up as brats. Some remain brats their entire life - just look at Dubya.

Some of my friends tell me they have a plan: they'll work themselves to the bone for 10 years and make a huge pile. Then they can be free to master their own destinies and help everybody around them, set up charitable foundations, and so on. Hate to say this, folks, but that's a total fantasy ungrounded in reality.

The energy system is a closed loop. The more you pile on your plate the less remains on the table for those who haven't arrived for dinner. You believe in infinite abundance, you tell yourself; more food will soon be delivered from the kitchen, so there's plenty where that came from. Well, this may be true - but only up to a point.

The overfed are often undernourished in other areas of their being. Those who are out there grabbing as much money as they can while they can usually don't have enough time to sit down and engage in intelligent conversation. And when they're on vacation they just want to put their feet up, order a champagne bucket, and admire the view - they don't want to discuss heavy topics (like how come the IAEC has never been allowed to inspect Israel's nuclear arsenal or who orchestrated the 9/11 false flag operation and subsequent cover-up).

Lack is the shadow side of greed. So Bono and Sting with all their money can afford to play philanthropists and world-saviors, establishing foundations to preserve the rainforests or feed the war orphans. Bill Gates can pump millions into subsidizing the pharmaceutical companies so Africans can afford AIDS medication. There are days when I think this sort of lifestyle would really suit me. Hell, I'd love to be David Bowie for two or three months!

However, just about every problem you see around you is the result of human egotism, greed, and insensitivity. Empires are built by individuals consumed with megalomaniac visions and endowed with monomaniacal determination bordering on religious fervor. Such individuals may be admirable in their own way - but few are known for their wisdom. Becoming enlightened and living consciously doesn't require that you be a member of the Billionaires Club. Indeed, it gets harder and harder to feel empathy when you're too well padded and insulated from raw reality.

This is why I'm not over-the-moon about the phenomenal success of Rhonda Byrne's movie, The Secret, and the growing popularity of her book. The message, simply put, is just too glossy.

Anyway, I've rambled on enough. I just wanted to conclude this blog with a final message - but to go any deeper into the subject would require a 50,000-word essay. Even if I did write that essay, the ones who really ought to read it probably never will, simply because my name isn't Deepak Chopra. But, as they say at McDonald's, "Have a nice eternity!"

Money As Debt ~ a short film by Paul Grignon

2007-08-18T08:50:00.000-07:00

Paul Grignon's 47-minute animated presentation of Money As Debt tells in very simple and effective graphic terms what money is and how it all is being created. It is an entertaining way to get a very important message out. Highly recommended as a painless but hard-hitting educational tool. Every thinking person concerned with the present unsustainable monetary system on planet Earth is encouraged to circulate this viral video. Do it soon and wake everybody up - before the Final Financial Meltdown (coming real soon to a market near you!)

Why this blog has been so quiet...

2007-07-20T02:15:00.000-07:00

I created the Secret Science blog when my son-in-law generously bought me into the SGR program. He believes in that old adage: "Give a man a fish and he eats for a day; teach him to fish, and he'll never go hungry!" Well, it so happens I only recently began to realize I had a deeply embedded prejudice against "rich folks."

Most of my life I've looked up to people in the arts - writers, musicians, filmmakers, dancers, acrobats - not people in business. In fact, I felt a barely concealed revulsion for those who knew only how to make money and nothing else. Bankers were to me the scum of the earth, parasiting off the energy of other lifeforms with their usurious, penurious habits.

So I figured it was time to deprogram myself of voluntary poverty - and if anyone could help me get on the fast track of financial success, it had to be Bob Proctor and his enterprising friends.

However, after several blogposts I realized I wasn't completely sure what I was getting involved in. Was it really just another MLM type get-rich-quick scam? My son-in-law said I was in on the early wave and stood a good chance of harvesting the first rush of excitement over this new program, riding on the wave of The Secret's phenomenal popularity. Now, this guy is a natural-born entrepreneur who started his business from scratch during the worst recession in 1997. In ten years he's built a veritable empire with branches all over and a multi-million dollar turnover. I was gobsmacked when he nonchalantly announced, less than three weeks after we both signed up for SGR, that he had made $10,000 from sales, which more than covered his capital investment for both of us! Well, therein lies the big difference between us: his friends are all into LIFESTYLE and spending $2,000 on a whim is no big deal - why, they easily spend that amount every weekend. My friends, however, would have to borrow money to pay for such a program - if they were convinced it works. The only way I could possibly convince them was to get absurdly rich myself within the next six months.

After the third month I had to acknowledge that neither my head nor my heart was fully enthused about selling the SGR program - or any other product, for that matter.
My passion lies in making music, making people think and feel, making love, making movies... not selling! That's right... my interest in the "law of attraction" and Rhonda Byrnes began to flag. It all began to smell a bit funny to me - like some hustler had just spray-painted over a rusty car in the hope of selling it at a higher price than it was worth.

Finally, I had to admit... the people I had met at Bob Proctor's pep talk weren't exactly the sort I'd enjoy hanging out with - they were all so DRIVEN!!! So utterly obsessed with MONEY!!! And I must confess I find it well nigh impossible to IGNORE the shit flying around. I can tune it out of my reality for a few hours a day... but I hear stuff going on around me and I can't help pulling my head out of the sand occasionally to see what's going down... I mean, when there's a robber in your house, it ain't easy to beam love at the whole world and say, "Everything's perfect!"

Oh well... I'm halfway through Wallace D. Wattle's little green book and I've heard about two hours of the mp3 lectures... don't have any quarrel with the material, but
it ain't really the sort of fare I'm accustomed to. It's like trying to acquire a taste for corporate brochures as staple reading!

I'll report back when I've finished Wallace's book.

Tied Down By A Chain of REACTIONS? ~ by Andi Mac

2007-05-21T23:22:00.000-07:00

Cause and effect appears to be the way life unfolds. It has become the explanation for how things happen - or don't happen. Cause and effect is the delicate fabric of reason that leads to illusion about how things really happen.

Cause and effect is commonly defined as a chain of reactions. and it's easy to get tied up in misconceptions about how things manifest. This accepted idea says there is a cause and a result which is an effect.

Socrates stated the "Socratic Law of Causality" – today we call it the "Law of Cause and Effect". We accept it as a part of our way of looking at the world and have now for quite awhile..

Between these 2 forces called cause and effect, meaning is extracted, believed and attached to and often the outcome is....

* "They (cause) are making me angry (effect)."

* "He/she (cause) broke my heart (effect)."

* "My boss or my job (cause) makes my life difficult (effect)."

* "If I had a better [fill-in the blank] (cause) things would be easier (effect)."

* "They are the source (cause) of all my troubles and worries (effect)."

What does it do when the idea of cause/effect is taken as true without questioning?

We've heard it all our lives that some things are causes and other things are effects.

Cause become effects and the chain of reactions begins. With this ideal as a root, it says on the inside, "I am effected by....

* what someone does or says

* what the government does

* what the economy does

* what the weather does

* what my neighbor does

* what my children, husband, wife or partners do

* what my boss does and on and on...

These "two forces" called cause & effect have been used for a very long time to explain how things happen to and/or for us.

You've probably heard phrases popularized in the last few decades like, "take back your power!" Or "no one can do anything to you that you don't allow." This sounds so attractive. It sounds powerful to be able to take back something... power to be exact. And it is a way to self-improve until something comes along and takes that 'self-improvement' by surprise. Who's in charge of you then? Someone else? Something else? Yes.

"She made me feel sad."

"He broke my heart."

"They make laws that are making my life miserable."

Push-pull. In-out. Up-down. Forward-backward. In-and-out. Believing "i" (uninvestigated mind) does have control. Then coming face-to-face with how the reality of how much "I" really don't have control. PAINful to feel so out of control. Stressful. Frustrating. It's a struggle to keep up with it all.

"I have control over things in my life." - A good universal idea that's worth it's weight in gold to question.

What is, is missed...

Something is actually going on between the cause idea and the effect idea. What's in between gets missed. Really missed. Completely missed. If you don't see it for yourself, you wouldn't believe it's even there.

What's in-between is "what is." Reality. Cause and effect, on its own, is a misconception - a misunderstanding. A HUGE mis-understanding. When what's going on in between gets missed - which it often does - illusion steps in, stories take over to provide an explanation which, remember, conditioned mind desperately loves and your life is in for a ride.

Reality Check: What external to you has the ability to control you in any way? Affect you? Make you angry? Make you sad? Make you happy? Make you feel loved? Make your life difficult? One believes there is a cause that can affect one's life. Is that possible? Question it. Question it. Question it. This is true meditation. This is a real desire to know truth - to question everything. Doubt leads to understanding - belief to blindness.

Actually, this misconception of cause/effect IS real and true for the mechanical human being whose buttons can be pushed like a toaster oven. It DOES feel as if there is a cause outside one's self that DOES affect what's going on. That's how it feels but what it feels like and what is real are two entirely different things. This must be checked out for self to discover if its true or not.

Do you want to be mechanical? Is there anyone who would prefer not to be mechanical? What is the difference between a mechanical human being and a real living being? One who is really in charge of their inner state-of-being? We'll go into this in detail in the upcoming Human Source Code School.

Enough truth to mesmerize.

The two forces called Cause and Effect are not the whole story. The Cause and Effect idea doesn't work. It is a way to look for what to blame when things don't go right or something to strive harder to repeat again, when things do. We see someone else's success and believe that if we can repeat what they did, we'll get what they got. It's an illusion. Doesn't work.

Cause and effect is an exoteric teaching. It is half-the-story.

The now very popular 'law of attraction' idea, is established on this half-story. This makes it very difficult to put it to work in one's life with reasonable success. A carrot is always dangling out there on the line and never close enough to grasp. It looks good on paper. It says my thoughts are the cause of what is attracted into my life (the effect). If I then change my thoughts, I will create a different effect. The scenario begins with misunderstanding and branches out from there.

The second misconception that ensues is a strong and powerful belief that what is, is not 'good', not 'acceptable', not 'appropriate' and must be changed. That is followed nearly immediately by another strong and very powerful belief, "I know how it should be different!"

"The world should be different than it is".

"I should be different than I am."

"My finances should be different than they are."

"My love-life should be different than it is."

When one believes things should be different, it stresses the body and the mind. Creates inner and outer conflict. No exception. How does it feel when you look at the world and see terror, pain, suffering, poverty, hunger and feel it should be different when it's not? Is it painful?

Yes? And then the story begins again. Hear it? "Yes but.... there is poverty and hunger and this SHOULD be different!" THAT is the struggle. That is the conflict. THAT is the argument with reality and that is what ages and exhausts a human being... literally.

So, what is the answer?

Are there answers that work in all situations? Are there answers that no matter what the circumstance provide a way that doesn't lead to more illusion?

When the whole story is not clear, humans end up in struggle, striving to reach an ideal which begins and ends with an illusion.

A law works without exception in every case. Cause and effect doesn't. It doesn't because this is not how things manifest in the universe.

The Whole Story...

The whole story is that there are 4 forces, not two. The four forces that do work without exception every time. This is the complete teaching from which the Cause and Effect story was extracted.

"The Four Forces - Universal Balance"

It's been said many times on the Mayan Calendar Code website and in our newsletters that the extreme value of the Mayan calendar, is it shows us where we are in the overall plan of Creation. When you understand the 4 Forces of Universal Balance, the Mayan calendar comes into a whole new light. How the 9 underworlds, 13 heavens, 9 movements of the planetary round of light is limited when seen through the 2-dimensional lens of cause/effect and leaves giant holes that have no explanation that doesn't have to be made up... in other words a story. This same thing happens with life in general.

When you're guessing about what's really going on, it's more difficult to flow in harmony even within yourself, much less in the overal plan of Creation.

