Focusing on the Secret

You've got to hand it to Rhonda Byrne, creator of the DVD movie and author of the book, "The Secret." She's gotten tremendous PR, including two Oprah programs dedicated to The Secret. (Some would "kill" for that kind of exposure!)

Everyone seems to be talking about it.

The downside is that when you get a lot of PR, you get a lot of flack as well. "Is it real or is it hype?" Well, in promoting something like this, there's inevitably going to be some hype, but the important question for me is "Does this stuff work and how does it relate to attracting clients?"

Here's how I look at The Secret or what many call "The Law of Attraction."

What you focus on tends to expand.

If you put more focus on things that bring you joy, fulfillment and success, you'll tend to get more of those things. However, if you put your focus on complaint, struggle and failure you'll tend get more of those things.

People sometimes read some pretty wild things into the law of attraction: "If I get cancer, does it mean that I attracted it?" Well, I don't know, but when I'm sick I certainly know I don't make myself any better if I obsess on how bad I feel.

The classic metaphor for the law of attraction is when you plan to buy a new car - say a blue Honda. And then you start to notice blue Hondas everywhere you go, when before you didn't used to notice them at all.

Did you manifest blue Hondas showing up? I really doubt it, but with a shift of focus on blue Hondas you simply notice them more. You're tuned into blue Hondas and there they are.

When we focus on something, such as a goal, a plan, a wish, we start noticing things that start to lead us towards our focus.

When I teach people about marketing, they start to notice distinctions about marketing they weren't aware of before. For instance, they begin to focus on marketing messages and how they work. Before long, they are creating marketing messages themselves that consistently attract more clients.

The law of attraction isn't a big mystery, yet it is true that we don't usually take full advantage of it. We can do simple, yet powerful things to increase our focus - on anything.

One of my favorite techniques is writing down your marketing plan. When you get it on paper, out of your head, clarity increases. You notice where you are now, where you're going, what you need in terms of resources and the next logical steps.

But how many people actually do this? Very few in my experience.

Another way to increase focus in your business is to both write and speak about your expertise. Again, clarity increases and as it does, new, related ideas tend to flow in effortlessly. Confidence increases and this also tends to attract more clients.

When was the last time you wrote or spoke?

Everyone's heard of visualization. But have you ever really applied it? Before a sales conversation, a presentation or workshop I always take a few minutes to visualize a positive and uplifting outcome.

Now I'm rarely surprised that things turn out so well.

And what if you want to buy something that you don't currently have the funds for? Make a commitment to buy it. Set a date. That's another kind of focus. In the wake of that commitment, I promise you that all kinds of ideas and plans will pop into your mind about how you can get the money together.

Most people say, "I can't afford it," and just give up.

As I see it, the secret about the law of attraction is that you actually need to do something to kick it into gear. It doesn't take a lot of struggle and effort but a simple understanding that what we focus on tends to expand.

What do you want to expand in your business? Start focusing!

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The more clients bottom line: The law of attraction is the simple but powerful action of focus in your life. As focus and clarity increase you start to notice that you no longer need to struggle to get what you want, but that it happens naturally and joyfully.

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What have you attracted in your business through the power of focus? Let me know! Please share on the More Clients Blog.

Comments

[superprotege]

hi robert,
you have an interesting post here.

i chanced upon your blog by chance when searching for the law of attraction. the law of attraction has worked wonders for me in my life and i hope it can be the same for you.

if you allow me, i would like to share this free Attraction Accelerator report with you from Bob Proctor, together with Stephen Pierce:
www.abundancemanifesting.com/freereport

may abundance continue to come your way in your life!

best wishes and regards
superprotege :)

[Charlie Lang]

While Robert's comments on the secret make sense, they gather not the full extent of what the secret is all about.

What Robert wrote, was clear to me even before I learned about the secret. What was truly new to me was the fact that our thinking actually sends out energy waves. Quantum physicists recently were able to prove that this actually happens.

So the secret is much more than just focusing on the right things and you see more of them (blue Honda example) and will do more of the right things. The secret actually is that what we think will have a direct influence on what happens to the outside world, even independent of our actual actions. Yet, at the same time, appropriate action is also required to help the manifestiation to turn into reality.

So I conclude, what Robert suggests is important but incomplete. My biggest learning is that I need to mind my thoughts. That's a challenge in itself...

