The Secret Behind The Secret
As I mentioned on Saturday, Revellian Dot Com touched on this earlier last week in his post “The Secret - Exposing the The Truth and How It was Conceived.”
A lot of the focus (and criticism) on the Secret is visualization. Visualization is in Wallace Wattles’ book as well (see Saturday’s post for the links). It’s also in a number of other similar works.
It’s pretty easy to criticize and, because of that, people are quick to dismiss the whole idea. Lots of people daydream, but few people ever realize those dreams. School children daydream during classes, but rare is the kid that grows up and accomplishes those dreams. At work, plenty of adults daydream too, but few of them ever realize their goals either. Even those that daydream consistently, and really hope for those dreams to come true, never realize those dreams.
All in all, visualization is pretty much busted, no?
Don’t Be So Quick to Dismiss Visualization!
Visualization is not exactly like daydreaming, so it should not be dismissed so easily.
First, take a look here. The video shown is different than what is described in the post, and different from the original video. The original video was better, and was a clip from a TV program, so was probably yanked for copyright infringement. But, the point is still good.
Did you watch the video yet? Don’t read further until you have.
I’ll wait…
Okay. Now there is a scientific reason for visualization. We see what we are looking for. So, if we focus on bad things, we will notice them and dwell on them more often. If we focus on good things, we will notice them and dwell on them more often.
Forgetting about the Law of Attraction for the moment, we can choose the things we want out of life. We can choose to find the good opportunities awaiting us simply by focusing our minds on such things. Likewise, if we are negative, it is the negatives we will see.
When we focus on the positive, we will see less of the negative. And vice versa.
Now, that doesn’t mean that bad things won’t happen, but, if we focus on the positive, we will see the silver lining. Of course, that’s not to say bad things won’t happen that have no silver linings. Bad things will always happen. Death, for example. We haven’t yet found a way to prevent it, so we will all lose people we know and care about to it.
Positive thinking doesn’t turn the world into a happy, magical place where everyone is happy and no one ever dies and every day is a sun shiny happy day and there’s never a cloud in the sky except for those white puffy ones that look like dragons and castles.
Some people get stuck on that point. Something bad happens, and they give up on any type of positive thinking or visualization. You can’t stop bad things from happening, but there’s no reason you cannot be a happier person in between bad things.
For example, if you just mope around and are miserable all the time because you just know bad things are going to happen, what good does that do anyone? You can argue that you are just accepting the inevitable, but really you are just denying yourself happiness. You will one day lose a loved one. That’s a bad thing. It would be an even worse thing if you have no happy memories of that loved one because you were too busy being all melancholy because you knew one day they would die.
Get it? Positive thinking doesn’t prevent bad things from happening, it just creates more opportunities for good things to happen. Got it?
I’ll assume you have…
The Metaphysical
Now, I am going to wax metaphysical for a moment. I’ve just given you the rational and scientific explanation for positive thinking and visualization. Now, let’s get into the metaphysical, the not-so-scientific.
I don’t want to spend too much time on this area, because it’s not so easy to prove. I cannot offer you evidence or scientific reasoning. But, I don’t think anyone should be too quick to dismiss the more metaphysical aspects of visualization, the idea that like attracts like, the concept that your thoughts become manifest.
I know. It’s a bit weird.
But, before the realities of adult life set in and discourage you from such things as daydreaming, I noticed that things just sort of used to go my way. I had dreams and goals and daydreams and hopes for the future, with a (mostly) positive outlook. And, during those times (the positive ones), I noticed that things just seemed to go my way.
It went deeper than finding the silver lining in things. Things just happened in such a way that they pushed me closer to those dreams.
Perhaps you’ve experienced that as well? In any case, that is why I am not too quick to dismiss the law of attraction concept.
The Secret Behind Visualization
This is the bit you’ve been waiting for, right? The part that, on Saturday, I promised I would give to you today. And, no, you’re not going to have to download an eBook. Not even a free one.
What is the secret? Well, Lewis Empire touched upon it last week too. It was something he was having some problems with.
The most difficult part behind visualization is–are you ready for this?–knowing what you want.
Yes. That’s it. That’s the big secret behind the secret.
Knowing What You Want
The hardest part of visualization is knowing what you want. This is, I think, the biggest reason most people don’t achieve the results they want with visualization.
You see, you need to have a clear vision of what you want. This is something that Wallace Wattles recognized.
Again, this goes to the more rational explanation of why visualization works too. If you have a clear goal in mind, if you focus on achieving that goal, you will be far more likely to achieve that goal than if you have something more nebulous and less defined in mind.