The Human Source Code School, is for people interested in going deeper into the technology of the mind -- freeing the mind of unseen conditioning that creates all struggle. Can we truly end suffering and go beyond imagination? Can you be a NEW human?

To learn more about the upcoming HSC School click here!

Peacefully,
Andi Mac

P.S. Send us your healing requests to thecode@pobox.com and they will be shared with the group. All that is needed: Name/Age/Location

Where Is The Love? ~ Black Eyed Peas

2007-05-21T10:43:00.000-07:00

What's wrong with the world, mama?
People livin' like they ain't got no mamas
I think the whole world addicted to the drama
Only attracted to things that'll bring you trauma
Overseas 'yeah' we try to stop terrorism
But we still got terrorists here livin'
In the USA, the big CIA
The Bloods and The Crips and the KKK
But if you only have love for your own race
Then you only leave space to discriminate
And to discriminate only generates hate
And when you hate then you're bound to get irate, yeah
Badness is what you demonstrate
And that's exactly how anger works and operates
Nigga, you gotta have love just to set it straight
Take control of your mind and meditate
Let your soul gravitate to the love, y'all, y'all

People killin', people dyin'
Children hurt and you hear them cryin'
Can you practice what you preach
And would you turn the other cheek

Father, Father, Father help us
Send us some guidance from above
'Cause people got me, got me questionin'
Where is the love (Love)

Where is the love (The love)
Where is the love (The love)
Where is the love
The love, the love

It just ain't the same, always unchanged
New days are strange, is the world insane
If love and peace is so strong
Why are there pieces of love that don't belong
Nations droppin' bombs
Chemical gasses fillin' lungs of little ones
With the ongoin' sufferin' as the youth die young
So ask yourself is the lovin' really gone
So I could ask myself really what is goin' wrong
In this world that we livin' in people keep on givin' in
Makin' wrong decisions, only visions of them dividends
Not respectin' each other, deny thy brother
A war is goin' on but the reason's undercover
The truth is kept secret, it's swept under the rug
If you never know truth then you never know love
Where's the love, y'all, come on (I don't know)
Where's the truth, y'all, come on (I don't know)
Where's the love, y'all

People killin', people dyin'
Children hurt and you hear them cryin'
Can you practice what you preach
And would you turn the other cheek

Father, Father, Father help us
Send us some guidance from above
'Cause people got me, got me questionin'
Where is the love (Love)

Where is the love (The love)
Where is the love (The love)
Where is the love
The love, the love

I feel the weight of the world on my shoulder
As I'm gettin' older, y'all, people gets colder
Most of us only care about money makin'
Selfishness got us followin' in the wrong direction
Wrong information always shown by the media
Negative images is the main criteria
Infecting the young minds faster than bacteria
Kids wanna act like what they see in the cinema
Yo', whatever happened to the values of humanity
Whatever happened to the fairness in equality
Instead in spreading love we spreading animosity
Lack of understanding, leading lives away from unity
That's the reason why sometimes I'm feelin' under
That's the reason why sometimes I'm feelin' down
There's no wonder why sometimes I'm feelin' under
Gotta keep my faith alive till love is found

And People killin', people dyin'
Children hurt and you hear them cryin'
Can you practice what you preach
And would you turn the other cheek

Father, Father, Father help us
Send us some guidance from above
'Cause people got me, got me questionin'
Where is the love (Love)

Where is the love (The love)
Where is the love (The love)
Where is the love (The love)

Where is the love (The love)
Where is the love (The love)
Where is the love (The love)

Now Sing With Me All (One World, One World)
We Only Got (One World, One World)
That's All We Got

(One World, One World)
(One World, One World)

And Somethin's Wrong With It
And Somethin's Wrong With It
Somethings Wrong With The Good World World
Yeah

We Only Got (One World, One World)
That's All We Got (One World, One World)

[From their 2003 album, Elephunk. Published by Cherry Lane Music]

WHAT IS OPTIMUM PERFORMANCE?

2007-05-04T07:49:00.000-07:00

What IS Optimum Performance?
by John Assaraf

This question raises different responses from different people.
It causes people to ponder issues like:

- Have you ever thought about how much better you could be doing in your business?
- How about your career?
- What about your relationship with someone you love?
- How about the state of your health right now?

One or more of these areas most often needs a little more attention in day-to-day life. But there seems to be so much to do, so much to accomplish if 'more' is the focus.

Here’s a secret: the quest for more is a trap. It never stops. But the positive side is this: Optimum Performance is about playing life at the highest possible level, reaching our fullest potential.

Now the question is: if people are so full of potential, though, why are most not living up to their potential in every area of life? For some very good reasons that make perfect sense, take a look at desire, passion and fun.

DESIRE, PASSION & FUN

Do you remember when you were a kid and all you wanted to do was play? What was one thing you loved to do that you could do for hours and never want to stop? Then ask yourself why.

For most, it was probably because it was fun and exciting, and you felt good doing it. It made you happy and you never wanted to stop doing it until you dropped.

Of course, who couldn’t get hurt running, playing and challenging life once in awhile? But the reward of having fun, feeling free and the sense of accomplishment was worth the price. Youth are born natural risk takers.

But later on what happens? And why is it relevant to optimum performance?

Well, part of the reason you enjoyed what you did was the 'positive feedback' you received from others. The other more important part is because it was what you wanted to do. It didn't really matter how 'good'
you were. The 'how good' was secondary to just having fun.

It was the times you chose to do what you wanted that was the most fun and exhilarating. It wasn't when someone else said you needed to do or should do something.

Optimum performance can only truly be achieved when 'all of you' is in the game. And life is just a game. You loved playing as a kid and it's time to start playing again.

Just going through the motions in your relationship is so mediocre and not fun. Working in a job or career that you tolerate is not fun. Not earning the income you want is not fun. Not having the energy or health you want is not fun.

What's NOT FUN in your life right now?

So the real question you are now faced with is this...do you want to have fun again? Do you want to play?

How great would the results be in each area of your life if it were fun again?

Well it can be...and will be!

Do not confuse having fun with not putting in effort. You will achieve results in every area of your life in direct proportion to the effectiveness of the effort you put in, not the effort. Do not confuse activity with results.

In the coming months my focus will be to help you think about why you are getting the results you are in your life right now and how to significantly enjoy yourself more, so that the results are the by-product of having fun and doing what you love and want to do.

The game of life is about choosing what you really want. The real trick in having more is in becoming more and having fun. It is natural to grow and become more, when we do what we love and what we want.

Optimum performance is about doing the 'right things' really well.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

JOHN ASSARAF is the author of The Street Kid's Guide to Having it All, (a New York Times bestseller), and one of the experts featured in the film and book The Secret, which he helped launch into a worldwide phenomenon through appearances on Oprah, Larry King Live, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Anderson Cooper 360° and other major media outlets. John has also founded and/or led successful companies in real estate, Internet software, personal development and business coaching.

John is one of the Marshall Goldsmith (pictured right) School of Management's Distinguished Thought Leaders. He has a unique passion for quantum physics and neuroscience, and teaches people how to apply findings from these disciplines to achieve success in business and in life. His latest company is OneCoach, which helps entrepreneurs and small-business professionals grow their revenues so they can achieve financial freedom and live extraordinary lives.

[John Assaraf will be joining the outstanding group of nine presenters from The Secret coming together at UCLA for The Law of Attraction Prophets Conference July 20-22. John will also be getting together with Joe Dispenza of What The BLEEP Do We Know!? in Miami June 15-16, 2007.]

THE HEART OF THE SECRET: Happiness & The Law of Attraction

2007-04-22T23:51:00.000-07:00

"What we all want most deeply is to be what I have come to call 'happy for no reason' - a lasting neurophysiological state of peace and well-being that is not dependent on circumstances. When we are happy for no reason our desires manifest more quickly and effortlessly than ever." - Marci Shimoff

THE HEART OF THE SECRET: HAPPINESS AND THE LAW OF ATTRACTION
by Marci Shimoff

Imagine your fairy godmother is standing before you, ready to wave her wand and make your wishes come true. Suddenly, the world appears a different place, full of possibilities and magic!

Well, it turns out that this imaginary scenario is actually how the process of manifestation works—and is based, not in magic, but in science. The film The Secret vividly explains this powerful universal principle called the Law of Attraction, which simply stated is: like attracts like. Whatever we think, feel and put our energy into, whether positive or negative, we magnetize to us. The universe, like a good fairy godmother, simply responds.

Sounds easy enough. So, why don’t we all have everything we want?

The answer lies in my favorite formula for applying the Law of Attraction that was given to me by my good friend and advisor Bill Levacy. It has three simple, easy-to-remember steps:

1. INTENTION – Be clear about what you want

2. ATTENTION – Experience the thoughts and feelings of already having what you want, AND take the action steps to manifest your intention.

3. NO TENSION – Let go. Relax. Shift from being tightly focused on your specific desired outcome to being wide open to all possibilities. Trust that your highest good will come to you, and feel the happiness of that.

A lot has been written and spoken about the first two steps. Many of us have mastered them, but have stopped there. We end up holding on to our desire like a terrier chewing on a bone. We have to take action towards our goals, but when we push and struggle and hold on too tight, we get in our own way.

The problem is we haven’t taken the last step. We haven’t let go. Surrendered. Said, “Okay, this or something better.” The third step, “no tension,” frees our minds, opens our hearts, and, most importantly, lets us be happy in this moment. If we skip this step, it’s like having a closed fist; how can we receive anything when our hand isn’t open? In our “gotta-get” culture, this is the step most people miss or dismiss.

When we let go and trust that all is ultimately working out for the best, we feel happier. And happiness attracts more happiness.

When I first heard Bill’s formula, I had an “a-ha moment.” I realized that every time I had succeeded in manifesting my desires, it had happened only after I’d done step #3, let go, relaxed and felt happy. In fact, one of my greatest successes is a perfect example of this.

In 1994, I had been working for ten years as a corporate trainer and a professional speaker focusing on self-esteem for women. My career intention was clear (step #1): to inspire and empower millions of people around the world to live their lives to their highest and best potential.

My attention was focused on thinking, feeling and visualizing BIG success (step #2). I was the queen of persistence and had taken all the “right actions” to further my career. Although I had achieved a good degree of success by then, I knew I wanted to take my work to a higher level, and it just wasn’t happening. I had done everything I knew to do and was burned out.

Needing to take a break, I decided to go on a seven-day silent meditation retreat. After a few days of silence - no easy feat for a Chatty Cathy like me - the most amazing thing happened. I began to tap into something deeper in myself, and started to feel peaceful, relaxed and fulfilled. I moved into that state of no tension, where my grip on achieving my goal melted away, leaving me with a feeling of deep contentment.

Then, on the fourth day of silence, while I was sitting quietly in meditation, a light bulb went off in my head, and I clearly saw the words Chicken Soup for the Woman’s Soul in my mind. This was back in 1994 when only the first Chicken Soup for the Soul book had been published, so the idea of spin-off books for different niche markets was a breakthrough. As soon as the idea came, I knew it was a winner. I was so excited that it was all I could do to sit silently for three more days without shouting the idea to anyone in earshot!

The minute the retreat ended, I ran to the closest payphone and called Jack Canfield, who had been my mentor for the past six years and was the co-creator of Chicken Soup for the Soul. I told him my idea and he loved it. Before long I had a book contract to create what would be one of the first in the now legendary series of over 150 titles. Within a few years, I had co-authored six New York Times bestsellers in the Chicken Soup series, with over 13 million books sold. I had finally, and thrillingly, fulfilled my original intention of touching millions of people’s lives.

I am absolutely certain that it was by using all three steps of this powerful formula - intention, attention, and no tension - that I was able to realize my dream. Any two of the steps would not have done it.