Charlie

[Lori Sylvester]

The human senses absorb far more inforation than an individual needs in order to survive. The brain acts like a filter, keeping out of conscious awareness what is not necessary. When a person develops a goal or desire and brings conscious focus and attention to that goal, it can FEEL like the universe is providing the means to achieve the goal. In fact, the brain is allowing perception of what was there all along to enter conscious thought. The law of attraction and The Secret are good metaphors for a natural phenomenon.

[Victoria Miles]

"Did you manifest blue Hondas showing up?"

"When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change." ~Wayne Dyer, from Power of Intention

[Zoe]

"Does it mean that if I get cancer I attracted it?" No one wants to believe they actually brought cancer on themselves. That is too much of a scary, self-loathing kind of thought, and far too much handle when you have been handed a cancer diagnosis.

I WAS diagnosed with cancer - two years ago - and I had a lot of those kinds of questions, being someone who believes in the Law of Attraction. I really struggled with the idea that I had created cancer in my life. Why would I do that to myself?? At the time, while going through surgery and chemotherapy, it was enough just to get through the day. Thoughts and feelings on responsiblity were put to one side.

However, cancer opened up a door for me to explore my life, who I was, and how I might have created the circumstances where cancer could walk right in. I started to realise that I was indeed responsible for my life: not necessarily everything that HAPPENS in it, but definitely how I reacted to it, how I gave it meaning.

Did I attract cancer? Not sure. I do know however that I was a stress bunny who was chronically sick with colds and flus before I was diagnosed with cancer. Stress lowered my immune system and my body was not able to handle the wonky cancer cells.

Since cancer, I have conscioucly chosen to change the way I think and behave in my life and work. I am now a stress-free zone and only do things that feel fun. I am cancer free to date and have not had a cold in a year.

All this can be explained through the lens of the Law of Attraction. Or it can be explained through taking responsibility for yourself. Or it can be put down to good/bad luck.

What matters to me is that the Law of Attraction is a belief system that empowers me and makes me feel good. The results in my life and work flow from that place. And that's good enough for me.

Zoe
http://www.innercompass.com.au

[Andrea Hess]

In my experience, the Law of Attraction works flawlessly. I set my intentions every single month on how much income I wish to generate, and I always - always! - make a little more than that. I consciously direct the flow of my business - if I'm working on writing my book, I turn the faucet off for a week. When I'm ready, the clients start placing orders again. It really works, and the Universe tends to overdeliver. I work with manifesting constantly, from a playhouse for my daughter (free and delivered to my front door!) to a solution to my neighbor's annoyingly noisy dog.

Pretty much everything in the movie "the Secret" is correct. BUT there's something being left out, and it's the reason so many people have trouble manifesting their desired outcomes.

Most people have negative influences attached to them, at Soul-level.
These are often due to past life experiences, to attaching negative
entities, negative spirit guides, and a host of other issues that can occur in the life of the human Soul. For the most part, we remain unaware of these negative influences, because we're not taught how to recognize them or clear them. BUT the negativity these influences create becomes an integral part of our own energetic signature, which
we then broadcast into the Universe - and we manifest accordingly.

For example, someone might have a negative entity attachment, which is quietly running a program of, say, "disappointment" in their mental energy body. They remain completely unaware of it. But the energy is being broadcast out into the Universe, along with their conscious intentions. All they know is that nothing ever quite pans out. They
get their hopes up, only to be let down. They come close, but never get there. The program is manifesting itself into their lifetime, generating more and more negativity - which is exactly what this
attaching entity thrives on. And so this person might draw the conclusion that the Law of Attraction doesn't work, and that
manifesting isn't really possible.

Here's the good news: we can quite clearly recognize the effects of negative influences by looking at what exactly we are manifesting! And, if we can recognize it, we can disallow and clear it! So what
exactly are you manifesting instead of your intended outcomes? This is how you know what needs clearing.

I work with clients all the time on clearing these blocks and restrictions that are preventing them from creating the life they want - with great results. Energetic blocks and restrictions feel like we're banging our head against an invisible wall. Success "should" be there, but it just doesn't happen. The pieces of the puzzle don't come together.

