Master Key Blog

Optimists Vs. Pessimists

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 19:02:11 -0400

Just a few words from the late Robert Anton Wilson regarding optimists and pessimists. Enjoy!

You Heard It Here First!

Tue, 20 Mar 2007 18:40:01 -0400

Since I’ve been sharing my views about The Secret, I have been barraged with emails and responses in discussion groups telling me that either I’m wrong or I’m an idiot. (Or both.) It seems that people want to believe what they want to believe - and that’s fine by me. Rhonda “Rug” Byrne can sell as many copies of her vapid infomercial as she wants for all I care. And people can suck it up as fast as she can spew it for all I care as well.

But sometimes it comes to pass when I get to say something that I should say more often than I do.

I told you so!

Bill Harris, who was one of the talking heads in The Secret, wrote an article entitled “Two Parts of The Secret No One Talks About—and Why The Secret Won't Work Without Them.” do you want to know what he wrote? Well, I am going to include the article here, but if you’ve been reading my blog and listening to my podcasts, then you already know what he has written.

You heard it here first!

So, without further ado, here is Bill Harris’ article. Please enjoy! I am going to retire somewhere and gloat a little.

Have fun ... Tony.

PS - I’m not saying I agree with EVERYTHING he’s written, but he got a lot right and I applaud him for writing such an informative piece.

Two Parts of The Secret No One Talks About— and Why The Secret Won't Work Without Them
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. This month 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.
Turning wishes into lemonade
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.
Will the Wish Fairy give you a raise?
Let's take this down to a more mundane example. 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.
Who wants $100,000?
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.
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.
Paying the price—and enjoying it
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.
The Secret Shortcut
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 huge 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? 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
The Secret really isn't a secret. 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.
Be well.
Bill

What You Want: The “Real” Secret

Tue, 6 Mar 2007 09:06:17 -0500

After the last Master Key Podcast, I received quite a few emails. Many of the emails were very supportive, a few were nasty, and some had some good suggestions. This blog entry deals with one of those suggestions. What they said was that while I may think that The Secret is pretty bad, why not instead of focusing on the bad give some sound advice on what was lacking from it?

I agree. Now, that podcast was highly critical of The Secret because, among many reasons, it doesn’t give a very good idea of what it takes to be truly successful. It never states, other than the Law of Attraction, how to get what it claims you can get - that being “unlimited health, wealth, and happiness.”

Actually, I think - dare I say that I know! - that what that infomercial declares as the “secret” to success is anything but. More to the point: Everything that it proclaims is contradictory to what truly successful people think and do to become successful.

If you desire to be successful in anything - and I mean anything, be it business, career, relationship - here are the two most important principles you must know!

Successful people are those who do the things other people are either unwilling or unable to do - or both. 
Successful people don’t focus on the things they want, they focus on the things other people want and then supply those wants to them.

Read those principles.

Commit them to memory.

Writes them down and tape them to your wall.

Let’s examine each one carefully.

Every successful person is able or willing to do things most people are not. Plain and simple. Let’s use an entertainer as an example because they exemplify both.

Any entertainer who makes it to the big time does something most people just can’t do, such as sing, dance, act, play an instrument, or are funny. Think of Frank Sinatra. How many people can sing like him? Not many. That’s one of the reasons for his success. Jimi Hendrix played guitar like no other. Miles Davis played the horn and envisioned new musical styles like no other. Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt not only have good acting chops, but they are good-looking guys - and not many compare to them.

Yes, this part of the first principle is sometime a matter of chance. Not every one is born with a singing voice or good looks or any extreme talent. That’s the luck of the draw, be it genetics, environment, upbringing, or whatever. As is often said, that’s life.

But success also hinges on the second part of the first principle: doing things people are unwilling to do. All of those entertainers went out and struggling and practiced and honed their skills for many years before they made it big. They didn’t merely “Ask - Believe - Receive” like that infomercial The Secret would have you believe. Miles Davis spent many years as a sideman in sundry jazz bands playing in shitty clubs before he lead his own band and forged new styles. Any actor who made it big took the shot and moved to Hollywood or NYC where they worked odd jobs and lived in near poverty conditions until with persistence and skill they broke into their first small role. Read the biography of any famous person and you’ll see them doing things that most people would never do for any number of reasons - fear, not wanting to give up what they already have, not wanting to risk anything, unwilling to face all the rejection and ridicule that comes with taking on any endeavour.

My friends, successful people don’t drop out of the sky. Behind every success there is a story and most all of them entail taking some skill, practicing it, honing it, and then taking massive risks to make it happen.

When I was in college I applied for a job in a convenience store. When I went for the interview at the store, no one was behind the counter. I heard a rustling from the bathroom area and went to investigate. There I found a man on his hands and knees cleaning the toilet.

I said hello and asked him if the manager was around.

He looked up and said, “That’s me. I own the place.”

When I inquired what happened - why was he cleaning the toilet - he explained that the toilet had overflowed and he couldn’t wait for someone to come in and clean it so he had to do what he had to do.

It turns out that this man not only owned that particular convenience store, he owned three others.