So, did I live happily ever after? Not right away. After using this formula for many years to attract extraordinary situations, people and things that I wanted, I eventually realized, like many people before me, that having the things and circumstances you want in your life is wonderful AND it’s not enough. It was then that I discovered another essential key: there is more...

Having things and circumstances - money, success, relationships, health - brings a certain happiness, what I call being “happy for good reason.” Unfortunately, this temporary experience of satisfaction or joy soon fades and we have to hurry up and fulfill the next desire to get a new high. To experience true and lasting happiness, we must be free of the need for any external reason to be happy. As Deepak Chopra has said, “happiness for a reason is just another form of misery.”

What we all want most deeply is to be what I have come to call “happy for no reason” - a lasting neurophysiological state of peace and well-being that is not dependent on circumstances. I’ve spent the last few years researching the latest findings on happiness and interviewing truly happy people for my upcoming book, Happy for No Reason. The good news is this is an achievable state.

Ironically, we seem to have things backwards. True happiness isn’t a result of getting what we want; getting what we want is a side effect of happiness. Why? Because, when we are happy for no reason, we have mastered that tricky step #3, no tension, and then our desires manifest more quickly and effortlessly than ever.

Perhaps we need to focus a little less on getting what we want to make us happy and a little more on creating a deep inner state of happiness. When we are happy for no reason, all else is just icing on the cake.

That is the ultimate secret!

Marci Shimoff, one of the nation's leading motivational experts, has shared her illuminating message about the infinite possibilities that life holds with audiences across the world. Marci is the New York Times #1 Bestselling Author of Chicken Soup for the Woman's Soul and Chicken Soup for the Mother's Soul.

Now she shares her message as part of the life-changing film, The Secret and at The Law Of Attraction Prophets Conference at UCLA July 20-22 along with eight other outstanding presenters from The Secret, and at The Heart Of The Secret Conference in Santa Cruz, California, where Marci will be joined by Howard Martin and Dr. Joe Dispenza on August 3-4. These will be exceptional events that you’ll want to experience.

THE LAW OF ATTRACTION SECRET CONFERENCE UCLA -
July 20-22, 2007

HEART OF THE SECRET SANTA CRUZ CONFERENCE -
August 3-4, 2007

MARCI SHIMOFF earned her MBA from UCLA and holds an advanced certificate as a stress management consultant. She is a founding member and on the board of directors of the Transformational Leadership Council, a group of 100 top leaders serving over ten million people in the self-development market.

A celebrated transformational leader and one of the nation's leading motivational experts, Marci has inspired millions of people around the world sharing her breakthrough methods for personal fulfillment and professional success. President and co-founder of the Esteem Group, she delivers keynote addresses and seminars on self-esteem, self-empowerment and peak performance to corporations, professional and non-profit organizations, and women's associations. Highly sought after, she is a powerful keynoter who consistently receives rave reviews and standing ovations. She has been a top-rated trainer for numerous Fortune 500 companies, including AT&T, General Motors, Sears, Amoco, Western Union, and Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Go Gratitude ~ The Master Key To Infinity

2007-04-11T08:22:00.000-07:00

[Courtesy of the Go Gratitude Experiment]

GRATITUDE QUOTES

"Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful." - The Buddha

"Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others." - Cicero

"The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings." -
Eric Hoffer

"Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul." - Henry Ward Beecher

"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them." - John F. Kennedy

"If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you," that would suffice." - Meister Eckhart

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity.... It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow." - Melodie Beattie

"The deepest craving of human nature is the need to be appreciated." - William James

When you accept changes in your sovereign reality
as the shifting persona of the Universal Soul,
you live in greater harmony with life itself.

Life becomes an exchange of energy between you
and the Universal Soul that is allowed to play out;
without judgment, and is experienced without fear.
This is the underlying meaning of unconditional love:
to experience life in all its manifestations as a single,
unified intelligence that responds perfectly
to the projected image of each soul.

It is for this reason that when you project Gratitude
to the Universal Soul, regardless of circumstance or condition,
life becomes increasingly supportive in opening you
to activate your divine imprints.
This feeling of Gratitude coupled with the mental concept of appreciation
is expressed like an invisible message
in all directions and at all times.

In this particular context, gratitude to the Universal Soul
is the overarching motive behind all forms of expression t
o which humanity aspires.

Every breath, every word, every touch, every thought,
every thing is centered on expressing this sense of Gratitude;
a Gratitude that you are sovereign
and supported by a Universal Soul
that expresses itself through all forms and manifestations
of intelligence with the sole objective of creating the ideal reality
to activate your divine imprints and transform your entire being
into Divine Essence.

It is this specific form of Gratitude that accelerates
the activation of your divine imprints
and their peculiar ability to integrate
the disparate components of your body, mind, heart, and soul,
and to transform them to the state of perception and expression
of Divine Essence....

Establishing a relationship with the universe
through the outflow of Gratitude
also attracts life experience that is transformative -
experience that is richly devoted to uncovering life's
deepest meaning and most formative purpose.

(WingMakers)

The Dark Side of "The Secret" ~ by T. Sebastian

2007-04-09T10:12:00.000-07:00

You’ve met “The Secret” teachers on Oprah. Now take a look at the “dark side” of The Secret.

Really? A Secret?

Not really a big issue, but this understanding has been around for a while - like a few thousand years. The Secret is a basic part of the mystical teachings of Gautama Buddha and Yeshua the Nazarene (Jesus the Christ). It’s simple to find if you really study.

More recently, this teaching has been popularized by Lynn Grabhorn in her Excuse Me, Your Life Is Waiting books. Published about 7 years ago. Lynn Grabhorn attributes most of her insights to a channeled being called Abraham. This is not meant to demean this information in any way. Wisdom finds its way into our consciousness in various and mysterious ways. But how do we use this wisdom properly?

The Dark Side!

Check your motivation. When the sages taught this type of practice, their intention was that you understand how the universe works and that you use this knowledge for spiritual maturation and in other wholesome ways. If you look at what most of the present day teachers talked about on Oprah, you will see them emphasizing that “You can have what you want”... or “You can create the life of your dreams.” There was a lot of talk about wealth and prosperity, getting good jobs, finding a mate etc.

In contrast to that, Yeshua (Jesus) said: “You must die to yourself daily to enter the kingdom.” So, what’s wrong with this picture? Basically two things: Balance and emotional maturity. Think about it this way. Would you give your 6-year-old child 20 bucks and send him into a candy store? Too much power and too little maturity can lead to disaster. Take a look at some of Hollywood’s celebrity train wrecks, or how bout rock & roll stars?

This is the main problem with The Secret. People are emotionally immature. People have desires and needs. These desires and needs are almost always driven by the undeveloped parts of us. In other words, our “needs” arise out of the wounds we contracted during our early development. Should we try to use an advanced spiritual technology and apply it to manifesting these desires and meeting these needs? Isn’t this just a way to satisfy our addictions? Without the balancing aspects of these spiritual technologies, we could be in for trouble.

The Balance

How to balance the teachings of The Secret. The first step is to look at your needs and desires. They are windows into your unhealed parts or wounded child. Before you jump into automatically trying to fulfill your needs and desires, use the power of focus to observe the “needy you” behind them. This needy you needs to be re-parented, not to have a lollipop stuck in its mouth. Sorry if that’s a little harsh. But judging by what I’ve seen, this is a sorely needed “tap on the butt.”

Next, process the pain inside. By focusing on the origin of your “needs” and processing the pain, you begin to heal the needy parts of your soul. This leads to emotional maturity. Continued inner work in this arena leads to Wholeness. A Whole person acts from a place I call “energetic responsibility.” After becoming more mature and responsible, we will have a much better clue as to how to manifest that which is really good for us and for mankind.

Learning the details of how to process your inner pain instead of being driven by it is beyond the scope of this article. You can find excellent information here.

Ultimately, traveling down this path, you will find that Wholeness is a state beyond pain based need. It’s a state where all your neediness has been healed and you become the Source for your own peace, power and joy. You become continuously and permanently connected to all things and the Source of all things. This includes the ability to create or generate inner states like Love anytime you want. When you can directly generate inner states, there is no need to go outside yourself for any type of fulfillment. Only then are you really free or mature enough to manifest in a truly energetically responsible way.

T. Sebastian is an author and integral life coach.
Check out his blog!

Highlights from "The Secret" on Oprah Winfrey

2007-04-06T11:22:00.000-07:00

[Courtesy of Sparkbugg.com]

APPLY "THE SECRET" TODAY!

Conscious Capitalism? Huh?

2007-04-01T03:13:00.000-07:00

What is Conscious Capitalism anyway? Isn't this an oxymoron since Capitalism is evil? Good question. I'll leave it to rockstar entrepreneur John Mackey, Chairman and CEO of Whole Foods, to answer this question.

In his very passionate and insightful essay entitled, "Conscious Capitalism: Creating a New Paradigm for Business," John Mackey laid out his vision. Here are some key quotes from the essay:

“Have you ever asked yourself what is the purpose of a business? It is an interesting question that most business people never ask themselves. If you think about it, what is the purpose of a doctor or hospital? Is their purpose to maximize profits? Well, this is certainly not the purpose that they teach in medical schools or most doctors advocate. The doctor's purpose is to help heal sick people. What about the purpose of the teacher or the school? Do they exist to maximize profits? No, of course not. Their primary purpose is to educate the young and prepare them to live successful lives in society. What about the purpose of lawyers or law courts? All lawyer jokes aside, the purpose of a lawyer would be to pursue justice and our law courts exist to settle disputes in our society and to bring wrongdoers to justice. All of the other professions put an emphasis on the public good and have purposes beyond self-interest. Why doesn't business?”

“I've known many entrepreneurs in my life, and with only a few exceptions most did not create their business primarily to maximize profits. Of course they wanted to make money, but profit was just one of the reasons they started their business. It may be that they were unable to work for anybody else, have strong authority issues, and therefore need to be their own boss. Or they need to be in charge of their own enterprise because that is how they get their sense of self-worth, value, and self-esteem.

It could be that they have something to prove to their parents, siblings, or their friends and creating a successful business will exorcise unconscious childhood demons. It could be that they are very creative individuals who have ideas that they want to see tested in reality to see whether or not they work. It could be that they are idealists and want to make the world a better place, and their primary motivation for creating their business is to improve the world. It could be that the entrepreneurs create their business for the sheer fun of it. There are many, many reasons why people create businesses, and while I cannot deny that there are certain entrepreneurs who create their business primarily to maximize profits, I would say that in my life experience they are definitely a minority.”

“If most entrepreneurs don't create their businesses for the primary purpose of maximizing profits, then what are their primary goals? The answer to this question varies tremendously from business to business - there are potentially as many different purposes for businesses as there are businesses. Entrepreneurs create their businesses for a diversity of reasons. However, I believe that most of the greatest companies in the world also have great purposes which were discovered and/or created by their original founders and which still remain at the core of their business models.

Having a deeper, more transcendent purpose is highly energizing for all of the various interdependent stakeholders, including the customers, employees, investors, suppliers, and the larger communities in which the business participates. While these deeper, more transcendent purposes have unique expressions at each business they also can be grouped into certain well known and timeless categories. Philosophy dates back to Plato the timeless ideals of “The Good”, “The True”, and “The Beautiful” that humanity has been seeking to create, discover, and express for thousands of years. If we add the ideal of “The Heroic” to the above three we have the framework of higher ideals which most great businesses seek to express in some form or fashion.”

So there. Conscious Capitalism is the expression of The Good, The True, and The Beautiful through business.

Read the whole essay here.

How to Get Better Results with the Law of Attraction

2007-03-24T10:43:00.000-07:00

(by Using Jose Silva's Rules of Programming)

Everyone's talking about the Law of Attraction ever since the movie The Secret was released to the world. Even Oprah did two shows on the subject in February 2007.