But, knowing what you want is the hardest part. Yes, it’s easy to imagine having a million dollars, but what else is in that vision of your future? A nice house? A fancy car? Sure, it’s easy to picture those things, but you still haven’t visualized your future.
How will you get a million dollars? That’s the part many people leave unanswered. They picture having a million dollars, but have foggy image in their mind as to how they will get it.
In 1977, in Sidney Harris’ book What’s so Funny About Science?, there is a cartoon showing a math problem. On the left side is the beginning of the problem and calculations. On the right side is further calculations and the solution. In the middle, the calculation is “Then a miracle occurs.” See the image here.
That illustrates how most people try to use visualization. People want the million dollars, but they hope for a miracle to occur in order to get it. But, that is not visualization. That is daydreaming!
Believe. Act. Achieve!
Don’t you love the way I managed to squeeze that in?
As I’ve said before, first you have to believe, then you act, and only then can you achieve. Visualization can be part of your believe portion of the task. You have to know what you want. You have to picture it. You have to feel that it’s yours just waiting for you to grab it. Then, you have to also act on your dreams.
If your act portion of the task is “then a miracle occurs,” how can you act on it? More visualization? More hoping and dreaming isn’t going to get you there. You might get lucky and win the lottery, but if your act part of the task is buying lottery tickets, odds are you’re not going to have fun because you’re not going to get to where you want to be!
I Have to Have a Plan?
People want to skip this part. They don’t want to have to figure out a plan. That’s too much like work! They just want to daydream and hope the million dollars appears.
Yes, it’s there. It’s waiting for you. But you have to build a bridge to get there.
Maybe your bridge is a restaurant. Maybe it’s an online store. Maybe it’s a blog.
But, you have to have a plan. You have to have a more defined goal than “I want a million dollars!”
Most businesses fail, because many of them never had a business plan.
Most people fail at visualization, because they never had a plan either.
There’s no easy way out. You can achieve, but you have to both believe and also act!
If I Have a Plan, Why Do I Need to Visualize?
You need the visualization to maintain your focus on the goal, to see what you’re working for, to know that it’s waiting for you to come and get it. And, as I mentioned before, you shouldn’t be too quick to dismiss the metaphysical aspects of it.
Can you succeed with a plan alone? Without visualization? Visualization is not a guarantee of success. But, a lack of a plan, a lack of a defined goal, a lack of a clear vision of what you are trying to achieve is a guarantee of failure.
Ah, but I haven’t answered the questions…
- Can you succeed with just a plan?
You have to have a plan to act upon! Otherwise, you’re just doing things aimlessly, hoping something will come of it. - Can you succeed without visualization?
Now, there’s the rub! You see, having a plan is part and parcel of visualization. Part of any type of planning is visualization. And, part of visualization is having the plan! It’s a Catch-22. You cannot have one without the other! Visualization without a plan is just daydreaming!
That’s also why visualization is valuable. It has both the concrete (forcing you to develop an actual plan and clear goals) and the metaphysical (like attracts like). Even if you don’t believe in the latter, that doesn’t negate the former.
If you’ve been visualizing things without having a plan, you’ve just been daydreaming! Give it another try, but this time do it properly.
As always,
Believe. Act. Achieve!
Hi DCR! Yes I agree with the believe, act, achieve concept! I hope you didn’t take my post the wrong way, I wasn’t trying in any way to dismiss visualization in any way! Before we can succeed we must have a dream. To bring that dream to fruition, we must use many ideas, concepts and techniques to make it happen. I believe that Correct perception of life determines decisions. Decisions determine action… Action determines victory or defeat, life or death. Destiny is not a chance rather a decision fulfilled in action. BTW, this is a great post!
Nice summary! Glad you enjoyed the post!
You should go into marketing…
Seriously I never underestimate our powers and ability to visualize goals and then achieve them. You can talk the metaphysical all day and I would be back to read more. There are more then a few days I still regret dropping my psychology degree in favor of accounting. I often think I would be better suited to shrinking people or theology and apologetics, then mucking about in business.
Yeah, but when you tell clients to visualize having the things they want, they just sort of think you’re nuts. And, that’s when you know it’s time to raise prices, because if they’re going to give you that kind of an attitude, they’re gonna pay for it.
I thought about becoming a psychologist back in the day, but then I found out that you have to have your classmates analyze you. And, that’s no good for two reasons. One, my brain is none of their business. Two, who wants a bunch of unlicensed psychologist wannabes messing with your head? If I wanted that, I could have joined a cult. But me, I’d rather lead the cult than be a member.
[...] Thanks to Dan at dcrblogs.com for pointing out my problem in his post The Secret Behind The Secret. I guess I did lose sight of what I [...]