No doubt many of you have heard about a book and movie called The Secret. It’s fascinating stuff, but very New Agey.
The key message is the Law of Attraction. Some people interpret this law simplisticly as “Whatever you want, if you put the right vibrations out there, the universe will give it to you. Guaranteed.” You see what I mean by New Agey.
I had an opportunity to attend a nationwide broadcast last night called Beyond The Secret, which was a panel of experts talking about how to address issues that people run into with putting the Law of Attraction to work in their lives. It was thought-provoking for me, but more to reinforce what I already know.
I’m an engineer by nature. So I don’t tend to be very impressed by these ideas of thought waves and vibrations and cosmic forces. But I have been around long enough to know that there are plenty of unexplained things in our world, and I find that fascinating.
When I strip away all the mysticism away from this, I end up with a few conclusions which are, for me, key founding principles:
- If you articulate something very clearly and in detail, you’re much more likely to achieve it. You might call that creating a vision and plan.
- If you put consistent energy into achieving your clear objective, results are going to happen. You might call that executing a plan.
- Things are going to happen that surprise you, and you have to decide how to respond and adjust. You might call that learning.
- People are capable of much more than they usually give themselves credit for, and it’s their perceived barriers that get in the way more often than actual barriers. With energy and creativity, you can often surprise yourself.
In the end, I believe that the Law of Attraction is actually true, but not using the language that people often put around it. It’s logical and self-evident and demonstrably true.
So what about that “put the vibrations out there and the universe will give it to you”? The key piece that’s missing – which they talked about at the broadcast last night – is that you have to WORK AT IT. Once you have an objective and a plan, you have to WORK. Hard. Consistently. Through the barriers.
But, you know, that’s what my parents taught me too.