But according to Jose Silva, the famous mind researcher and founder of the Silva Method, there are specific "Rules" that help you get better results.

The Most Important Rule is:

What You Seek to Manifest, Will Come Faster if You Seek it to Benefit Humanity, instead of for purely self-satisfaction. Ed Bernd Jr, one of Jose Silva's Friends and Instructors shares this piece with us.

Rather than thinking about what you want and how you will feel when you get something or achieve something, it is far better to think about how the success will correct problems, will relieve suffering, will help someone to achieve their purpose in life and correct more problems and make the world a better place to live.

If you need a new car (not want, but need) then don't think about how you will feel when you get it, how proud you will be, etc. Instead, think about the problem you will solve by having the new car:

Your family will be safer, you will get places on time, you will be able to help other people, etc.

The more people who will benefit, the easier it will be to achieve your goal.

We were not sent here on a 70 year vacation, Mr. Silva told us. We were sent here with a job to do, and that job is to correct problems and to make the world a better place to live. to finish the creation and convert the world into a paradise.

It is not about us and what we want and how we feel. We can have everything we need to do our job, plus more, provided that we are doing our job - provided that we are doing what higher intelligence sent us here to do, and that is to correct problems, relieve suffering, and make the world a better place to live.

So focus on doing that, not on yourself, and you will get much better results.

He included a line at the very end of the conditioning cycles, (read to students while they were in meditation) the most powerful place in the conditioning cycle, that we should:

Strive to take part in constructive and creative activities to make this world a better place to live, so that when we move on we shall have left behind a better world for those who follow.

When I saw Mr. Silva in the office on Monday, I mentioned it to him. "That's a statement of unselfishness, isn't it?" I asked. He didn't answer directly. His eyes lit up and he looked at me and said, "If it weren't for that attitude, we wouldn't have the Silva Method today."

Not everyone wants to accept these ideas, and they certainly have the right to accept or reject anything they choose. But if you look around you can sure find plenty of evidence to support this.

Look at the man they say is the wealthiest man in the world, Bill Gates. I complain a lot about his heavy handed tactics - I don't use Internet Explorer and I don't like the fact that I am still forced to have it on my computer anyway. But I sure can't argue with what Bill Gates is doing with all that money that he made off of all of us. He is not just handing it out to make himself feel good either, he is working very hard to make sure that the money does as much good for as many people as possible.

And the wealthiest investor in the world, Warren Buffet, is joining him, giving his money to help people in desperate need rather than giving it to his own children.

I don't think it is any accident that a couple of people who have that kind of attitude have been so successful in their lives.

Jose Silva wrote:

"The other side will only help me when I am asking for something that is needed to improve conditions on planet earth."

"Like we said, they are not going to help me if I want another million dollars when I already have a million dollars, when I want a Rolls Royce when I have a Rolls Royce already. That I want a girlfriend when I already have a wife. Some people ask for something like this.

"They are not going to help you. You are on your own. If you make a mistake, you are going to suffer for it, you are on your own. You don't get help from the other side.

"You only get help from the other side when your intentions are that whatever you are doing is to help improve conditions on the planet for more than yourself, not just yourself.

"If you only consider Me, me, you have to do it on your own. If it is for Us, then you get help, if whatever you do is going to help more than you.

"The more you are going to help, the more help you get for it.

"We always say, 'Don't ever ask for more than what you need, but do ask for no less than what you need.'

"So what your needs will be, depends on how big your plans are. That's what your needs will be."

He went on to explain that "how big your plans are" means "how many people will benefit." The more people who benefit, the better.

My Big Question (from the Editor)

When I first read this, my immediate question was: well, If I'm trying to heal a bad back - can I do that? Surely that's not benefiting anyone else? But my Silva instructor at the time, answered like this. Of course it is! Remember, with a better back, you could take your kids for walks more often. Spend more time playing sports with your teenage son. Carry stuff for your wife. Of course you can help others more. So when you visualize for a better back - see your wife, teenage kid and son all benefiting too. This accelerates the Law of Attraction!

[Courtesy of Avlis Publishing]

The Secret Shortcut ~ by Bill Harris (Part Six)

2007-03-21T22:57:00.000-07:00

Now, would you like to know a huge shortcut to this process? I thought so. It's easy. Find other people who are already successfully doing what you want to do, or getting what you want to get. Then, find out what they're doing, and copy them. Also, while you're at it, find out how they're focusing their mind. So far I've spoken about focusing your mind as if it was a pretty simple "one-size-fits-all" thing to do, but there are actually a number of important things to learn about how to focus your mind, and I'll tell you a little bit more about that in a moment. For now, just know that it's very beneficial to find out what the person you're modeling believes about what they're doing, what they think is important about it, how they decide what to pay attention to and what to delete from their attention, and many other nuances about how they focus their attention. And, then, of course, you want to find out what actions they've taken to create what you want to create. All of this you can copy, which gives you a uge head start. Then, as you gain wisdom through your own actions, you can add your own twist to what you learned from them.

How do you find these people? First, just asking yourself that question - "How do I find people who are successfully doing what I want to do?" causes you to think of ways to find them. But just off the top of my head, I can think of a few ways. Again, you can use Google. You can find books they've written. Ask other people if they know someone. You can look in the Yellow Pages. You can spot them in the newspaper. Many people are selling information on doing many of the typical things someone might want to know how to do, in the same way Harv Eker is teaching people how to make money.

How to get what you don't want

Now, let's talk about the other side of the coin. What happens when you focus on what you don't want? Actually, the process works the same way, except you end up getting what you don't want instead of what you do want. Whatever you focus on, you mind takes it as an instruction to create or attract it. And, as I said earlier, your mind is very good at creating or attracting whatever you focus on. If you focus on not being poor, for instance, your mind will get busy figuring out how you can be poor. If you focus on not being anxious, you're mind will figure out how to make you feel anxious. If you focus on not making a mistake, you'll make mistakes.

As if it wasn't bad enough that you create it, the other big penalty for focusing on what you don't want is that you get to feel bad. All bad feelings - anger, anxiety, fear, confusion, panic, depression, annoyance, shame, guilt, hopelessness, or anything else - come from focusing on what you don't want. This is the flip side of feeling good when you focus on what you want, especially if you're taking action, and that action has value.

When you focus on what you don't want, or what you're worried about, or what you're afraid of, or what you want to avoid, you put your mind to work creating it, and you feel bad. Both of these penalties obviously make focusing on what you don't want a bad idea. In fact, focusing on what you don't want is poison to your life.

But how does focusing on what you don't want affect the second principle, taking action? When you focus on what you don't want, one of two things happens. You might, as a result, not take any action, which is a kind of action, with its own results (or lack of results). If you're afraid of making a mistake, you might avoid acting, and the very failure to act is, in and of itself, a type of mistake. When you don't act, you always know what will happen. Nothing.

Or, you might, ironically, take an action, driven by your fear, that creates the very thing you don't want. Not wanting to make a mistake, you act in a way that creates mistakes. Not wanting to make a bad investment, you figure out a way to become attracted to bad or risky investments, or you fail to learn what you need to know to make an good decision. Not wanting your business to fail, you are led to take the very actions that do make it fail. I see this all the time among my students. They focus on avoiding something they're afraid of or worried about, and (almost) as if by magic, they create it.

The mind is ingenious in creating what you focus on, and it doesn't care whether it's what you want or what you don't want. For this reason, it's crucial that you focus your mind consciously and intentionally. Your mind is always focusing on something. As I said earlier, it isn't that you can't manifest what you focus on, it's that you're very likely choosing what to focus on automatically, unconsciously. What you focus on is very often driven by past events, childhood decisions and traumas, that cause you to focus on what you don't want at least some of the time.

Attracting danger

Here's how it works. When you are traumatized during childhood (and the trauma can be quite unintentional), you develop a belief that the world is a dangerous place, or at least a potentially dangerous place. In order to avoid this danger, you have to watch out for it. To do that you have to focus your attention on it, and there you are, giving your mind an instruction to create or attract the very thing you don't want.

So "The Secret" is a wonderful thing. It works - especially if you add the second and third principles I've shared with you. But it's like electricity. You can light up a city with it, or electrocute yourself. You can only use The Secret to get what you want to the extent that you can consciously and intentionally direct your attention. As long what you focus on is chosen without conscious intention, you're going to find yourself attracting and creating, at least some of the time, some things you don't want.

And some people are unfortunately attracting a lot of what they don't want, a lot of the time. But it doesn't have to be this way. You can develop the awareness and the ability to use it to intentionally direct your focus. You can turn off the autopilot. This is why Holosync is so powerful, because it increases your ability to be aware, to live consciously rather than automatically. As your awareness grows, you clearly see how your focus creates what happens in your life, and as you watch this happen it becomes more and more difficult to focus on what you don't want, and much easier to focus on what you do want. It's not an accident that so few people are truly successful. Success, in whatever way you define it, flows directly from focusing on what you want, and then, as a result, taking action that is of value to the world. If you can't focus intentionally, though, this process becomes very difficult.

You can't focus on what you've deleted

It also becomes easier to implement The Secret in your life if you better understand the focusing process. In this discussion I've treated focusing as a simple process, but it's actually a complex cognitive process. There are many steps, and they whiz by very quickly, mostly outside your awareness. For instance, you have dozens of mental filters that delete much of what comes in through your senses, then distorts (sometimes in a positive way, and sometimes in a negative way) what is left. Why does this matter?

[Look at the frog sideways. What do you see?]

Well, you can't focus on what has been deleted from your awareness. What if, for instance, you delete some - or even all - of the possibilities? Many people do this. When they look around, there are no possibilities! I correspond with people everyday who tell me that they see no possibilities, yet the same possibilities are actually available to them, as to anyone else. But because they've filtered them out, they aren't there. And this is just one of twenty-some filters people unconsciously use before they ever get to the part of the process where they focus on something.

People filter out possibilities, solutions, ideas, resources, ideas, kindnesses, love, what they could be grateful for, and all kinds of things. Many people filter things in such a way that all they see are problems and what is wrong. They have nothing left to focus on but what they don't want! Can you see how it would be valuable if you could consciously choose how to use these filters? We unfortunately don't have room here to go through the entire process by which you focus your mind. However, even if you know nothing about this, other than to focus as much as possible on what you want - and you're willing to take action and to do whatever you can to make sure your actions are of value to others - you'll get results that are head and shoulders above those achieved by other people.

However, I invite you to consider the possibility that you could master this internal focusing process, by taking my online course, The Internal Map of Reality Expander. Those who master this process tap into a power that allows them to do or achieve anything they put their mind to. There's no reason why you couldn't be one of them. You can find out more, and listen to a free preview lesson, by going to www.centerpointe.com/life/preview. I also invite you, if you aren't already doing so, to use Holosync audio technology to increase your conscious awareness (and to get all the other mental, emotional, and spiritual benefits it brings). You can get a free Holosync demo CD and a free Special Report at www.centerpointe.com.

The Secret isn't a secret, and the Wish Fairy is a fraud

. It's been around for thousands of years, and many people have taught it in many different forms. The only reason it can be referred to as a "secret" is that very few people actually use it. It's been estimated that about 2% of people actually embrace the three principles I've described and commit themselves to using them consistently. Or, if they try to use the first principle, they skip the second two and insist on wishing and hoping and believing in magic, eternally waiting for the Wish Fairy to give them what they want. I'm hoping that you'll be one of those who embrace these principles and actually use them. And I am here, along with my staff, to help you use the tools we've created to become happy, peaceful, and successful, and to create whatever you want in life.