This man obviously had good business sense, which is a skill anyone with half a brain can attain. But tell me this, wold you get on your hands and knees and clean peoples’ piss and shit? Would you do that to succeed?

After that explanation and those examples, let’s see that first principle again -

Successful people are those who do the things other people are either unwilling or unable to do - or both.

How can you apply this in your life? Look for those opportunities where you see people dropping the ball. Where are there vacuums because people aren’t doing everything they can do to satisfy the wants and needs of others? In a relationship, be that person who goes the extra mile. In your career, be the person who is not there merely earning a paycheck. Get there early and stay late. Lead, don’t follow. Be the one to voice your true and honest opinion. Take a risk - you might be wrong, but at least you’re not just following the herd. When you take a risk, you only need to be right once to attain massive positive attention and success.

Face the fact, most people are unwilling to get off their asses and do what needs to be done. Hence the popularity of The Secret. That infomercial appeals to the basest desire of far too many people - that being wealth without work. Just like Haanel wrote in The Master Key System, though, when you work and you bring your service to the greatest number of people in the best possible way at the highest possible degree, you will become successful.

Now, the second principle flies right in the face of what that infomercial and its cavalcade of fop-doodles who are barely qualified to mop the floors of a second-rate fast food restaurant would have you believe. You see, these gurus of base greed tell you to sit around and imagine what you want. They say to focus on your desires. That self-proclaimed “metaphysician” averred that the Universe was a giant catalogue waiting for you to flip through it pages so you could order what you wanted.

Successful people don’t focus on what they want - they look and see what other people need and want and then they fill that void! Money and the trappings of success are the result of that activity, not the cause of it!

Donald Trump looks at an empty building or vacant lot and sees apartments for people and offices for businesses - places for other people. Mother Theresa saw people without care and compassion and endeavoured to comfort them. The greatest athletes know that they are part of a team, not the star of the game.

When you focus on what other people want and you deliver it you will become successful - in business, in your job, in any relationship. When you take your eyes off your own wants and desires and instead look around you and notice what other people want, you’ll find the world to be a place of vast opportunities waiting for you to take action. If instead you want to follow what those charlatans secrete, you’ll be trapped in your own solipsism - a spoiled brat forever exclaiming “I want! I want!” and like all spoiled brats you’ll hopefully only receive five across the eye.

From good to bad, this principle works every time. How did Joseph Kennedy amass his fortune? During Prohibition, people wanted booze, so he supplied it! How did Bill Gates become the richest man in the world? By focusing on his desire to own a Ferrari? Hell to the no! People wanted to use computers, so Mr. Gates made the software that made them easy to use. A comedian wants his audience to laugh. (Don’t we all dislike someone who laughs at their own jokes??) A great athlete wants his team to win, his hometown to be proud. As one man stated so eloquently, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”

Like I tell people who bitch and moan about this or that or who can’t get their mind off their problems or their selfish and often inconsiderate wants -

Get your freakin’ head out of your ass!

Open your eyes and see the world and the people around you. Learn to listen. Pay attention to what people say - what they don’t say - what they want - what they need. Endeavour to serve. Be “the man.” (Or “the woman.”) Be the person who says, “Can I get you a drink?” rather than the chump who cries “Who’s buying?” Look where you work and see what needs to be done. Ask how you can make things better.

When you endeavour to serve others, you will make yourself happy. Why? Because you’ll feel useful. Do you know why many elderly people fear going into a nursing home or even retiring? Because they hate the idea of being useless. How many people have mothers (or fathers) who still awaken every morning and do something for their grown children? Probably a lot. It makes them feel useful, hence they have a reason to live! That generation of American’s, they knew the “secret” to success and they exemplified it every day. They weren’t a whining bunch of maggots crying every time they didn’t get a new bike. They looked to serve - to work - and they felt satisfied because the fruits of their labours tasted sweet, unlike the bland, homogenized, got-for-nothing fruits these modern day whores of greed and selfish excess pluck from their self-obsessed little universes like the flies monkeys pick from their hairy bodies.

You have a choice. You can take these principles to heart and endeavour to hone your skills to excellence, to take risks, and to serve others. If you do that, you’ll be successful. And let’s be completely frank: Not everyone will get the mansion and the yacht, but any one who puts these tenets into operation will be a happy, well-balanced, loved, and satisfied human being. You’ll see there is more to life than acquisitions and getting shit you don’t need and probably don’t even want. You’ll be something that few people truly are in this great big world of ours. You’ll be a healthy, confident human being.

You’ll be able to look at your life and say “I did that” rather than “I got that.”

You’ll be able to show the world what your made of rather than needing things to make you.

You’ll not only take on challenges but you’ll accept them rather than dismissing them because they might conflict with your wants and dreams. And these challenges will build into you character, intelligence, wisdom - the things that make a human being self-satisfied instead of needing stuff to satisfy the emptiness within them.

You will be a person known for who you are rather than what you have.

You’ll be a person of dignity and stature, of ideas and daring-do, instead of being like a cheap whore looking for gratification from any passer-by.

