Not Such a Secret

(spoiler alert) A couple of days ago I started to watch a show on Netflix called The Secret because it seemed to be a tale of arcane mystery, and I do love a good arcane mystery, the arcaner the better, and I lasted maybe about 20 minutes in. Which was fine, I think I got the gist of it, and the gist of it is interesting, but it was starting to come across as a new age rant, a press release for a cult, as if somebody put together this montage of glowing testimonials to try and start the next Scientology.
The gist of it is the power of positive thinking, the idea that ‘thoughts become things.’ That seems to me a positive approach, I certainly think optimism is superior to pessimism, in the same ways that it’s better to be healthy than sick, rich than poor, good looking than not, smart than stupid, and so on. We don’t always get to choose, or maybe we sometimes we don’t want to make the necessary sacrifices, but we all know which is better.
It irritated me, however, how speaker after speaker kept using the word ‘guaranteed.’ There are no guarantees. You may have filled your head with positive thoughts, you may be sitting there quite comfortably visualizing the promotion you know you deserve, and the addition to your house you plan to build, when the plane you are comfortably sitting on plummets from the sky. Now, you might blame that on the fact that the guy sitting next to you just had an overflowing headful of negative thoughts, but it doesn’t work that way.
So, while I like the idea presented, and intend to practice it, I don’t think it’s a guarantee that I’m suddenly going to become rich and successful. Can’t hurt, though.