[Text courtesy of Bill Harris]

Paying the price and enjoying it ~ by Bill Harris (Part Five)

2007-03-21T12:55:00.000-07:00

The people you see who are getting what they want in life are almost always those who have figured out how to enjoy paying the price, which of course makes it easy to pay. As I said earlier, this is the essence of the Law of Attraction—the price is just whatever you need to give in order to attract or create what you want. That's why just sitting there hoping and wishing doesn't work. When you do that, the only thing you're putting out is an intention, which, while it's a good start, is of no value to anyone - unless you act on it.

The resources you begin to notice when you focus on what you want might also include people who could help you. And when you begin to spot such people, you have to keep in mind that if you want their help you have to make it worth their while to help you. This might mean paying them, but you could compensate them in many other ways. You could make them a partner. You could give them a feeling of being a good person who helps others. Or anything in between. And, quite often, if people who have the ability to help you see that what you have has real merit, some of them will help you just to help you, because they understand the Law of Attraction and they know if they help you it will come back to them in some other way. Often the people who have really mastered the Law of Attraction have so much, and they create what they want so effortlessly, that they just want to give back by helping others.

It never hurts to ask

It never hurts to ask for help, even if you're not sure how to compensate the other person. But always start with the willingness to compensate them in some way, even if you don't yet know how. In fact, if you aren't sure, you could begin by saying, "I'm not sure how at this point to make it worth your while, but I sure could use your help." Ask, and see what happens, and always be open to compensating the other person in some way, even if you haven't yet figured out what it might be. In fact, be eager to compensate them. So, you focus on what you want, and you ask yourself questions such as "How can I make $100,000 a year?" Because of that, you get ideas, you notice resources, you attract or notice people who might be able to help.

Focusing on what you want and imagining how good it will feel to get it causes you to feel motivated to act, and so you take action. Then, after you act, notice what happened. Evaluate your action. Your action was either successful or not, or something in between. Whatever happens, you'll get feedback. If your action worked, you might want to do more of it. If it didn't work, learn whatever you can from it, and then take another action based on what you learned. Keep acting, evaluating, and then acting again, until you create or attract whatever it is you're trying to get. Even if you have to refine your actions many times, you're still benefiting because you're gaining wisdom. This is why successful people are so successful. They've acted, and received feedback, and acted again, and received more feedback, and have done this so many times that they've become wise. They've become experts. So be willing to pay the price to become an expert. All these little so-called failures are really tuition in the school of life, and the learning they bring is very valuable.

All the while you're doing this, of course, you're remaining focused on where you want to go and what you want to create, and you've already decided, in advance, that nothing is going to keep you from getting there. If you slip up, if what you're doing isn't working, if you fall on your face, you learn everything you can from what happened, and continue to focus on how to get where you want to go.

This constant focus on the end result, along with taking action, and always trying to think of how to create value for others, always, eventually, gets you there. The only way you can fail is if you're mistaken about the value of what you provide, or you quit before you get there. You might change your approach for getting there a number of times, based on what you learn, but you otherwise just keep focusing your attention on what you want and acting to get it.

[Text courtesy of Bill Harris]

Who wants $100,000? ~ by Bill Harris (Part Four)

2007-03-20T11:57:00.000-07:00

Okay, let's take an example to see how you could use these three principles to get what you want. Let's say that you do want more money, and you realize right away that you don't yet have a way to provide additional value to others, which is what would qualify you to receive more money. For that reason, no one is giving you money. What do you do? The first thing to do is to use the first principle, the principle of focusing your attention on what you want.

"I want more money," you say. You ask yourself, "How can I get more money?" Notice that I'm using that "How can I?" question again. It's always a great question to ask because it focuses you on what you want.

It would be even better, though, if you were more specific. I might say, then, "I want to make $100,000 a year. How can I do that?" Or, I might say to myself, "Okay, how can I make $100,000 a year? Many other people do it, so I know it's doable. How could I do it?" I would keep asking myself this question, and I would focus my attention on discovering a way to do it. Knowing the other two principles, I'd know that when I get an idea, I'm going to have to take action, and the action will have to benefit someone, so I'm keeping that in the back of my mind.

So, what happens? First, you start getting ideas. Right now, off the top of my head, I'm just going to share with you the ideas that come to me, as if I was the person wanting to make $100,000 a year. The first idea that comes to me is to see if I can find out who else is making $100,000 a year. What professions make that much? Well, certainly a lot of people who have their own business make that much. A guy who owns a McDonald's makes more than that much for each store he owns. Someone who owns a couple of dry cleaning stores probably makes that much. I could probably go online and find through Google a whole list of types of jobs that make $100,000 a year.

People who sell certain products online, or through the mail, probably make that much. Certain professional speakers, or authors, make that much. Someone who sells real estate can make that much, or more, and so can insurance agents. So one idea that came to me was to check out who's actually making this kind of money, because that might give me ideas for how I could do it. By finding this out, I could at least save myself from doing something that I think will make me a lot of money when in actual fact few if any people actually make that kind of money doing it.

For instance, I see a lot of people in certain MLM-type businesses, but rarely do I see anyone who even makes $1000 a month, let alone significant money. I'm not trying to bash MLMs in general, because some of them are great, and I'm not saying it isn't possible to make good money in MLM, but if you're looking for a way to make a lot of money, wouldn't it make sense to avoid something where nearly everyone who does it fails? If you want to start a business, do a little checking before you act and find out what other people in that business are making.

Daydreaming, or acting?

Here's something else to keep in mind. If you sit around and focus your attention on something you want, but you're daydreaming, you aren't going to get it. Why? Because daydreaming is a kind of thinking that already has lack of action built into it. There's a huge difference between thinking about something when you're in wishing mode, and thinking about the same thing when you're in acting mode. If you want to create something, always do your thinking while in acting mode.

But let's get back to creating that $100,000 a year. I've already mentioned that focusing on how to do this gives you ideas. But it also causes you to notice resources you might use. You might, for instance, notice books about how to make more money. Or you might notice that someone has a seminar about how to make more money. It occurs to me as I'm thinking about this right now that my friend Harv Eker, for instance, has a great seminar, and a book, about making money. If you Google "Harv Eker", you'll see all kinds of offerings he has. I know they're good, and if you follow his advice you'll learn how to make more money. Jack Canfield has some great stuff, too, and his book, The Success Principles, is a very complete guide to how people create what they want in the world. I have a very powerful online course that will teach you, in-depth, exactly how to create whatever you want, which I'll tell you more about later.

"What's New, Pussycat? Click and see!"

There are almost unlimited resources available about how to make money. You usually don't notice them because you haven't focused your attention on finding them. Then, of course, when you find them, you have to take action and use them. This is where most people fall down. There's a price to pay to get what you want in this world, and most people would rather not pay it.

Will the Wish Fairy give you a raise? ~ by Bill Harris (Part Three)

2007-03-19T11:16:00.000-07:00

If you work in an office, and your boss approaches you and offers you a better job in the company, with more pay, why does he do this? Is it magic? Is it because you've been sitting in your cubicle putting it out to the universe that you want a better job with more money? I doubt it. If your boss offers you such a promotion, I'll bet you anything it's because of past actions you've taken that have convinced your boss that you're worth the raise, and because he's pretty sure that your future actions will make it worth his while to give you new responsibilities and more money.

Now, let's look at the third principle, the idea that the action you take has to benefit someone, that your action has to create value. Think of it this way. From time to time you give money to other people, right? You pay your electric bill, you pay your car payment, you give money to the supermarket, you give money to the clothing store, or the gas station. Why do you do this? Is it just because you like these people? Is it because they put it out to the universe that you would stop by and give them money?

Well, you might like them, and they probably did sit down and focus on how to get you and other customers to give them some of your money, but when it comes right down to it, you gave them money because they have something you want more than you want the money. Like everyone else, unless it's just because you love them, you give money to others if you get something valuable in return. What's more, you're the sole judge of whether what they have is valuable. It doesn't matter who else thinks it's valuable - if you don't think it is, you don't give up your money for it.

The only reason people will give you money

Other than money you might give to someone just because you love them, this is the only reason why money changes hands. This means that if you want money, someone else is going to have to give it to you, and they're going to use the same criteria you use. If giving you money gets them something they want more than the money, they'll give you the money. In order to get more money, then, you have to figure out a way to create more benefit, more value. This is really the essence of the Law of Attraction. The amount of money you attract is equal to the value you provide. This applies to more than money, of course. As the Beatles said in one of their songs, "the love you take is equal to the love you make."

I'm only talking in terms of money because that's what most people think of when they think of The Secret and the Law of Attraction. But whatever you want - love, respect, friends, or anything else - you'll receive it to the extent that you put out, through your actions, something of equivalent value. Be a good friend, and you'll have friends. Act in a way that invites respect, and you'll be respected. And so on. The main point, though, is that for you to get something in this world, you have to give. As Emerson said, the universe's books are always balanced - which, by the way, also means that you can't fail to receive when you give, and if you have to wait, you build up interest, you might say, while you wait.

Now, some people struggle, at least partially, because they haven't found a way to offer very much value, so they don't make much money. If you're flipping burgers, it's probably because you don't have the skills that make you more valuable to someone else, which means others aren't willing to trade very much money for whatever you provide. The burger-flipper needs to be reliable enough to show up, smart enough to follow directions, and be able to get along with the other employees, but not much else is required. It's also possible that you have something that would be of value to others, but you haven't found a way to let others know about it. In that case, you have a sales and marketing problem, and you need to find a way to convincingly let others know about the value you could provide for them.

The more valuable you are, the more money you make

But there's a solution to this, and it isn't wishing and hoping. If you don't have a way to create very much value for others, you can always get more knowledge or more skills. I have people who work for me who know how to take orders over the phone and enter them into the computer, and they do it well. However, a lot of people can do such a job, so it isn't a very lucrative job compared, for instance, to someone who knows how to manage people, or who knows how to run a computer network, or who knows how to create an advertisement that creates a lot of sales. Such people end up getting more money because they provide more value. And, they can provide more value because they've paid the price to have those skills and that knowledge. So if you aren't making as much money as you want, you need to figure out a way to create more value, and you need to figure out a way to make sure people know you have this value. The value could be your ideas, it could be your labor, it could be a product you create or sell, or it could be a service you provide. If it has value, and if you can find a way to make sure people know about it, you'll make money equivalent to the value you provide.

And, of course, none of this will happen unless you take action, and you won't take action - or know what action to take - unless you begin by focusing your mind on what you want and asking yourself how you can get it. But please don't think that you can just wish for something or "put it out to the universe," and then, without taking action or providing any value, expect to get it. In fact, let me clue you into another aspect of the Law of Attraction. If a random event brings you something, for which you haven't provided value - something you haven't paid the price to have - I hate to tell you this, but you still have to pay in some way. If you win the lottery, you've received a bunch of money without having provided value in exchange. You know what happens to nearly all people who win millions in the lottery, don't you? That's right. They almost always lose all the money within a few years. Unless that person does something with the money that provides value to others, they'll find a way to lose it.

And, by the way, this is the way debt works, too. If you go into debt in order to have something before you've earned the money, you end up paying more for it. There is a price for everything, and when you pay in advance the price is lower, and when you pay in arrears the price is higher. One of the big secrets to success is to find out what the price is for what you want and pay it, in full, as fast as possible. The price might be money, but it also could be time, experience, learning, work, or something else. Sometimes the price is a series of events that look like failures, but are really preparation for success. But whatever the price is, the faster you pay it, the better. This is what the second two principles are about.

Take the plunge!

[Text courtesy of Bill Harris]

Turning wishes into lemonade ~ by Bill Harris (Part Two)

2007-03-19T04:21:00.000-07:00

You can probably see that sitting there visualizing lemonade without doing something about it is a belief in magic, and if that's all you do you're not going to get lemonade. Even if someone walks into the room just as you think of lemonade, and you ask them to get you some, you've still taken action. And, if by some coincidence you thought of lemonade and right then someone walked into the room and said, "I was wondering if you'd like some lemonade?" this is not happening because you thought about lemonade. A lot of magic-believers would like to think so, but you could sit there every day and think about lemonade, and it would be a long time before that method would work again.