If you follow these purveyors of pablum, these swamis of sludge, these gurus of greed, you’ll always be the latter. You’ll never know satisfaction or pride. You’ll be trapped on the wheel like a gerbil always running after the shadow of success. You’ll find that you’ve become a void of unlimited wants and no substance.

Much like a black hole in space, you’ll be forever wanting, wanting, wanting and taking, taking, taking - and never giving any light.

I’ll leave you with the words of a man who is much more eloquent than I am, whose words keep me going during hard times.

“If” by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream—-and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—-and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:.
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build’em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—-nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—-which is more—-you’ll be a Man, my son!

Have fun ... Tony M.

I Couldn’t Have Said It Better Myself

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 19:43:08 -0500

I’ve been pretty hard on The Secret as well as What the Bleep? - with good reason. I’ve listed a few of those reasons. Sometimes, though, it’s a good thing to allow someone who can write better to voice those thoughts. Thus, I give you Julian Walker -

'The Secret' - Spiritual Cinema?

Here are a few choice quotes:

OK. So, I finally got around to watching the whole of this movie that has such buzz in the spiritual community. Yoga teachers are talking about it. My friend is at a massage school where the teacher's are suggesting that the class watch it together. Another friend is in a graduate course for Somatic Psychology where the professors think it is an important piece of spiritual cinema.
I held out for a while, but finally I thought I'd go and see what all the fuss was about.
Why have I held out you might ask? Two reasons. The first has just three words: What The Bleep.
Perhaps you've heard of it? It's that popular spiritual movie funded by the female cult leader who claims to channel a 3,500 year old warrior king from Lemuria (little old red flag for ya there..) and produced by her (his?) students. This film takes bad interpretations of quantum physics, puts them alongside junk science claims of water and it's ability to retain the "energy of thoughts" and then drives towards all sorts of misguided spiritual and psychological conclusions that leave it's audience more confused and ignorant about spirituality, science and the relationship between the two than when they first sat down. Presumably scratching their heads and saying "what the bleep?"
My second reason, you innocently ask?
Well, that's a little more complicated and has to do with my having been around the spiritual community my entire adult life and being perennially surprised, amused and infuriated with what people call "spiritual" and with the naivete, superficiality and gullibility of most "spiritual" people, as well as the basically banal nature of the material that gets recycled and marketed to it's willing consumers year after year.
Here is another:
Friends, this is not a recipe for anything but a frontal lobotomy. This is not high spiritual truth passed down through the ages, it's narcissistic delusion, bordering on the psychotic, plugged into the akashic records by a tinfoil hat.
And yet another:
Not too much searching online reveals that the movie is part of an elaborate advertising campaign to get people interested in working with the various "teachers" it features. Just like What the Bleep is a recruitment vehicle for Ramtha's School of Enlightenment, The Secret is an infomercial for its talking heads. On a purely business level, it's brilliant. Too bad this is the last thing it's target audience actually needs.
I think you get the point. Mr. Walker does not enjoy The Secret or any of the other pablum that has passed as self-help or “enlightenment.” Just like me. Why is that?

I won’t go so far as to say that The Secret is dangerous, even if it can be just a little because of people who subscribe to the wealth-without-work philosophy. I do say that it detracts from the serious study of any proper success philosophy or self-help as written by such luminaries as Haanel or Napoleon Hill.

Let’s just use one example (that will also, coincidentally, allow me to shamelessly self-promote the books I publish!). Let’s compare the book, The Secret with The Complete Master Key Course.

Now, The Secret, is a somewhat small book that basically says the Law of Attraction is the cure-all elixir. The book is very repetitive. I mean, how many different ways can you describe the Law of Attraction? Somehow, Ms. Byrne (and her fellow “teachers”) find a way to stretch it out. In other words, it tells nothing new and gives no real plan of action for actually doing anything with the “knowledge.” It’s vapid fare for the Oprah crowd.

On the other hand, you have The Complete Master Key Course, which consists of seven book coming in at 1,000+ pages. There are methods, exercises, background, ideas ... There’s a lot. You have to work to truly get through the books. If you do, you’ll have a thorough understanding of the philosophy and a practical plan for putting it into effect.

One book is what I would call lite bathroom reading; the other is study material. One is junk food; the other is food for thought.

In the end, one will take little effort, but get you nowhere. The other will take some time and effort and patience, but will lead to you greener pastures if you apply it.

Luckily, you don’t have to make a choice. Haanel’s books will be here when you’re ready. Hopefully, that will be sooner than later.

As usual, get for yourself the absolute BEST of EVERYTHING!

Have fun ... Tony M.

PS - I love your emails, even the critical ones. Keep them coming!

Some Words Just Have to Go ...

