Book Review: The Secret

I recently came into the possession of the audio version of The Secret by Rhonda Byrne. I listened to it, essentially, every time I was in the car—on my morning commute, on the way to the grocery store, on my commute back home. You name it. It became a part of my routine, and I looked forward to it, especially on those days that I was really down and needed inspiration. The purpose of the book is to help others achieve their goals and manifest all of the beautiful things that they want to have in their lives. As the book purports, an integral part of that is mindset, which is then composed of positivity and belief.

Mindset  

In more conceptual terms, The Secret is all about harnessing the power of the universe to manifest what it is that you want to have and achieve in this life. Put more accessibly, The Secret emphasizes the importance of one’s thoughts and mindset in achieving his or her goals. This concept was nothing new to me, but it’s amazing how many times you need to hear the same thing for it to really sink in. It’s so easy to have a defeatist attitude, but the tips of the Secret really combat that part of human nature.

Positivity

One of the most beautiful ideas that this book reinforced was the power of positivity. It is the key to a successful mindset. It’s important to focus on what you wish to come true or achieve. As I alluded to before, it’s so easy to think “I’m not going to get that job” or “I’m not going to get the raise” or even “I really hate my job.” However, as The Secret highlights, when you’re doing that, it’s putting more energy into the things that you don’t want, which perpetuates them. Essentially, when you put energy into the positive outcomes that you wish to see, the universe then gives that back to you. This may seem a bit ethereal, but I go into it a little bit more deeply in the next section.

Belief

This is one of the aspects of The Secret that I still struggle with. The book spends a lot of time covering this particular aspect, and gives many great anecdotes as testaments to its efficacy. However, the key component to believing that what you want will manifest is to start acting and feeling as if you already have it…. What?! Yep, this one is definitely new for me. I kind of get it. If you act and feel like you already have it, then you’ll be feeling and thinking more positive thoughts, which will then attract what you want into your life… right? Plus, I think that by acting as if you already have it, whatever “it” may be, then you’ll start to take the steps necessary to actually have or achieve it.

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At the end of the day, I do believe that it is all about action, which the book does cover. The Secret is not just believing and hoping that the world finally throws you a bone, but rather a methodology for making life as beautiful as possible.

The book contains so many great nuances to this concept and anecdotes that highlight how it has worked for others. It even answers questions that many skeptics, or just regular people like me, have. I am not 100% sure about how effective this is, but I do truly believe that it couldn’t hurt to try. Having a positive attitude is always a great thing to have, and if trying out these tips from The Secret makes you a little or a lot happier/ lighthearted, then it’s definitely worth the read/listen. 🙂

Have you read or listened to The Secret? What did you think about it? Has it worked for you?

– Marisol