A great deal has been written about the laws of attraction, spelled out in Rhonda Byrne’s bestselling book. The Secret. The secret is … there is no secret, in spite of what Oprah and her friends tell you. The truth is … you always get what you give.

Mind you, I give full marks to Rhonda Byrne for her great marketing skills. She has done a marvelous job of repackaging an old idea to make it appear new again.

Norman Vincent Peale first introduced us to the power we have within ourselves to turn our wishes into reality in his ground breaking book, The Power of Positive Thinking, first published in 1952. Vincent reminds us that “Your unconscious mind has a power that turns wishes into realities when the wishes are strong enough.”

Neuro-Linguistic-Programming practitioners (NLP) believe in the power of the human mind to reprogram itself. They believe that if you think it and act it, you will become it. They believe you must “Act” your way to success. A good habit is a good result – plain and simple. And we are adults and we can learn new habits. (Stop doing one thing and start doing another. Do it often enough – and it will become you)

Now I could be wrong, but it just seems to me …

If you walk around acting like there’s a dark cloud hanging over your head all day long, chances are you’re going to get rained on. And chances are no one else will want to hang around with you for fear of getting wet.

If you look and act like you’re no fun to be around, chances are you won’t have many friends.

If you rant and rage and shoot the messenger when someone comes to you with bad news, chances are the people who work with you will stop coming to you for fear of reprisal. More importantly, they’ll start to hide problems from you and by the time you discover them, it may be too late to fix them.

Now I could be wrong but it just seems to me …

If you refuse to dwell on the negative things that will happen to you in your life – and trust me, there will be some – then you will always learn from the life-lessons hidden in the rubble.

If you understand that nothing truly worth having ever comes easy, then you’ll never be afraid of hard work and putting in your time. You’ll discover that the harder you work, the luckier you’ll get.

If you think big, always aim high, but land slightly short of your goal, you’ll still be in a better place than you were before you started.

Now I could be wrong, but it just seems to me …

The secret to your success will not be found in a book or on a CD. The secret to your success has always been inside you. You just need to learn to get out of your own way. You need to reach inside and decide that this is your time. It’s time you started to believe in yourself. Think it, act it, and you will become it. You have the power to be who ever and what ever you want to be.