Sat, 24 Feb 2007 15:28:33 -0500

manifest 1 |ˈmanəˌfest| |ˌmønəˈfɛst| |ˌmanɪfɛst|
adjective
clear or obvious to the eye or mind : the system's manifest failings.
verb [ trans. ]
display or show (a quality or feeling) by one's acts or appearance; demonstrate : Ray manifested signs of severe depression.
• (often be manifested in) be evidence of; prove : bad industrial relations are often manifested in disputes and strikes.
• [ intrans. ] (of an ailment) become apparent through the appearance of symptoms : a disorder that usually manifests in middle age.
• [ intrans. ] (of a ghost or spirit) appear : one deity manifested in the form of a bird.
DERIVATIVES
manifestly |ˌmønəˈfɛs(t)li| adverb
ORIGIN late Middle English : via Old French from Latin manifestus.

I hate the word "manifest" or "manifesting" - at least the way it is used in today's personal development lexicon. Instead of working for something or earning something, many people today are being tricked into thinking that they can "manifest" (Presumably out of thin air! Oh, wait! Not thin air, it's the Universe from which they are manifesting.) anything merely by thinking about it.

Want a car? Visualize it. Think about it. Feel it. And then ... *BAM* ... It will manifest in your life.

A million dollars? No problem! Once again, visualize it and feel it, and then ... *POOF* ... Buy that lottery ticket and get the car ready to drive to get your winnings. (Although, and this was never explained to me, if a person can just manifest anything, why bother with money? If one can manifest anything, couldn't they also manifest all their bills away? Manifest a house? Why date when one can manifest the perfect lover? Money seems such a plebeian and base thing to manifest when one can just open the Universal Catalogue and get one's desires with a mere thought.)

In my last blog, I surprised a lot of people when I stated that I don't read many self-help books. I think a bit of refining is in order. I do read self-help books occasionally, but I tend to stick with the old ones - the classics. Of course Haanel is at the top of the list, but so are Napoleon Hill, W. Clement Stone, Claude M. Bristol, and a few others. The newer ones, and to be fair a number of the older ones, are far too involved with this "manifesting" BS that has attracted the get-rich-without-working crowd by the droves.

When you read the classics, you'll find that work and service are HUGE parts of being successful. Yes, having a positive mindset and thinking good thoughts are important, but not nearly as important as getting out there and doing it. It is only in the doing and the serving of others that one can achieve any kind of success, be it in business, a career, or a relationship.

In The Master Key System, the book with which I am intimately familiar, Haanel used the word "manifest" (and its derivatives) 111 times. Does he mean that you will materialize your wants and desires out of thin air like the modern day dreck-slingers profess?

I think not. (Frankly, this is a disconnect I have with MANY people who buy these books. I often feel that we are reading two entirely different books. Perhaps it's people reading what they WANT to believe rather than what is really and actually there. Or maybe it's just me.)

The first instance of the word "manifest" in THE MKS appears in Week One -

13. If we find wisdom in the world within, we shall have the understanding to discern the marvelous possibilities that are latent in this world within, and we shall be given the power to make these possibilities manifest in the world without.

Basically, I read that as what we dream about, we can make in the world. We all have within us more potential than what we give ourselves credit for. For one reason or another, we sometimes think that we cannot do something. "I'm not good at math." "I'll never get that promotion because I don't know how to do what my boss does." Whatever. When we overcome those shibboleths and begin to instead strive for our goals, then we become somewhat like an Edison, who with barely a grammar school education proceeded to change the world with his inventions and discoveries, the light bulb being but ONE of the many hundreds of inventions that came from his mind.

Work is involved, though. Edison, even though he visualized and planned and believed that he could do it, did not await the Universe to answer his beck and call for a light bulb. NO! He performed over 12,000 (that's TWELVE THOUSAND!) experiments until he hit upon the one that worked. He "manifested" what was in his mind; but that "manifestation" only came about because of his actions. It wasn't a "gift" from the Universe; it was a reward for his years of toil.

(Just so you know, the whole concept of the Universe giving "gifts" is pretty dumb to me, too. It's another word in the new self-help lexicon that really needs to be flushed.)

According to the definition of "manifest" that I put at the beginning of this essay, manifest means to display or show or to be evidence of something. For example, when you have too much of a virus in your body, they will manifest themselves as you having a cold. Simple.

Let's get back to Edison. He was a smart person. How do we know that? His inventions and discoveries made manifest his intelligent thinking.

Along the same lines, a courageous person is known to be courageous because he does courageous things - his courage becomes manifest in his actions.

In Week Seven, Haanel wrote this -

4. This is another psychological fact which is well known, but unfortunately reading about it will not bring about any result which you may have in mind; it will not even help you to form the mental image, much less bring it into manifestation. Work is necessary—labor, hard mental labor, the kind of effort which so few are willing to put forth.

I've been veritably flogged at the stake for using the term "hard work" in my blog and on various message boards. Of course, those verbal barbs come from the wealth-without-work crowd. But here is Haanel saying EXACTLY what I say - HARD WORK IS NECESSARY, otherwise, don't even try it!

Here's how Haanel describes "manifesting" in no uncertain terms -

You must see the picture more and more complete, see the detail, and, as the details begin to unfold the ways and means for bringing it into manifestation will develop. One thing will lead to another. Thought will lead to action, action will develop methods, methods will develop friends, and friends will bring about circumstances, and finally, the third step, or Materialization, will have been accomplished.