Scientists have a name for this. It's called a coincidence.

People who believe in magic turn coincidences into evidence, but that doesn't make it so, and you can easily prove this to yourself by thinking of lemonade the next day, and the day after that, and the day after that, and finding out what happens. What will happen is that no lemonade will manifest the next day, or the next, or the next, unless you get up out of your chair and take action to find some.

How to find all the resources you need.

So the first thing that happens when you focus on getting something is that your mind generates ideas about how to get it, ideas about what actions you could take to get it. The second thing that happens is that you begin to notice resources you could use in getting what you want. You might notice people who could help you that you weren't noticing before. You might suddenly become aware of information, books, seminars, TV shows, or whatever, that previously you had not noticed. Perhaps you've had the experience of wanting to learn about something and going to a bookstore. Suddenly you see all
kinds books about the subject that you never noticed before, and would have just walked right by if you hadn't told your mind to notice them. Let's say you're driving down the street and you decide you want an Italian meal. If there are any Italian restaurants on that street, will you notice them? Of course. Would you have noticed them if you hadn't focused your attention on Italian food? Probably not.

When you focus your attention on something, your mind develops a kind of radar that causes resources to wave little red flags at you, and to almost jump into your arms, or at least into your awareness. But again, you can see how this relates to taking action, because these resources you notice are useful only if you use them. Okay, so far, by focusing on what you want, you've begun to develop some ideas about how to get it, and you've started noticing resources you could use. Next, focusing on what you want causes you to become motivated to act. Because you're thinking about what you want, and about how you'll feel when you get it - good, probably - you become motivated to do something, to take action.

You can be a high-quality person.

And, finally, focusing on what you want causes you to tap into or develop certain internal qualities that help you to get it, such things as courage, or persistence, or focus. Because you're focused on what you want, and are thinking about the benefits of having what you want and imagining how good it will feel, you're more likely to be persistent, to focus your attention, to be disciplined, to be self reliant, to take personal initiative, to use your imagination, and to be enthusiastic. Those who focus on what they want develop all of these personal qualities, and, depending on what qualities are needed in order to create what you want, possibly others. And, the more and the longer you focus on what you want, and the more positive emotion you add, the more these qualities become part of your personality.

So focusing your mind in the way described in The Secret causes you to have ideas, to notice people and resources that could help you, to become motivated to act, and to develop internal qualities that will help you act to get what you want. You can see, then, how incredibly valuable focusing your attention on what you want can be. If you've ever wondered why some people seem to have so many ideas, how they seem to always find the resources they need or the people who can help them, how they stay motivated, and how they seem to have all these amazing personal qualities, now you know. They did it by continually focusing their attention on what they want and then taking valuable action.

Ask the Magic Question.

Now here's a really easy way to focus your attention on what you want. I call it the Magic Question, but again, it really isn't magic. To focus your attention on something you want to create or attract, ask yourself, "How can I create X?" whatever X is, or "How can I get X?" Sometimes, if you're in what seems to be a particularly bad situation, you might say, "Given that I'm in this situation, what can I do to get X?" For instance, if you just lost your job and you have a lot of debts, you might ask yourself, "Okay, given that I'm in this situation, what can I do right now to create a new job and create enough money to pay all these debts?"

When you ask this type of How Can I? question, it focuses your attention on what you want, and in doing so you enlist your mind in finding an answer - in other words, to figure out what you could actually DO to begin creating or attracting what you want. Then, as you get ideas, you have to act on them. Sitting there wishing and hoping for a miracle, or hoping that a coincidence will slam into you is what NOT to do. Dr. Phil, if he were here, would be asking such a person, "How's that workin' for ya?" I know a lot of very successful people, including nearly every teacher who appears in The Secret, and believe me, none of them sit around waiting for a miracle to land on them.

Even the few of them who actually, and in my opinion mistakenly, teach that focusing on what you want is magic, when you watch what they're actually doing, they are taking action. How they can miss the fact that they are is beyond me, but a few of them - who shall remain nameless - do teach people to just "put it out to the universe" and that no action is necessary. They too, though, take action, but I guess they somehow fail to see the connection between the action they take and the results they get. If you look around at successful, make-it-happen people, you won't see any of them who don't take action.

It only looks like they're not taking action.

Now I'll admit that sometimes the results can look as if they are coming to a very successful person awfully darned easy and awfully darned quickly, but these results are still coming from action, preceded by focusing on what that person wanted. My friend Gay Hendricks, along with his wife Katie, have been bestselling authors of books about relationships for over twenty years. Another friend, Jack Canfield, is also a bestselling author. Either one of them can pick up the phone, call a book publisher, tell them an idea for a book, and get a book deal instantly. If some other person wanted a book deal, it could take them years to make it happen. If their idea didn't have value, based on what the publisher wanted, they might never make it happen.

To someone who did not understand the principle of taking action and the principle of creating value, it might look like Gay or Jack made something happen as if by magic, without taking action. However, in this case the book deal happened quickly because of actions they'd previously taken. In fact, Jack visited scores of publishers with the original Chicken Soup for the Soul book, and was almost ready to give up, when he finally found a publisher willing to print his book. But now, after selling well over 100 million books, he's already proven that he can create a bestselling book. He's already taken the action necessary to get a book publisher to send him a contract and a check. The same goes for Gay Hendricks.

I can create a new course or a new product, and Centerpointe program participants will buy it tomorrow, in droves. This isn't magic, though. It's the residual of thousands of actions I've already taken which have convinced my customers that when I create something, it's going to be worth it for them to buy it in order to get the benefits. I've already taken the required action, and sometimes that makes it look as if little or no action is being taken in order to get a certain outcome.

[Text courtesy of Bill Harris]

Two Parts of "The Secret" No One Talks About - and Why The Secret Won't Work Without Them (Part One)

2007-03-18T10:18:00.000-07:00

By Bill Harris

Unless you've been living in a cave, you've heard of the hit DVD movie, The Secret, which I was fortunate enough to have participated in. The Secret has developed into quite a phenomenon. Many of the teachers who appeared in it have appeared on Oprah! and Larry King Live, and several other national television programs. Hundreds of thousands of people have watched the DVD, and those who have are hungry for information on how to implement what many people call the Law of Attraction. I want to share my take on The Secret and the Law of Attraction, and talk about what you can do to put these principles into action in your own life.

As powerful as The Secret is, there are a few things—a few very important things—it either leaves out, or de-emphasizes. I want to discuss these things, because once you understand them you'll have the maximum ability to use these important principles to take change of your life. Without them, The Secret won't benefit you at all. My belief is that there is a way, no matter who you are, and regardless of your past or present circumstances, to master your life, to master your mind, and to create anything you want in life. The Secret describes a part of how to do that. It's a very important part, but it's still just a part.

I want to tell you about the other parts, and share some of the practical details, the "how-to," of what I and the other teachers talked about in The Secret, because there's more to The Secret and the Law of Attraction than just putting something out to the universe and hoping to get something back. As the people who made The Secret have said, it's true that for thousands of years a certain small segment of the population has known about and used this secret, and that those who've known it and have used it have prospered in extraordinary ways, and have influenced the world in ways that have seemed almost magical to those who don't understand this secret. But you need to know more than generalizations about this secret in order to fully implement it,
and I want to share some of that with you.

Before I get into some of the nuts and bolts, I want to tell you about two aspects of this secret that were not emphasized in The Secret DVD and book. I'm sharing this with you because these two additional aspects of The Secret are crucial, and if you leave them out, The Secret doesn't work. What you focus on creates your life—but it ain't magic!

Let's start out, then, by acknowledging that it's true that you create in reality, in one way or another, whatever you focus your attention on. Your life is going to be an outcome of where you predominantly place your attention. There are, of course, as I said, some things you need to know about the how-to of this in order to get all the benefits, and I'll talk about that in a moment. What is unfortunate, in my opinion, is that all too often people think that all you have to do is focus your attention on what you want, and then, in some magic way, you'll get it. I will say that the way this law works does seem like magic, especially when you first use it and see your results suddenly change from dismal to successful, but there is no magic involved, and without the second two principles I'm going to share, you'll end up being nothing but a wishful thinker, wondering how long this "Secret" stuff is going to take. I know, because I get many letters from people asking me how long it's going to take, and I have to truthfully tell them that if all they do is focus their attention on what they want, it's going to take forever. So let's look at these other two principles I mentioned, and then we'll get into some of the nuts and bolts of how to focus your mind in a way that really works.

The first principle you heard a lot about in The Secret DVD, the fact that what you place your attention on you tend to create or attract into your life. However, if you stop there, not much happens. After you place your attention on what you want to create or manifest, you have to use the second principle, which is to then take action to get it.

Forget about the Wish Fairy

Yes, I hate to break this to you, but if you want money - or anything else, for that matter - you can't just wish for it. Whether you want great relationships, a fulfilling career, good health, or anything else, in addition to focusing your attention on what you want, you also have to take action. And the action you take also has to, in some way, be of value to the world, and to other people. You could act your ass off, but if your action has no value for anyone, you won't get anything back. This is why they call it the Law of Attraction. You get back what you put out.

To get value, you have to give value. That's the way it works. For some of the people who come to me, or the other teachers you saw in The Secret, life isn't working so well. I know what that's like, because I used to be one of them. Such people aren't making much money, usually. They very often aren't in a fulfilling career. Their relationships aren't satisfying. They don't feel happy and peaceful. Their health may not be very good. Many of them feel very lost in the world. They sometimes feel like, well, like losers in the game of life. Often such people don't have the skills that allow them to offer a lot of value. That doesn't mean that they couldn't develop those skills, or in some other way figure out how to create value in the world, but at the present time they either don't have the skills or don't know how to use them to create benefit for others.

You see, the problem is that such people - and remember, I used to be one of them, so I understand the thought process - such people would LOVE to find out that there's a magic way to become prosperous, popular, respected, happy, and loved. Then, when someone comes along and tells them to just "put it out to the universe" it almost becomes a cruel joke, because to create the kind of life I just described, you have to do more than just think about it or wish for it. I want everyone who feels lost and discouraged about creating the life they want to know that while you can't JUST focus your attention on what you want, it isn't that difficult to add these other two principles, and, having added them, you can learn how to have everything you want in life. It isn't magic, and it isn't difficult, but there is a price to pay. My career, once I found it, albeit late in life, is about showing people what that price is, and then showing them the easy way to pay it. Here's how it works...

So let's look at the first principle, what most people think of now as The Secret - the idea that what you place your attention on is manifested in reality. This is a solid, real, principle, but it isn't magic. Here's why this principle works - if, of course, you use the other two principles with it. When you focus your attention on something you want to create or attract, several things happen. Your mind is a very powerful goal seeking mechanism. You just have to give it a goal, and it gets busy figuring out how to get it. When you focus on something, your mind takes it as an instruction to figure out how to create or attract whatever you've focused on. In fact, right now, you're already using that power. The problem isn't a lack of ability to manifest what you focus on, but rather a lack of conscious and intentional control over what you focus on. In other words, most people focus their mind unconsciously and unintentionally. Their focus runs on autopilot. Your mind was pre-set to focus in a certain way during childhood, and now it just runs on automatic. Depending on what happened while you were growing up, your mind focuses a certain amount of the time on what you want, and a certain amount of the time on what you want to avoid. Either way, though, it attracts or creates it.

