You have probably seen the 2006 film entitled The Secret, directed by Drew Heriot, or you may have read the book it is based on based on the film. I think the film does a good job teaching what the law of attraction is, how powerful our thoughts can be, and how we can use them to our advantage to reach our goals.

However, there are a lot of people who haven’t been able to get the desired results even after watching the film, and they have come to the conclusion that what it suggests doesn’t work. I believe this originates from the film’s lack of explanation of certain concepts vital for success, which may lead to a few misconceptions. Let’s take a look at them now!

Affirmations

Affirmations are defined by the film as positive statements said mentally or out loud in present tense, formed as if they were already true. As we keep repeating these, we attract them into our lives and make them become real thanks to the law of attraction.

However, most people think that affirmations only consist of words. In reality, visuals, sounds, tastes, smells, feelings, emotions, and sensations are all affirmations as well. So, if you have your goals written down somewhere—which is what I advise my clients as well—don’t just repeat them verbally, but also imagine using as many senses as possible.

The elimination of negative affirmations

This brings us to another common misconception, which is no other than positive thinking and good feelings are enough, you don’t need to worry about bad thoughts and feelings. Let’s say you write down, “I have a beautiful new car,” and you read it out to yourself over and over. You even feel good as you’re doing so, and this feeling is as strong as a 4 on a scale of 0 to 10. But afterwards, you immediately see your old car, which you can’t stand, and this feeling has an intensity of 10. Guess which one is going to win? The stronger one. In other words, seeing your old car and feeling bad about it is by itself an affirmation that can negate the good one. This is why it’s important to tap out what’s causing you to affirm what you don’t want and change the default mode into the creation of what you do want.

Take action

Last but not least, some people believe after having practiced the good affirmations enough and got rid of the bad ones, we can sit back and what we desire will fall into our arms, just like that. Well, while it’s possible that all we really need is to tune ourselves to affirming positive things and wait, but expect situations when it’s necessary to take action, too.

Think about the example of a light bulb that has gone out in one of your rooms at home. You can keep saying how good it is when there is light and you can also release whatever is bothering you by tapping… but does this all make the bulb shine? In this case, it probably makes sense to go ahead and buy a new one or ask someone to replace it.

Conclusion

The Secret is not a bad film at all. It calls attention to the law of attraction, which always works for everyone. However, it’s important to keep in mind a few pieces of advice that are missing from the film. These are the following in a nutshell: it’s not only words that matter but also feelings, images, sounds and so on (basically everything you do inside you); it’s crucial to clean out what supports the negative affirmations so that they won’t mess with the good ones; and you have to take action whenever appropriate. If you follow these, I can guarantee you’ll have a higher chance achieving changes.

Update (8 July 2018): correction about the relationship between the film and book versions of The Secret