Note that Haanel wrote that thought will lead to ACTION. That METHODS will be developed. That friends (other people) will bring about circumstances.

Answer me: Does this sound like the Universe bestowing a gift?? Does this sound like something materializing out of thin air? Does this sound ANYTHING like the drivel espoused in The Secret or What the Bleep??? If it does, then please stop reading and go to another web page. This is NOT for you. Try the message boards for the movies I just mentioned; they LOVE talking about how they're going to "manifest" winning the lottery or a how they "manifested" a parking space.

Following the line of what I wrote about courage, Haanel wrote this -

27. If our thought is constructive and harmonious we manifest good; if it is destructive and discordant we manifest evil.

That means that if we are "at heart" a good person, we'll do good things. Likewise, a bad person probably has not so good thoughts, such as Charlie Manson, Osama bin Laden, or the schizophrenic who mutilated his family while they slept. Once again, we see thoughts leading ACTION - not thoughts creating a rip in the fabric of the Universe to bring into reality that which you thought. Do you see where I am going here?

Finally, to quote Haanel one more time, this time from the Questions & Answers of The Master Key System -

To labor is to serve and all service is honorable. But a “hewer of wood” contemplates blind service instead of intelligent service. Labor is the creative instinct in manifestation. Owing to the changes which have taken place in the industrial world, the creative instinct no longer finds expression. A man cannot build his own house, he cannot even make his own garden, he can by no means direct his own labor. He is therefore deprived of the greatest joy which can come to man, the joy of achieving, of creating, of accomplishing, and so this great power is perverted and turned into destructive channels. He can construct nothing for himself so he begins to destroy the works of his more fortunate fellows. Labor is however, finding that the Universe is not a chaos but a cosmos, that it is governed by immutable laws, that every condition is the result of a cause and that the same cause invariably produces the same effect. It is finding that these causes are mental, that thought predetermines action. It is finding that constructive thought brings about constructive conditions and destructive thought brings about destructive conditions.

Haanel finds labor (read that as WORK) to be of the highest and most noble nature. He finds that as men do less work, they turn their thoughts to bringing down the work of great men. One only needs to read Haanel's biography to know that he worked - and worked hard - to accomplish what he did. He didn't materialize it from the sky. His thoughts lead to plans that lead to actions that lead to his success.

The point I am trying to make with this essay is that the self-help world has become infected with a plethora of terms that promise much but deliver little. I believe they were manufactured and/or perverted by a new generation of snake oil salesmen to attract the wealth-without-work crowd. That is their business - and their business has always been good and booming. And that has never been more evident than it is now.

I am a critic of The Secret. I am a critic of What the Bleep?. I am a critic of the slew of trite palaver that passes as personal development. In turn, I am often criticized for my stance. I am often asked What is wrong with people feeling good or empowered? What is wrong with having faith? What is the matter with believing in the Law of Attraction?

Nothing is the matter with ANY of those things. Feeling good is important, both personally and professionally. Having faith can mean the difference betwixt success and failure in almost any endeavor. And the Law of Attraction, while I disagree with how it is presented in such films and books, works well on a psychological level, thus proving (at least to me) it's beneficial use.

When these authors and "teachers" delude people into thinking that the life of their dreams (unlimited this and that) is but a thought away because the Universe wants nothing more than to bestow gifts upon us, that transcends all of those good ideals and enters into an almost diabolical arena. While the wealth-without-work crowd will fall prey to these "ideas" (and they deserve what they get, the greedy bastards), it's the people whose hopes are lead astray that get hurt the worst. Instead of giving the hungry man a fishing pole or even a fish, they are telling him that his hunger can be assuaged permanently merely by wishing for it.

So, I propose an end to the vapid and useless terms that have infected personal development. “Manifesting” has to be the first to go. BYE! Next to go is "intentions." After that, let's get rid of "gifts." Each of these terms have been bastardized so much that I cannot believe that people say them with a straight face. Enough! Let’s get rid of them. Next time you say those words, wash your mouth out with soap.

In their place, let's bring back some terms that make sense - and really work. How about bringing back "work" and "service"? Those are two words that have been forgotten for far too long. I say a return to "goals" would be most healthy. Along with goals, "plan" should be revived. No more of this letting the Universe take care of a person shlock.

I think that would be a good start. If you don't know those words now, then get VERY familiar with them. I can guarantee that once you do, you will be more successful than you ever imagined. Remember that Rome wasn't built in a day - but it was BUILT, not manifested.

Have fun ... Tony M.

Be a Little Crazy ...

Thu, 22 Feb 2007 08:27:14 -0500

It may surprise many people to know that I do not read many self-help books. When I speak with people, they often ask me if I read this book or that book, all of them self-help, and when I respond that I didn’t and that I have no intention to, they are quite shocked. I understand their reaction - after all, I PUBLISH personal development books, so why don’t I read more of them?

One of the reasons is that I’ve already read PLENTY! I have book shelves of books that I’ve read, from Napoleon Hill to Tony Robbins. I believe that there comes a time when one must put the books away and get into action. And that’s what I’ve done.

