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You may call me a pessimist, a cynic, or perhaps just a bit jaded, but really I am just an optimistic realist.
I watched the movie The Secret for the 4th time after putting it up for about 6 months. One of the things in the movie, as well as many “think yourself rich” types of books, movies, shows and so forth is the idea that money will not bring you happiness.
That is such a bogus statement if you take it at face value.
If you have a village of starving people and use one million dollars to make sure those people were fed for the next year, that money will have made them and you as the donor pretty happy.
If you have a loved one who is very sick and in need of emergency medical care, that money will make you both pretty happy when used to get them well.
If you are facing bankruptcy, foreclosure, or a nasty situation such as trying to leave an abusive spouse, having lots of money at the right time would make you very happy.
Yes, yes, I know, happiness is a feeling you can only create for yourself on the inside which is the same with many emotions, but many of these emotions are also leaning towards external conditions.
Let’s say someone is punching you and won’t stop. According to these gurus, the feeling you have about the situation is up to you. You could choose to be happy and forgiving or you could choose to be angry and wanting revenge. I dare anyone to tell me they would sit there and smile while some bully is beating them to within an inch of their lives.
Yes, to some degree you do have control over how you feel about things and having money does not necessarily mean you will feel any happier or sadder. It just means you have money on top of how you feel. If your sadness is due to the lack of very desperately needed money, then having a wad of cash in your hands is bound to take some of that sadness away so you can deal with the problem that needed the money.
As someone who has been raped and sexually assaulted as a 9 year old child, I find the notion in The Secret that the victim subconsciously asked for it to happen insulting. Not everyone in bad situations create them. Sometimes bad things happen because there are bad people who love to pick on one that looks weak.
I wish those people on The Secret would go to Iraq and tell the poor widow with 5 children who has just lost her husband and 2 of her babies to roadside bombs that she brought it on herself.
I wish they would go to parts of Africa facing AIDS where almost entire villages are being wiped out and a generation of children are raising themselves to look those kids in the eye and tell them they wanted all the parents dead.
I wish they would go to a home of a family where they are working their hardest to support their family and have the gut-wrenching job of telling the kids there is nothing to eat for dinner and to go straight to bed and have to tell that family this is what they wanted.
A good attitude will get you farther than a bad one. When your mind is clouded by fear, gloom and doom, you often do miss the opportunity that might be right in front of you because you are not thinking straight. A clear mind can process information coming at it better. That is the only reason they can make the claim how you think is what you will see. There is nothing mystical about it.
If you started off the morning running late, your mind may already be clouded, so the fact that you spilled your coffee on your shirt which made you upset and even later then caused you to drive irrationally giving you a ticket and having people cut you off and make rude gestures towards you made you angry and even later. Then you get to work in a bad mood and your mind is even more clouded and unfocused so you continue to make mistakes, snip at others, and do things unprofessionally and face consequences of your actions.
That is not you bringing a self-fulfilling statement into the world to manifest it in your reality. That is the domino effect of life. Sure, you could have just brushed off the fact you woke up late and cleared your mind in the beginning and had a much better day, but that also is nothing mystical or self-fulfilling prophecy. A clear mind accomplishes things better than a clouded one.
Then there is the whole think your way to riches notion. Everything is cause and effect. Unless you do something of value that someone will pay you to do, you will not get rich. You cannot just sit there and think positively that money will fall into your lap. You have to actually do something to get the ball rolling. Sit there and think the mantra, “I have a million dollars” all you want, but unless you have a million dollar idea and set out to do something to get it, it will remain an idea in your head.
The problem with the think and grow rich theories is they stop at the think, trust and release it as if somehow that formula will bring you what you want. If you have no clue, no education, no connections, no ideas on how to go about it, you will be spinning your wheels wondering what you did wrong.
If your goal is to make a million dollars, find a millionaire who can teach you and do what they do. If you want a fancy sports car, find out how much one costs and figure out ways to earn the extra money to get it. If you want a good relationship, improve your social skills and be realistic in your expectations of others then socialize and meet new people.
These “feel good” new age teachings are mostly a load of poopie. Yes, there are some good ideas mixed in, but you have to get real if you want real results. If you read or listen to or watch these people and follow their advice and your life does not seem to be getting any better, don’t automatically assume you are doing something wrong. Instead, ask yourself how much are they getting paid to say those things to you and what they did before becoming a new age guru to become rich.
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