Comments on: I Am Not a Fan of “The Secret”

By: Laura H

Laura H — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 11:52:57 +0000

Gotta say, “affirmations” worked a lot faster once I started visualizing *how* this would happen as well as the result.

By: Benjie @ Zordane

Benjie @ Zordane — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 04:10:19 +0000

I would say that this book is like a starter, or one that tells you where to start “thinking”, but it should not end there. You’re right that we need to do physical stuff like working ourselves out to get paid, and for that “invisible matter” to take physical form, you need to make it happen.

Thinking or having positive thoughts alone can’t get you anywhere, but if you put your mind, effort and your spirit of goal achieving, you could get far and make it a reality.

By: Shelley

Shelley — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 22:50:43 +0000

OK – I do like The Secret just from the pure stand point that we are all energy. We all vibrate. Just like the walls around your house are not “solid,” the wall is still energy and it vibrates.

Sure, you need to put hard work into anything you achieve, but you have to have the positive thoughts and visualization to back it up. I have a jerk of a Baby Daddy. The more that I thought it, talked about it, the more jerkiness that I had to deal with because I was focussed on it. Once I stopped, I didn’t notice his jerkiness as much and it didn’t crop up as much as when I was focussed on it. I was just inviting that negativity to me.

You know how sad, sorry people always seem to have sad, sorry things happen to them? Well, that is the energy that you walk with everyday. It just repels something good from entering.

It has nothing to do with the book. It is the Laws of the Universe.

By: Brian

Brian — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 04:25:07 +0000

I haven’t read it but I know people who have (in fact my wife did). I am pretty sure her takeaway was the positive thinking part, but not the drawing money toward her part. Thinking positively should be something we all try to do. But I am pretty sold on extra money coming my way because I either worked harder or because my investments are paying off.

By: Yana

Yana — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 03:38:05 +0000

I don’t know about “Follow your passion” being the worst advice – the one I think is bad is “Do what you love, the money will follow”. I think that only works when what you love is following money, without regard to anything else.

By: J. Money

J. Money — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 02:43:47 +0000

Haha, well I don’t know about that (I’m following my passion right now by blogging!), but it’s def. an interesting way to look at things…

And now I’m afraid I scared away all the fishies! I want you all to read The Secret so you can see what I’m talking about ;) Or at the very lease debate me or tell me I’m a loon! Haha…Out of all these comments today only 1 semi-disagreed with me… where are the rest of you hiding?

By: Carlyle

Carlyle — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 02:39:23 +0000

I’m feeling pretty smug with myself as I’d never heard of “The Secret” before this post. I guess I’m doing pretty good with my plan to avoid as much exposure to Pop Culture as possible!

I don’t know if the book addresses work but if it does I much prefer the practical advice of a guy like Mike Rowe. Here’s a quote from an interview with him that appeared in Outside Magazine;

“‘Follow your passion’ is the worst advice you can give someone,” he says. “Exhibit A: our 200 dirty jobs—Rene the fish gutter, or the guy who makes flowerpots out of cow shit. Once they found a thing they could make a living from, they figured out how to get great at it and how to love it. If you bring your passion with you, you can apply it to anything that makes sense. If you follow it, you’re going to be miserable until X, Y, Z happens, which might be never.”

By: Little House

Little House — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 01:43:18 +0000

I haven’t read this book, and don’t ever intend to due to the following:
1. Oprah endorsed it. (anything she endorses wholeheartedly usually stinks—of kick-backs!)
2. This gives lazy people an excuse to be lazy, and just think positively. (my students think positively all day, but their work doesn’t get done unless they put their pencils to their paper!)
3. If this book had any inkling of truth, I’d be loaded! (I’m comfortable, but by no means wealthy or rich!)

Thanks for reminding me to never read this book :)

By: Adam@Magical Penny

Adam@Magical Penny — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 22:29:25 +0000

I guess it’s more about being open to possibilities.
For a non-money example it could be running a marathon;

Friend: “Hey, you want to run the marathon with me?. I’m doing it for my fav charity”
You without the ‘secret’: “Uh…I can’t. I don’t run, I don’t have the time to train etc…
You with the secret -being open to the ‘universe’ “Uh…i can’t run but hey its for charity -I’ll give it a go!.

WIth money it could be ‘open’ to the idea of helping out a friend with a business that might take off, or being ‘open’ to working on a side project for extra cash.

Granted there’s a lot of ‘spin’ in the book about manifesting your desires etc but if you think of it like being open to opportunities you might other have missed by being dismissive, then that’s the secret!

By: Stella

Stella — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 19:41:48 +0000

I’m all for the power of positive thinking, positive affirmations, visualization, etc., but I agree–you have to actually take steps to achieve a goal, not just “dream” it true. Conversely, the whole “blame the victim” you attract negative events, etc. into your life really irks me as well. It’s like Pat Robertson blaming the Haiti earthquake victims to tell someone that their negativity is why they got laid off, cancer, cheated on, etc.