Another reason is that I publish the BEST personal development books ever written: THE COMPLETE MASTER KEY COURSE. So, why should I bother reading more and more and more when they are going to basically say the same thing and yet still not be as good as the books by Haanel?

What I do read a lot of is biographies and history. I find GREAT inspiration there. Whereas self-hep books only give brief anecdotes of historical figures to highlight a point they are making (and often the anecdotes are apocryphal or incorrect in some way), a good biography thoroughly delves into the mind and character of the subject. As a reader, you not only get to see them as a human with all of the flaws and quirks, but you also see how they allowed their greatness to shine and how they really came to be what they became.

If you read a good biography of Bill Gates, for example, you’ll find that it wasn’t the MASTER KEY SYSTEM that altered the course of his life. What you find is that it was poker (as in the card game) that immensely helped his business career.

If you read about the great scientists of history, you see how their basic inquisitiveness drove them to make observations and then theories that then rocked the world.

You’ll see how businesses were often built by chance on a wing and a prayer, but with conviction and perseverance they grew into the mega-corporations we have today.

You’ll also see how often times it took some shady dealings to get an idea off the ground.

In Think & Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill outlined traits that every successful person had. He was spot on. That book has stood the test of time and continues to influence people the world over.

In my research, though, I’ve found Mr. Hill forgot one trait:

All successful people are a little crazy - sometimes a lot!

I’m not saying that they were certifiable lunatics that should be locked into an asylum. (Although, on occasion, a few were!) I am saying that they looked at the world differently and expected different things than the multitude.

As many know, I am a fan of Apple computers. Other than making fine computers, Apple also has a penchant for making some damn good commercials. One of them illustrates perfectly what I am trying to convey to you about being a little crazy. Here it is -

Here's to the crazy ones

Here's to the crazy ones.
  The misfits.
    The rebels.
      The troublemakers.
        The round pegs in the square holes.

The ones who see things differently.
They're not fond of rules.
     And they have no respect for the status quo.

You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them,
     disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can't do is ignore them.
      Because they change things.

They invent.    They imagine.    They heal.
  They explore.    They create.    They inspire.
    They push the human race forward.

Maybe they have to be crazy.
How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art? Or sit in silence and hear a song that's never been written? Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?
We make tools for these kinds of people.

While some see them as the crazy ones,    we see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.
I printed this and have it hanging on my wall. Some people have ‘vision boards,’ I prefer this. It reminds me that as I press forward with MY vision, it’s OK to be a little ‘out there.’ I recommend that you do the same - print this, read it a few times, and really think about it.

Frankly, I think it’s kind of funny that true words of wisdom came from an advertisement. Well, maybe not funny; perhaps just a little ... crazy.

Have fun... Tony.

The Law of Moving Toward

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 10:35:17 -0500

With the release of The Secret, it was revealed that the Law of Attraction is "the secret." The secret to life, the universe, and everything, to quote Douglas Adams (who has no connection to The Secret, but is just a funny guy and author). I don't buy that the Law of Attraction is THE secret, no matter what Oprah and her cavalcade of ill-garbed experts say. That being said, though, the Law of Attraction is an important part of achieving what you want, especially if used properly and not is some pray-to-the-great-spaghetti-spirit-in-the-sky fashion.

I like to refer to the Law of Attraction as the "Law of Moving Toward." I'll explain that in a few moments, right after I explain how the LOA is presented and taught today by various gurus, mystics, and movies.

What is taught is that when you visualize your desire, say $1 million, your mind sends subatomic particles that find like particles which then work together to "manifest" your "intention." As is stated in the movie The Secret: you pray, then you receive, then you give thanks. (Frankly, I was taught this is Sunday school; I don't exactly see what the big secret about it is.)

The new movies and gurus explain this process as scientifically sound because quantum physics proves it. What follows in their explanation is a somewhat brief and very incomplete presentation of quantum theory. Of course, nothing is mentioned that quantum theory is what its name implies - a THEORY; nor is the complete picture of the theory given, namely that of the at least EIGHT interpretations of quantum theory, only ONE of them in any way backs what the gurus say is possible. In other words, aspects of quantum theory are cherry-picked in order to back up what is said is possible because of the LOA. In short, their proof for the LOA working is bad science, or at the very least the poor interpretation of scientific findings.

Luckily, most scientists who see movies such as The Secret and What the Bleep? agree and simply laugh at many of the preposterous notions. Here's a nice blog entry by Fred Allen Wolfe in which he discusses many of the aspects of the movies and his view of them -

http://fredalanwolf.blogspot.com

Now, does all this mean that the LOA is FALSE? That it doesn't work? That it is a myth?

In my view, not at all. I believe that it is merely being presented in a very poor way, either purposely or by folks who are innocently mistaken. I DO believe, though, that on a psychological level the LOA works perfectly and is of immense help to anyone with a goal to achieve or a dream to attain.