Here's how it works. Now remember that this first principle works in conjunction with the other two - taking action, and making sure the action is of value to someone. So when you focus on something you want to create or attract, a number of things happen. First, you get ideas about what actions you could take. If you want to attract a glass of lemonade, you think about having it, and your mind immediately suggests that you to go to the kitchen, if you have some lemonade there, or take a trip to the supermarket to buy some, if you don't. Instantly, you get ideas about what action to take in order to make your idea a reality.

[More in the next few blogposts!]

Get 7 Free Lessons from the Teachers of The Secret

The Secret Experiment: Co-Create Your Reality!

2007-03-17T13:56:00.000-07:00

Found this on YouTube and was charmed by the enthusiasm of these feisty femmes. The one with the irresistible French accent is Lilou Mace who produces her own Chicago TV show called My Juicy Life - and, yabbayabbadooooo, is she a juicy one!!!

20-Minute Sneak Preview of 'The Secret'

2007-03-17T13:05:00.000-07:00

For all those who haven't yet seen or heard about The Secret, here's a sneak preview of the first 20 minutes courtesy of YouTube! What happens next? CLICK HERE AND FIND OUT!

Ten Ways We Hinder The Law of Attraction ~ by Wendy Betterini

2007-03-17T10:28:00.000-07:00

“Why isn’t the Law of Attraction working for me?”

This cry of frustration is uttered often by people who are learning to consciously create better lives using the Law of Attraction. After spending weeks trying to raise their vibration, focus their minds and bring forth a better reality, they can’t understand why they’re not seeing results.

Does this describe you? Have you raised your eyes to the heavens and demanded to know why the Law of Attraction isn’t working for you? Or perhaps you’ve resigned yourself to one of these deadly beliefs:

“It seems to work for other people, but I just can’t get it right.”

“I must be doomed to failure.”

“I knew it wouldn’t work, but at least I tried.”

“I’m such an idiot; why do I keep getting sucked into these ridiculous schemes?”

“God must really hate me.”

Well, wipe those destructive thoughts right out of your mind! Seriously, they won’t serve you a bit, though I can understand why you’re tempted to believe them - I’ve been there too! Here’s the good news: the Law of Attraction IS working for you. It works all the time, every time, without exception. If you’re not seeing the results you want, the time has come to ask yourself what you’re putting out there that is attracting similar energy back into your life. Before you get angry at me for telling you you’re “doing it wrong,” please understand that you’re probably NOT doing it wrong - but there may be one or two things you’re doing that are creating resistance, which slows down your results.

Skim down this list of the most common ways we hinder the Law of Attraction from delivering what we want, and compare them carefully with your own habitual thoughts and feelings:

1. Indecision
Do you have a clear vision of exactly what you want? Perhaps you aren’t picky, you just want things to be “better” than they are now, whatever that ends up looking like. However, the Universe doesn’t want you to settle for “something good,” but instead attract EXACTLY what you desire! What do you desire? Take some time to think about the facets of your life. Think about your job, financial status, relationships, health, body size, vehicle, residence, and more. Are all of these things an accurate reflection of what you would create if you could start over? Make a detailed list of EXACTLY what you want to create for yourself. Write down every tiny aspect you can think of. Then read this list frequently to keep your vision sharp and clear in your mind.

2. Unworthiness
Do you REALLY believe you deserve the things on your list? What makes you so special that you deserve abundant health, wealth and happiness? That’s not a rhetorical question. I’m really asking, what makes you so special? Don’t have an answer? How about this: you exist. Someone breathed you into existence and infused you with all these desires, and for what? Why would your desires exist if you weren’t meant to experience them? Until you can understand just how special and unique you truly are, you might resist the abundance and joy the Universe is offering you. Embrace your true worth as a human being and let it be a shining example for all to see. Empower others (and yourself) with the knowledge that they too can create better lives.

3. Distrust
Some of us have a skewed view of the Universe (or God, if that term resonates with you). From an early age, we’re taught that we have to comply with certain guidelines and behavioral rules - or else. We see the Universe as some angry force that will deliver a wrath of misery upon us if we do something wrong. It’s no surprise that most of us end up feeling like we’re walking on eggshells. We actually EXPECT bad things to happen because we’ve developed such a negative view of the powers that be. We’re afraid to ask for what we really want because we might be viewed as greedy, ungrateful or selfish. We’re afraid to hope for something better because we might get a lightning bolt up the wazoo. How about turning this belief around? We can just as easily believe in a loving Universe, one that wants us to do well, be happy, and feel abundant. Rather than approaching the Universe with the mind-set of a scolded child, why not step forward confidently and joyfully and claim ownership of what is already yours? Believe me, the Universe will applaud you for doing so, and reward you beyond your wildest dreams.

4. Doubt
Even if you WANT to believe that the Law of Attraction really works, you might be holding back somewhat to protect yourself from disappointment. If you don’t give it your “all,” you think it won’t hurt so badly when it doesn’t work out. However, doubt is like a big old rubber doorstop that prevents the gateway of prosperity from opening. You affirm, you visualize, you get clear, and the gate begins to swing inward, creating a crack through which shimmering golden light shines forth. You begin to step forward into your glorious new reality, when “bump!” — oops, never mind, there’s a doorstop there and the gap isn’t big enough to let you through. Oh well, better luck next time. Think of FAITH as the oil that keeps the hinges on the gates of prosperity operating smoothly. If you keep the hinges lubricated and the gates free of any obstructions (doubts) - they will swing right open and you’ll be dazzled by what you see on the other side.

5. Disbelief
No matter how badly you want something, if you don’t believe it’s possible, you will resist it. Perhaps you’ve set some lofty goals for yourself, things that almost seem too good to be true. Perhaps you want to be a millionaire, but you’re currently earning $15,000 per year. Or you want to meet your soul mate, but you long ago convinced yourself that he or she doesn’t exist. Turning these negative beliefs around is CRUCIAL to attracting your desires! For every limiting belief you hold, I want you to take a blank sheet of paper and come up with ten reasons why your desires are POSSIBLE. It’s important to make the reasons believable and logical. For example, “It’s possible for me to become a millionaire because other people have done it, and some of them started with less than what I have now!” Or, “It’s possible that my soul mate exists because I simply haven’t met every person on the planet yet. He or she might be searching for me even as I search for him/her!” Keep repeating these reasons to yourself, until you are absolutely CONVINCED that your desires are indeed possible.

6. Duality
Do your day-to-day thoughts, feelings, and actions paint a very different picture than the affirmations and visualizations you project? Are you affirming your financial prosperity while at the same time worrying about your bills? Both realities CANNOT co-exist in your life. Either you’re prosperous, or you’re not. Either you’re successful, or you’re not. Either you’re healthy, or you’re besieged by aches and pains.
At every possible moment, you need to let go of your old reality - even if it means pretending that the symptoms of lack, struggle, and illness do not exist. At the very beginning, it will be a challenge to do this fully, but if you keep at it day after day, repeatedly turning your attention to thoughts of wellness, abundance, and joy, and focusing less on lack, struggle, and illness, you begin to shift your reality to what you focus on the most.

7. Fear
Perhaps you’re claiming to want something better, but you also fear it on a deeper level. If you want to be a best-selling author but you fear publicity and fame, guess what happens? You resist the formation of such a reality in your life because it makes you uncomfortable. If you want to be financially abundant but you worry about what others would think of you, resistance is woven throughout your desire for more money. In effect, you’re asking for something but also pushing it away at the same time. One good way to overcome these fears is by facing them on paper. Ask yourself how you would handle people who thought poorly of you for being wealthy. “I’d tell them to mind their own business,” might be one response, or “Their opinions of me don’t affect my life one way or the other” would work nicely also. If you get clear about your fears, you’ll realize that most of them are irrational or irrelevant. Even the ones that hold merit, however, can be worked through and your resistance will dissolve in the light of clarity and purpose.

8. Force
You watched the movie, The Secret, or read a great book about the Law of Attraction, and now you’re all fired up! You’re SO DETERMINED to change your life that you proceed full steam ahead. You begin religiously reciting affirmations and performing meditations and visualizations and feeling good at every possible opportunity. After a week or two nothing has happened, so you increase the intensity of your efforts. You start meditating not just for 15 minutes a day, but for two hours a day. Your affirmations become a litany of desperation to make something happen. Still no results, so you work harder, and harder, and HARDER at it - until finally you scream in frustration, utterly exhausted from trying so hard. Lighten up! I know, that’s easier said than done when you’re not happy with your current reality. But seriously, the harder you “try,” the worse it’s going to get. Back off, relax, and just let it happen when it’s going to happen. The more relaxed and joyful you can be about the process, the more quickly your desires will come forth.

9. Frustration
Speaking of frustration - it’s yet another way we hinder the Law of Attraction. When we feel frustrated, we emit an unmistakable signal to the Universe that acts as a beacon to attract more situations to be frustrated about! Remember the importance of FEELING GOOD! Why is it so important? Because of the signal it puts out to the Universe. The more you feel good, the more you attract situations and experiences that will help you to feel good. I know it’s challenging to feel good when things aren’t going the way you want, but it’s so important to do so anyway! FIND things that make you feel good, and do them as often as possible. It is so, so, SO important! If you have a few moments of frustration here and there, don’t sweat it too much, just do what you can to have MORE moments of feeling good than you do of feeling frustration. It will make an incredible difference. And finally, the Number One way we hinder the Law of Attraction:

10. Impatience
Most of the people I hear uttering the weary cry above (Why isn’t the Law of Attraction working for me?) haven’t been working at it for long. Perhaps a few weeks, maybe even a few months. Believe me, I know the feeling of desperation to get things moving in a more positive direction, but it takes time! Remember that we’re constantly experiencing a RESIDUAL effect of our PAST thoughts, feelings and beliefs. It’s unrealistic (though understandable) to want to change it all overnight. But it’s not going to happen that quickly most of the time. Simply do what you can to stay positive and keep up with the activities that will attract something better in the future. Be gentle with yourself, and know that this too shall pass. And in the very near future, when you really begin to see this force shifting the circumstances of your reality before your eyes, WOW - you’ll be so glad you stuck with it through the tough spots!

[From thesecretnotes.com]

The Secret: Can You Visualize It?

2007-03-15T11:24:00.000-07:00

BEHIND THE SECRET

The Secret is the culmination of many centuries of great thinkers, scientists, artists and philosophers. All of the people involved behind the scenes with The Secret are honored to stand on the shoulders of these great people cherishing the ideas that have come before us.

One spring day towards the end of 2004, Rhonda Byrne discovered a secret - the secret laws and principles of the universe. Almost immediately her life was transformed, as she began to put into practice what she had learned. It seemed to Rhonda that almost no-one knew the things that she had discovered, even though the concepts could be found in almost every religion and field of human endeavor throughout history. And in that moment her greatest wish, and mission, was to share this knowledge with the world.

Rhonda began to see that her entire life - everything she had ever done - had been quietly and steadily moving her towards the most perfect place for her to be able to fulfil her wish. And to fulfil it on the grandest possible scale! She had gone from working as a producer at the Nine Network in Melbourne, Australia, to starting her own television production company, Prime Time Productions, in 1994. And after ten years of creating internationally successful shows such as The World's Greatest Commercials, Great Escapes, Marry Me, and Sensing Murder, Rhonda was ready for something new. She wanted to take Prime Time Productions in a different direction; in a direction that fulfilled people rather than just entertained them.

And on that spring day in 2004, when a small, old book called The Science of Getting Rich was put into her hands, and Rhonda's whole life suddenly pulled into spectacular focus, she knew exactly what her mission was to become. She was going to take this knowledge to the world. She was going to make a movie to carry joy to every corner of the Earth. And so the great journey that was The Secret began.

In early 2005, when The Secret was simply a name and a (momentous) vision, Prime Time Productions was made up of Rhonda, Producer Paul Harrington, and Director Drew Heriot. Paul, who had worked with Rhonda at Prime Time Productions virtually since its beginning, and Drew, who had directed several projects for the company as well, became, with Rhonda, the foundation for The Secret team.

