Visualizing vs. Fantasizing
“The Secret gives you anything you want: happiness, health, and wealth.”
– Bob Proctor, Philosopher, Author, and Personal Coach
…or does The Secret give you false expectations? The answer is: “it depends.” Most everyone is familiar with the mega hit DVD and best selling book, “The Secret.” If you’re not, go to www.thesecret.tv to learn more.
The basic premise of the secret is “the law of attraction.” This is, that which you think about you will attract into your life. Think positive thoughts and you’ll attract positive into your life. Think negative thoughts and you’ll attract negative into your life. The basic premise is sound.
So when I recently was told by a friend, Dave Blanchard, that The Secret has done more harm than good, I was a bit surprised. Dave is the CEO of the Og Mandino Group which teaches people how to live successful and abundant lives through the teachings and principles of Og Mandino www.ogmandino.com
The problem that Dave shared with me is that only about 3 percent of the population knows how to properly visualize and correctly implement the law of attraction. The other 97 percent think they’re visualizing but in reality they’re fantasizing. These people end up spending their lives in frustration because “this stuff doesn’t work.”
There is a big difference between visualizing and fantasizing. A person who visualizes knows that effort is required to turn a mental picture into a reality. A person who fantasizes thinks about having whatever it is they want but put little or no effort towards obtaining it. They think that by sitting around watching TV at night, that checks will start coming in the mail instead of bills; that their old car will magically change into a new car; and that they’ll wake up one morning in the home of their dreams. That is fantasizing.
Here’s an example of how visualization and the law of attraction has worked in my life. Many years ago I received a sweepstakes postcard in the mail. It had a picture of a cabin in the mountains. The caption read: “Scott, is this your dream cabin?” With a red felt tip marker I wrote under the caption “YES!” I kept that postcard sitting on my desk at home and would look at it every evening when I went into my office to work new business ideas and preparing myself for success.
Having a cabin for my family to spend time together was part of my bigger vision of providing a better quality of life for my family. It’s what helped me to discipline myself to read books, listen to audiotapes and watch videos on self-improvement and work on ideas for new business ventures rather than do time-wasting activities such as watching TV at night.
When one of my earlier business ventures started doing well, the first thing I did was look for property in the mountains that fit my vision of where I wanted to build a cabin. Within days of telling myself that I was ready to buy cabin property, I saw an ad in a local magazine advertising mountain property for cabins. I made an appointment with a sales person. He showed me many lots that didn’t fit my vision. When I told him what I was looking for he said he knew of a piece of property that had just come available in a different development that had been sold out for years. The minute I saw this property I knew it was what I was looking for and bought it.
I didn’t have enough money to build the cabin yet, but I had the most important element, the property to build it on. And although it took several more years to finally build the cabin of my dreams… which by the way ended up being much nicer than the cabin on the postcard, I did turn my vision into reality.
A person fantasizing about having a cabin might have a picture of it in his mind, and even may see his family roasting marshmallows in the fireplace on Christmas Eve while the snow gently falls outside. But if he puts no effort into achieving this dream, just sits around every night watching T.V., it’s not going to happen.
You can know if the picture in your mind is a vision or a fantasy by the amount of effort you’re putting in to make it a reality. Little or no effort… then it’s a fantasy and it’s not going to happen. There must be movement and effort for “The Secret”, the law of attraction, to work.
Next week I’ll share with you the three word secret to turn a vision into reality.
Your Friend,
D. Scott Elder
June 26th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
When we visualize we get a better understanding of what we want from a situation. If we only fantasize, we only see the rosy side without all the hard work.
Great point! We need to be disciplined in our visualization and take appropriate action.
July 30th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
I too have found visualization to work. I can even tell, walking into a situation, what the outcome will be based on my mindset. A wise man once taught, that with a firm mind we can lay hold upon every good thing! Visualizing/believing is only the first step, then ACTION must begin for any outcome to be achieved!