That is why I refer to the LOA as the Law of Moving Toward - rather than you attracting things into your life or altering reality to conform to your wishes (both of which are shady ideas at best), what happens is that as you imbue your subconscious mind with your goal and what you want, your subconscious guides your thoughts and actions in such a way that you move toward what you desire. Thus, you call people with whom you haven't spoken in a while and end up making a good contact; you find yourself in different situations that benefit you; or you begin seeing opportunities where before you saw nothing.

When you begin using the LOA this way rather than relying on the methods being espoused today, you will see yourself achieving your wants and goals. For real! Now, it will take persistence, determination, and knowing exactly what you want, but it does work and it will help you.

When you begin to look at the psychological aspects of this mind stuff and remove from it the dogmatic, pseudo-religious aspect, I believe that you will totally achieve. You will be more prone to take action and move forward. You will be more able to do what needs to be done because you will truly realize that nothing comes without cost. In other words, you will be more connected with the workings of life, your place in it, and how to achieve and attain.

Am I Secret bashing? Perhaps a little. I guess you have to see it from my end - my end where you receive emails and phone calls almost every day from people wondering how they can 'manifest' money without working. People who take Rhonda's words 100% seriously when she writes that it is as easy to "manifest $10,000 as it is to manifest $1." People, with no or little understanding of philosophy, science, or business, take this in because what they want more than anything is - HOPE.

Is wanting hope or having hope bad? No, of course not. Hope is excellent and everyone needs to have it, otherwise one would wither and die. But false hope or belief in something that just isn't there is the opposite of excellent, and can even be detrimental to people. Have you ever had a false hope or a mistaken expectation? I'm certain that you have. How did you feel when nothing came through, went as planned, or came out as expected? Pretty terrible I am sure. Maybe you even got depressed or lost faith in people. In other words, putting your hope and faith into hollow ideas and wild-eyed fantasies can be somewhat debilitating to a person.

When a person sees the basic psychology behind the LOA and has a realistic interpretation of how it works, then he is practically guaranteed to become a better, more positive, and action-oriented person. Gone will be faith in shibboleths and shadows and in their place will be reason and reality - a reality constantly being manipulated and molded by you because you are moving TOWARD your goals rather than expecting them to materialize (or “manifest”) for you.

Check out THE COMPLETE MASTER KEY COURSE and find out what Haanel really wrote about the LOA, achieving goals, the role of action in attaining, how service of others is paramount to any success, and much more. To me, all of those ideas combined are the true secret, not just the LOA.

If you're a true believer of The Secret, which is someone who takes what is in the movie as gospel and doesn't want to hear dissenting views or doesn't want to work to achieve their goals, then this may not be for you. Actually, it really IS for you because you really need it, but chances are you wouldn't like what you read. For those who are questing for attainment and the truth, then this is DEFINITELY for you because you will find many answers to the gaps that were left in the various movies that are out there - and many corrections to the fallacies that they present.

I am not going to say that I am totally anti-Secret. If you get that impression, I can understand why, but I hope to convince you that I am not. I think that it's great that the movie in some way encourages people to explore new thoughts and gives people the notion that they CAN achieve a better life, that they are not trapped in their current life. I like that the movie shows that all of a person's dreams are at the very least possible. These are excellent ideas for every person to have and to entertain. I am glad that these ideas are becoming more and more mainstream. My only wish is that they were presented in a more realistic way rather than in the pseudo-religious way they are shown. THAT is what detracts from the message of the movie - and in a quite detrimental way.

I will be writing more about how I view the philosophies of Haanel and how you can use them to better yourself and attain the life you want. Are these techniques and practices as easy and simple as those portrayed in the movie? No, they are not. But when you want something, something grand and great, is it ever easy? From what I've read and experienced, hardly ever. But that in the end makes the rewards all that much more sweet - and well-deserved.

So stick with me as I present my views. They may shock you, but they will truly help you. They will make you think. In the end, I hope that they will help you to excel.

All the BEST!

Have fun... Tony M. (<-- click here to email me!)

PS - If you want to email me about this entry to complain, debate, agree, or anything in between, please feel free to do so. I believe that these topics are not dogmatic in nature, but are rather a philosophy to be debated and explored so that ultimately a modicum of truth can be revealed.

Oprah and The Secret

Thu, 8 Feb 2007 10:48:52 -0500

Well, today is the day - 'The Secret' gets its world-
wide premier on the Oprah Winfrey Show. So, check your
local listings and give the show a watch. Hopefully,
it will be pretty good. I'll be channel jumping as I
usually do. (Oprah airs at 4 PM in my area, which is
the same time as Judge Judy, whose show I watch every
day as I have a repast.)

