The 2007 runaway bestseller, The Secret by Rhonda Byrne drew both fierce devotees (who thought of it as a kind of magic) and fierce detractors (who called it pseudoscience). The book’s premise is that there is a great secret available to anyone — a type of energy that attracts everything that we want if we know how to harness it.
Like most breakout ideas, it has some validity, and the book makes important points. There actually is science to support the idea that we “live into” what we focus on. Essentially, when we believe something is possible, we start to see it showing up in our lives.
A page from Ben Franklin
Around 1730, while in his late 20s, American statesman Benjamin Franklin made a list of 13 virtues he believed everyone should strive for. His personal goal was to make these virtues part of his daily life.
As a set of guidelines for his life, Franklin listed — with the intention of “living into” — the virtues of temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, chastity, and humility. He wrote the virtues in a small book that went with him everywhere. In it, he’d evaluate his performance in each category throughout the day.
But it was the idea of listing and then “living into” the virtues that gave Franklin’s approach real power. Without knowing it, he was actually priming his brain to be on the lookout for events and circumstances that would enable him to reach his goals.
And, arguably, he succeeded.
Fast forward 170 years
In 1902, an English writer named James Allen published a small book called As a Man Thinketh. Allen’s book would be translated into scores of languages, with new printings and commentaries showing up to this day in bookstores and libraries all over the world. What gives this small book such staying power is its promise of ultimate freedom: the ability to create our lives by virtue of how we think, what we focus on, and what we believe is possible.
More than 120 years after Allen and nearly 300 after Franklin, there is science to support the idea that we do in fact “live into” what we focus on and believe. Located in the upper brain stem and continuing to the lower part of the cerebral cortex, the human brain’s Reticular Activating System (RAS) serves as a gatekeeper for information. It sends urgent messages to the active part of the brain and non-urgent messages to the subconscious.
Here’s the amazing thing
We literally program the RAS with our thoughts about what’s urgent, essential, and what we believe is possible.
So we see silver Toyotas everywhere on the road the day we bring ours home from the dealership. (They were always there, but we didn’t notice them until they became important to us.)
We notice the word “assiduous” three times in one day because we looked it up that morning. (The word’s been around, but we didn’t notice it until it became part of our vocabulary.)
Everyone in every store or restaurant seems to be pregnant when we are. (Not a new thing for sure, but we didn’t notice before it became part of our lives.)
And when we believe a goal is possible for us, it is just that.
It actually happens
Maybe you’ve heard people say things like, “I’m going to be walking the red carpet in five years” or “I will be a VP in three years” or “I don’t have it right now, but I’m going to find the money for the down payment on the apartment.”
And then — wow — they do. It works out. It actually happens.
Or they get feedback and change their approach and revise the timing, but still, they’re on the path. They know it. They literally believe it.
So maybe they sound a little loopy. Honestly, the red carpet? In five years? (Uh huh. Sure you will.)
A VP? But there are no openings! (Dream on, dude).
We see it when we believe it
Loopy or not, their goals, stated as affirmations, set something powerful in motion for their lives. They began to see what was possible and attract it to themselves. “Desire,” wrote 17th century mathematician Rene Descartes, “awakens only to things that are thought possible.”
Through the brain’s built-in wiring, the RAS sharpened their vision, attuned their hearing, and moved their feet in the direction of what they desired and believed they could achieve.
What we believe is what we see because it’s what we’re looking for.
#seewhatspossible #positiveaffirmations #thesecret #lawofattraction