I have a free teleclass on manifesting on my site, go check it out at www.andreahess.com/classes.htm

Blessings,
Andrea

[Mike Murray]

I have a lot of respect for Robert Middleton, but not much for those who take the obvious and turn it into a mystical concept like "The Secret", so they can make a bundle of money off desperate gullible people. I work with a lot of people, encouraging and supporting them to overcome negative and self-destructive thinking and emotions and achieve a degree of happiness and success, not as the "gurus" define it, but as they define "it"(happiness, success). - End of rant.
Having said that, One of my favorite "solution - focused" sayings is "water the flowers and not the weeds." It's a simple process and no "secret";when you focus on the flowers in your life you'll tend to see more flowers blooming. The weeds don't necessarily disappear; they just become less important.

[Darlene Cook]

How Focus is working for me.

Three years after receiving my retirement readiness coaching certifications, I was still wondering, “Where is the door to these clients?”

I was also experiencing zero success gaining free newspaper exposure by following the marketing advice from the multiple feeds to which I subscribed.

For many years, my phone book ads for resumes had been attracting what I believed were primarily prospective resume clients. Resume client relationships are brief, labor intensive, mostly dead-end and reap relatively small fees. I wanted to expand my pre-retirement coaching client base.

Once I realized I had been mentally compartmentalizing my callers into resume clients, potential career counseling clients and retirement coaching clients, I made a shift in focus that blurred the ridged lines I had drawn between these services. I also focused on retirement as being just another career transition.

Last month, I changed how I handled my resume ad phone inquiries. I began to listen closely to their stories and ask questions to learn if some of my callers might also be at a mid or later-life career crossroad – prospective retirement readiness clients. By shifting my focus, in the past four weeks I have acquired six wonderful new retirement/late-career coaching clients who are willing and able to pay the higher coaching fees.

My other shift was in my marketing focus. For over six months I wrote articles and sent emails to local newspaper journalists and editors to gain free press coverage and establish myself as a local boomer retirement expert. But my focus had been on highlighting my business. By focusing instead on looking for and responding to retirement articles that had missing pieces about the new retirement, my results changed. Last week, the first of these letters was published that included my title. I did my little dance.

Doesn’t sound like much, but by changing my focus to my targets’ needs instead of mine I changed the results. Duh - a basic resume rule.

Darlene Cook, C.R.C.
www.ResumesandBeyond.com
You can’t see the whole picture when you’re inside the frame
www.QuantumQuizics.com
The inquisitive approach to your perfect career and re-wirement
410.342.6336

[Peter West]

Before I started coaching, I was a journalist and PR type. I still believe that there is no such thing as bad publicity. Those who are critical of The Secret are not likely to change their minds as they have a personal commitment to holding onto their beliefs. For those still seeking answers, hearing about The Secret can open a door to new possibilities in their lives. And, so long as one doesn't take the ideas too literally, the Law of Attraction makes sense to me.

Peter West

www.solutionfocuscoach.com

[Andy Strote]

Uh, undone by a typo in that last line of my previous post. It would be "now fun" vs "not fun".... DOH!

[Andy Strote]

Last fall I went to see a consultant about our communications business. After some discussion he said you need a salesperson. Although I do that myself, I also still work too much "in the business". I start focusing on a salesperson. I talk to people, etc.

Three months later, an ex-employee who I hadn't spoken to in a long time emails to say that through a 2-step connection, she has met this sales person who is moving to Toronto from Atlanta and did I want to meet her.

Long story short, we'll be working together shortly. And she will get us into the U.S. market which isn't easy from the outside. And she's also hired two other sales people. Once we lay our presentation on them of all the services we offer and that they can represent, we'll have a sales force.

Robert's interpretation of the secret is bang on. Once you focus, you have a direction. What was unclear becomes clear. What was work is not fun and you're working towards a defined goal.

Cheers

Andy

[Lynne Lee]

Focus is the key!
The principles in the secret are age old. You'll find them in the Bible.
Ask and it will be given
Decree a thing and it will be
Call things that are not as though they were.
God was the first to speak things into existence, we are made in his likeness and are called to do the same.
In answer to your question:
I started to build my web site in January. I now get a lot of web site traffic and yesterday saw another 5 subscribers added. I had a goal of 60+ visiors a day and 70+ subscribers by the 28th April - it's happening.
I've been approached to submit to an article directory, asked to do a teleseminar ...
"One of my favorite techniques is writing down your marketing plan. When you get it on paper, out of your head, clarity
increases. You notice where you are now, where you're going, what you need in terms of resources and the next logical steps."
Visualsing your goal, seeing it as already accomplished, refusing discouragement, keeping your eyes on the outcome rather than the the circumstances - things are possible when you believe!

Lynne Lee
www.christianlifecoaching.co.uk