Now, you may be wondering why *I* would be telling you
about 'The Secret' being on Oprah because I have been
somewhat critical of the movie. Well, contrary to what
some may think, I am not 'anti-Secret' nor do I hate or
dislike the movie. As I told people who asked, I thought
it was OK. My criticisms were aimed at how I thought the
movie glossed over many of the ideas inherent to becoming
successful and happy - those ideas outlined so beautifully
by Haanel and others. I think the movie is a good primer
and I hope that as many people as possible get exposed
to these thoughts and ideas because only good can come
of it. So, get the word out - tell them about the Oprah
show and then send them to -

http://www.thecompletemasterkeycourse.com

Let's expose people to the secret behind the Secret,
as I like to say. As you'll see on that page, I am
still offering The Complete Master Key Course for
the lowest price possible $59 - and that comes with
a few freebies and coaching. I think that once peoples'
curiosities are piqued with Oprah and The Secret, they
will need these books to REALLY take advantage of
the awesome possibilities that will be presented to them.

So, please, do them a favour and send them to -

http://www.thecompletemasterkeycourse.com

If you are a Master Key Affiliate, all the better! :-)

All the BEST to you and yours.

Have fun... Tony.

The Master Key to Love & Relationships

Wed, 31 Jan 2007 11:23:26 -0500

For the first time, I am holding a very special tele-seminar. I've spoken on tele-seminars before, but those were for other companies or people. I also do plenty of phone coaching, but this is vastly different. This tele-seminar is something very unique and about something that I get SO many questions about it's mind-boggling to me.

About what do I get so many questions? Money? Business? Goal-setting? Universal harmony?

While those are quite popular, I get a LOT of questions regarding THE MASTER KEY SYSTEM and ...

LOVE & RELATIONSHIPS!

Here are some of the questions I've received:

Can I use the Master Key System to find a partner?
How can I, using what I know, iron out the problems my wife and I are having?
How do I use the Law of Attraction to 'attract' the man/woman of my dreams?
I've used goal-setting in my business and career, but can I also use it when dating?

So, to answer these questions and MANY more, I've teamed up with a most excellent expert on dating and self-improvement to give to you what we are calling

THE MASTER KEY TO LOVE & RELATIONSHIPS

It will be a two-hour tele-seminar followed by a question and answer session that will last as long as it has to in order to answer each and every one of your questions about using the Master Key System to find love and keep love.

Now, who is the fellow with whom I've teamed? His name is DAVID PORTNEY. He is an author, speaker, seminar producer, and all around great guy. We've been speaking for a couple years about sundry endeavours and when we realized that VALENTINE'S DAY was right around the corner and that we've been fielding many of the same questions, we thought that the time was right to make this available to you. You can learn more about
David here -

http://www.davidportney.com/bio.htm

What will we be covering in this exiting two-hour long seminar? Here's a small taste ...

How to use the Law of Attraction to bring potential dates to you.
A GREAT definition of that mysterious word - LOVE.
What all of your past partners and dates mean about YOU.
The MOST IMPORTANT thing you need to do before you can expect to meet Mr./Ms. Right.
The number one thing you should look for in another person that will guarantee less heartache and heartbreak.
The three things you should do to avoid fights and rifts in a relationship.

And much, much more. We're still putting together the syllabus for the seminar, so we expect that list to grow to five times that size!

We don't even have a web site yet to describe it in more detail. We will have that done by the end of this week. The details, though, of where and when this is going to be held are:

Where: Your telephone (we will supply you with the number to call as well as the pin the day of the tele-seminar)
When: February 13, 2007 (Valentine's Day Eve!) at 7:30 PM EST
How much: $197 for the two-hour seminar, untimed question and answer session, seminar handout and guide, an mp3 audio download of the seminar, and perhaps a few other goodies.

Now, since we don't have a web site up yet, for the next few days as we get that together, the offer for the MASTER KEY TO LOVE & RELATIONSHIPS TELE-SEMINAR is only ...

* $97 *

Once we setup the web site, that will increase to $147.
And then, the DAY OF the tele-seminar, it will be $197.

Most of you know me through my emails and web sites. I've also spoken with quite a few of you on the phone. One thing you know about me is that I only recommend and promote QUALITY things at reasonable prices. I am very proud of what David and I have for you. And since this is a VERY hot topic (and the timing is right), I highly recommend that you take advantage of this offer now and get in early.

One more thing, we are limiting the number of folks who can attend to 100. Why? So that we can effectively answer EVERYONE'S questions at the end of the night. It's very important that we keep that number, so once it fills up, then that's it. So reserve your place and save some money right NOW -

I look forward to 'seeing' you at the tele-seminar. We'll have a blast! Until then, all the BEST!

Have fun... Tony M.

PS - Do you have a specific question regarding the MASTER KEY SYSTEM and LOVE & RELATIONSHIPS that you would like answered during the tele-seminar? If so, email your question to

coach@masterkeycoaching.com

THANKS!

The Legend of the Eagle

Wed, 24 Jan 2007 13:15:32 -0500

The Eagle wasn't always the Eagle. The Eagle, before he became the
Eagle, was Yucatangee, the Talker. Yucatangee talked and talked. It talked
so much it heard only itself. Not the river, not the wind, not even the
Wolf. The Raven came and said, "The Wolf is hungry. If you stop talking,
you'll hear him. The wind, too. And when you hear the wind, you'll fly." So
he stopped talking. And became its nature, the Eagle. The Eagle soared, and
its flight said all it needed to say.

Get it? Good.

Have fun... Tony.