For eight weeks Rhonda intensively taught everything she had learned to Paul and Drew. In two short months she had studied the great leaders from the past, read hundreds of books, and amassed countless hours of research. Previous to what Rhonda had thought, she discovered there were people out there alive who were aware of this information. Actually, there were lots of them, and they were some of the world's greatest living scientists, philosophers, and authors. In every part of the world, different fragments of The Secret were being offered, to anyone that would listen. All that was needed was to pull all of the pieces together...

One of Rhonda's initial intentions for the creation of the show was that Prime Time Productions would use The Secret to make The Secret... that it would be an effortless, joyful journey as they attracted everything and everyone that was needed to fulfil the vision. And right when the company was ready to begin production, as if by magic, the perfect people to make The Secret began to appear.

Suddenly the office was filled with people, all working to complete the most ambitious project any of them had ever worked on. And without fail, every person required on the team, materialized exactly when they were needed: Glenda Bell, Production Manager extraordinaire, Marc Goldenfein, a talented young Producer and Director, genius editors Damien Corboy and Daniel Kerr, extraordinary graphic artists James Armstrong, Shamus Hoare, Andy Lewis, and Nic George, post production co-ordinator Emma Franz, the youthful and eager production assistants Skye Byrne and Leni Mex, and literally hundreds of others. And without exception, every single person was taught The Secret, and together worked in total joy as they worked for the joy of billions.

The day Prime Time Productions arrived in the United States to film the living masters of The Secret, they only had one interview lined up. But they brought with them an entire crew, and the firm intention that they would film every person they needed for the show. And in a matter of a few weeks, the team filmed fifty-two 'teachers' of The Secret. Wherever the team went, more and more amazing teachers would emerge - great writers, leaders, philosophers, doctors, and scientists. These teachers created the foundation for The Secret.

[Text courtesy of thesecret.tv - official website of The Secret]

Rev. Michael Beckwith on the Spiritual Aspects of Getting Rich

2007-03-15T11:02:00.000-07:00

Dr. Michael Beckwith’s life is a living testament to building spiritual community. In the 1970’s he began an inward journey into the teachings of East and West, and today teaches universal truth principles found in the New Thought-Ancient Wisdom tradition of spirituality. Gifted with a vision of a trans-denominational spiritual community, in 1986 he founded the Agape International Spiritual Center upon his faith in that original vision.

In a personal letter to him Coretta Scott King wrote, "I greatly admire what you are doing to bring about the Beloved Community, which is certainly what my dear husband [Dr Martin Luther King] worked for and ultimately gave his life for."

Recently described in What Is Enlightenment? magazine as a "non-aligned trans-religious progressive," Dr. Beckwith shares his powerful conviction of creating the Beloved Community through his participation on international panels with other peacemakers and spiritual leaders including His Holiness the Dalai Lama of Tibet, Dr. T. Ariyarante of Sri Lanka, and Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mohandas K. Gandhi. He is co-founder of the Association for Global Thought, an organization dedicated to planetary healing and transformation.

Jack Canfield on the Value of Self-Esteem

2007-03-15T10:48:00.000-07:00

As the beloved originator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul® series, Jack Canfield fostered the emergence of inspirational anthologies as a genre - and watched it grow to a billion dollar market. As the driving force behind the development and delivery of over 100 million books sold through the Chicken Soup for the Soul® franchise, Jack Canfield is uniquely qualified to talk about success.

Behind the empire Time Magazine called the "publishing phenomenon of the decade" is America's leading expert in creating peak performance for entrepreneurs, corporate leaders, managers, sales professionals, corporate employees and educators. He is a compelling, empowering and compassionate coach who for the past 30 years has helped hundreds of thousands of individuals achieve their dreams.

Affectionately known as "America's Success Coach," Jack has studied and reported on what makes successful people different. He knows what motivates them, what drives them, and what inspires them. He brings this critical insight to countless audiences internationally - sharing his success strategies in the media, with companies, universities and professional associations in over 20 countries around the world.

Jack is a Harvard graduate with a Master's Degree in psychological education and one of the earliest champions of peak-performance, developing the specific methodology and results-oriented activities to help people take on greater challenges and produce breakthrough results.

He's personally taught millions of individuals his unique and modernized formulas for success and has packaged them in his latest book The Success Principles™: How to Get From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be. This new self-improvement standard contains 64 powerful principles of success utilized by top achievers from all walks of life and all areas of commerce. The Success Principles - and the entire empire of "Principles" books, products, coaching programs and branded retail merchandise - is Mr. Canfield's next offering to the more than 100 million readers he currently reaches worldwide.

Mr. Canfield's other best-selling books - The Power of Focus, The Aladdin Factor, and Dare to Win, - have generated millions of bookstore and Internet sales, and have launched complementary products such as audio programs, video programs, corporate training programs and syndicated columns to enthusiastic corporate buyers. His audio program, Maximum Confidence, has sold more than 350,000 copies through Nightingale-Conant alone.

He is Founder and Chairman of the Canfield Training Group in Santa Barbara, California, which trains entrepreneurs, educators, corporate leaders and motivated individuals how to accelerate the achievement of their personal and professional goals.

Jack is also the founder of The Foundation for Self-Esteem in Culver City, California, which provides self-esteem resources and trainings to social workers, welfare recipients and human resource professionals.

Jack is the CEO of Chicken Soup for the Soul® Enterprises, a billion dollar empire that encompasses licensing, merchandising and publishing activities around the globe. Jack's nationally syndicated newspaper column is read in 150 papers worldwide, and the Chicken Soup for the Soul® radio shows are syndicated throughout North America. Jack is also syndicated columnist through King Features Syndicate and is a popular news subject featured not only in major trade publications, but in every major metro newspaper across America and in hundreds more around the globe.

[Text courtesy of JackCanfield.com]

Bob Proctor presents "The Secret Science of Getting Rich"!

2007-03-15T10:39:00.000-07:00

"We need to make a game out of making money. There is so much good we can do with money. Without it, we are bound and shackled and our choices become limited." - Bob Proctor

Bob Proctor ranks among the world's best-known motivational speakers. I caught him in action at the Prince Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, on 13 March, when he unveiled the Secret Science of Getting Rich seminar to a packed conference hall. Kudos to Brian Wong and his whizkid internet marketing team, MindValley, for a brilliant job impeccably done. It's no mean feat that Brian and MindValley were able to persuade Bob Proctor and his associates to enter a joint venture with them with just one presentation in the U.S. a few weeks ago. The sneak preview at the Prince Hotel was organized within a week = and they succeeded in getting a full house! Bravo, Brian, Vishen, and Michael - you guys are a damn good ad for the program!

Bob Proctor & John Assaraf on the Ellen DeGeneres Show

2007-03-15T01:39:00.001-07:00

This was aired on 1st December 2006, three months before the launch of the Secret Science of Getting Rich program. Great pre-publicity for a surefire product!

For 40 years, Bob Proctor has focused his entire agenda around helping people create lush lives of prosperity, rewarding relationships and spiritual awareness.

Bob Proctor knows how to help you because he comes from a life of want and limitation himself. In 1960, he was a high-school dropout with a resume of dead-end jobs and a future clouded in debt. One book was placed in his hands - Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich - which planted the seed of hope in Bob's mind. In just months, and with further support from the works of Earl Nightingale, Bob's life literally spun on a dime. In a year, he was making more than $100,000 and soon topped the $1 million mark.

Bob then moved to Chicago to work for his real-life mentors, Earl Nightingale and Lloyd Conant. After rising to the position of Vice President of Sales at Nightingale-Conant, he established his own seminar company. Bob Proctor now travels the globe, teaching thousands of people how to believe in and act upon the greatness of their own minds.

John Assaraf is an international best-selling author, speaker, and consummate entrepreneur. As a teenager plagued by low self-esteem, John risked the potentially fatal consequences of a turbulent lifestyle—a lifestyle which could have easily led either to jail or to the morgue. In his quest to overcome his challenges and fulfill his desire to live a purposeful and meaningful life, he discovered a unique passion for brain research and quantum physics as it related to achieving success in business and in life.

His expertise in helping organizations and individuals achieve success has landed him on Larry King Live, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, ABC, CBS and NBC television worldwide. In addition, John recently made his cameo appearance in the new hit movie The Secret, which can be viewed at www.onecoach.com/secret.

In the last 20 years, he has built four multi-million dollar companies including growing RE/MAX of Indiana to over 1500 sales associates, who collectively generate over $5 billion a year in sales, and are paid over $120 million in commissions yearly.

With Bamboo, a recent start-up that raised $25 million in financing, John developed the marketing strategy and sales team that generated over $30 million in revenues within 12 months. Bamboo then merged with Ipix and went on to become the world’s leading provider of imaging infrastructure for the Internet, including managing the scaled imaging infrastructure for companies such as eBay.

John is now putting his experience and knowledge to use as the Founder of OneCoach, a company committed to helping entrepreneurs and professionals grow their small business revenues so they can achieve financial freedom and live extraordinary lives.

His personal passions are his family, spirituality, exercise, cooking, travel, and helping entrepreneurs understand how to incorporate the psychological and strategic sides of building a successful business and life.

"The Secret" on CBS News...

2007-03-15T01:25:00.000-07:00

Amazing how The Secret has spread across the world like wildfire in just 12 months - and changed people's lives!

Welcome to the Secret Science of Getting Rich.

2007-03-14T23:50:00.000-07:00

This groundbreaking, state-of-the-art home seminar and online affiliate program was launched worldwide on 14 March 2007.

That's right, it's HOT HOT HOT off the press, folks. Welcome aboard the brand-new Secret Express to boundless health, wealth, and wisdom!!!

CLICK HERE TO BEGIN AN EXCITING NEW CHAPTER OF YOUR LIFE.

Secret Agent Antares

2007-02-11T11:11:00.000-08:00

I spent the first five decades of my life revelling in the role of "starving artist" - trying my hand at stage acting, scriptwriting, cartooning, documentary making, songwriting and composing. I felt like the richest man on earth - even though my bank balance indicated I was living just above the poverty line. When I officially "retired" in 2005 and received a modest windfall from my pension fund, I discovered - for the first time - what a glorious feeling it is to actually have fat in the piggy, cash in hand to live the life I've always wanted, with financial independence and peace of mind. I opened my mind and lowered my ego resistance to learning from others who were well ahead of me in the game of attracting an endless flow of money into their lives. I decided to take affirmative action and begin a new chapter of my life wherein material abundance and spiritual wisdom would become the best of friends.

However, the influence of Saturn in Leo makes me a bit reclusive, wary of "celebrity" and the vulgar hype that surrounds it - and yet another part of me, like everybody else, craves fame and fortune. In effect, the internal contradictions in my programming seem to have sabotaged all my efforts to attain my dream of "heaven on earth" (initially for me, and then for every living creature, every sentient soul in existence!)

Recently I made a conscious decision to deactivate my protective cynicism and stop being suspicious of "entrepreneurs" in general and MLM schemes in particular. Knowing I could never really be comfortable being in door-to-door sales, I opted to do some selling online, of what promises to be a very well-designed product, backed by some of the most charismatic personalities in marketing and success coaching: The Secret Science of Getting Rich home seminar and affiliate program.

I realize that those in greatest need of these powerful "attitude-adjusting" tools probably believe they can't afford the stiff price tag - and are therefore likely to dismiss the whole thing out of hand. The ones most likely to sign up are those already doing pretty well - but who desire to achieve even greater results. If you happen to be in the latter category, go ahead and take the plunge. It's only cold for the first few seconds - and then I bet you'll be having the time of your life! :-)

To view my pictorial bio, please click here.